Hella Latin@

Part 2 is here! Elisa describes herself as "an American with an accent" and in this episode, she shares her journey of love, healing, and identity.  Elisa now dedicates her time and energy coaching Latinas on how to find their voice and identity so they can create generational love! You can also find her hosting "Living La Vida a Full" Podcast. Connect with Elisa Fucci on Instagram @elisa_fucci_co...

Elisa describes herself as "an American with an accent" and in part 1, she shares her journey from immigrating to the U.S., to navigating difficult decisions to reach her "American Dream," and to becoming a certified relationship/life coach. Elisa now dedicates her time and energy coaching Latinas on how to find their voice and identity so they can create generational love! You can also find her h...

Meet Mayra Stewart—a mother, author, teacher, and co-founder of Grow Florecita®. Grow Florecita® is an avenue for us to feel our most empowered. As Mayra says, each of us holds the blueprinted seeds within us to be our best selves and create a world that our children can thrive in.   In this episode, you'll hear about Mayra's journey in navigating motherhood and how her Latinidad plays a role with...

Noel Claudio is a proud Puerto Rican and Dominican who was raised in the hood in Philadelphia and paved his way to being a Latino in tech in Silicon Valley. In this episode, you'll hear all about Noel's first-gen journey from graduating Penn State to leading engineering and ops at Twitter. More importantly, you'll hear the vulnerable parts of Noel's story where he reminds us to stay grateful despi...

Jasmine Vallejo is a proud First Gen Latina from the south side of San Antonio. Currently, she leads Community Engagement for the Southwest region at Meta, working to keep the local neighborhoods strong through partnerships with nonprofits, organizations, and schools by providing STEM and economic opportunity programs. She is also Board Member of Latinas in Tech, a non-profit that is focused on em...

Ilhiana Rojas is an Executive & Career Transformation Strategy Coach, a DEI Catalyst, a Hispanic advocate, Bestselling Author, and an international motivational speaker. She was recently recognized by the NY Journal as one of the top 10 Inspiring women to watch in 2021. In addition to coaching, Ilhiana also serves as an advisor for the Network for Executive Women, Center for Women & Enterprise, an...

Jasmine Ortiz embodies ambition and determination. She was born in NY, raised in PA, and currently resides in Miami. In her latest single “21”, Jasmine made history by becoming only the 2nd artist approved to record their music video at The University of Miami, second to no other than Drake, her icon. In Jasmine’s music video for “21” she plays tribute to Drake and his video “God’s Plan," and rece...

Ivan Estrada is a successful Real Estate Broker in Beverly Hills who just released a book, Brand With Purpose, based on his experience building his brand and the obstacles along the way.  Despite his successful career, various accolades, and graduating from USC, Ivan struggled with self-reflection and his own identity, something many Latinos suffer from today. Ivan struggled with homophobia embedd...

Ricardo Horna was born in Lima, Peru, raised in Tampa, Florida, and is currently based in Los Angeles, CA. He has been at Google for 5 years and is currently on the YouTube Recruiting team, charged with ensuring a diverse and representative workforce at YouTube. He received his Masters in Communication Management from the University of Southern California, and served as a Teach For America Corps M...

As his Zepeda for Senate campaign stated, Jaime's story is a story of hope, hard work & helping hands. Jaime Raul Zepeda grew up in Mexico in a working-class neighborhood. Jaime saw vicious inequality there. Mercedes parked in front of women starving. Law enforcement hired as security for the wealthy. A destiny determined by your last name. Moving up was not a dream, it was a fantasy.  At 17 he le...

This episode is FULL of laughs, story, and inspiration. In this episode, Colin talks about feeling "like a white kid with a last name Espinales" his whole life to then being embraced by LinkedIn's Latino ERG, and digging into his Ecuadorian culture through his Father's stories. He simultaneously walks us through that difficult and often dispiriting journey in landing your dream career.  A little b...

Fernanda Kelly's successful 20-year career as an actress and television presenter in the US Hispanic market earned her two Emmy awards and three Telly awards for her work as the host of the critically acclaimed show, LAnzate on Univision network. In 2018, Fernanda expanded her career as an entrepreneur in the fashion industry to further express her passion for celebrating individuality. This is wh...

Nestor Melendez is a proud Nuyorican/Boricua, born and raised in Brooklyn. The Brooklyn Knights podcast co-host is part jack-of-all-trades, part philosophizer, part rebel, and a professional educator who is focused on having conversations that remind people of who they were, who they are and who they could become. In this episode, Nes gives us a little history lesson on Puerto Rico and its relatio...

Carolina Acosta is Colombian-Dominican mujeron from Queens who created and is now CEO of Tragos, the party game for Latinos by Latinos. She was recently included in Forbes 30 Under 30 class of 2021 for the creation of this game. And it all started after working with her partner, John Lim, to launch Azn Flush – the Asian card game equivalent to Tragos. Carolina then launched Tragos in 2019 to build...

Gabriel Lomeli is a first-generation Mexican-American from Stockton, California and let me tell y'all, he spills so much wisdom in this episode. He talks about designing your own path toward success, and moving from travieso mistakes and heartbreak to pandemic power moves. Gabe has over 10 years of strategic partnership, media production, and instructional design experience. After graduating from...

One narrative often overlooked in the community is the Asian-Latino experience. Lucky to have Ha Na Teresa Park, mi querida Catracha, on Hella Latin@ to share her experience of being both Korean and Hondureña. In this episode, Ha Na Teresa shares her story of leaving Korea, growing up in Honduras and then moving to the United States. Her story paints a full picture of the ebbs and flows of embraci...

Eliana Murillo is the founder and CEO of Eliment and Company, her mission is to amplify and invest in diverse small businesses, startups and content creators. Eliana previously spent 10 years at Google, where she founded the multicultural marketing team and co-founded HOLA, the Latino employee resource group. While in Silicon Valley, she co-founded the Latinos in Tech Giving Circle. Outside of tec...

Nadia Elhawary is both Egyptian and Guatemalan but the hood raised her and her city Pasadena feels like home more than any country. She's a storyteller passing on this wisdom given by her ancestors and her purpose is loving on her people and loving herself deeply. Nadia is all about investing in our hoods, growing our hoods, and owning the block. She's 29 years young. She's an activist for the Bla...

Brian Ovalles, a Black Latino from Washington Heights, talks about navigating spaces where he was culturally, racially and socio-economically different than his peers. From an early age, he felt like he was always having an away game yet he took every shot people thought he couldn’t make. And now, he’s dedicating his work pa’ la comunidad and transforming a poorly constructed food culture and syst...

“If you want to go up in the company, you have to stop fraternizing with people in the mail room.”   In this episode, Yuridia Peña, a Dominican woman from Williamsburg, Brooklyn, talks about her young dreams of working on 5th Avenue and becoming the next Anna Wintour to her first time experiencing class division in Corporate America. Because of her experience, she pivoted and dedicated her career...

Choosey is an Afro-Chicano hip hop artist who grew up in National City and Chula Vista, California. His debut studio album Black Beans (2019), produced by Exile, represented his Afro-Chicano heritage and conveyed themes of ethnic identity, gentrification, and Black-brown unity. The album received positive reviews and was referred to as a "masterpiece" by NBC News and a "breath of fresh air" by Hip...

Elizabeth Molina is a Dominican-Peruvian Latina, model, beauty mentor, influencer, TedX speaker and founder of the Molina Glow. Elizabeth's personal story of survival led her to her current work in helping others redefine their why surrounding beauty practices. In this episode, we not only dive deep into Elizabeth's Dominican-Peruvian upbringing but we also talk about body, image and what it's lik...

Arabela Espinoza is a Mexican-American creative photographer based in San Jose, CA. When not enjoying an iced vanilla latte or a craft cocktail, you can find her working full-time at Weekend Creative, a creative photography agency that she co-founded in 2018. Her passion for community and photography education has led her to co-create the Weekend Club, an online community for photographers, as wel...

Martha Nino was born in Mexico and immigrated to the USA undocumented as a child. She grew up in the Bay Area and watched Silicon Valley grow into what it is today. She's a 25-year tech pro and just recently celebrated her 15-year anniversary as a Sr. Marketing Manager at Adobe. In this episode, Martha tells her story in the most real and authentic way possible—from a grass shack in Zacatecas to p...

Welcome to the third out of four RisOn guided experiences! This month, you'll have an opportunity to explore and communicate your own story in depth. This week we'll focus on breakthrough. Let's use visualization to reconnect to your forgotten life experiences and breakthrough lifelong challenges. Every 5 years since birth: What was your world like? Who was influencing your environment? What messa...