Latina Leadership Podcast

You drive right past it. Every road trip, every time. A skyline going up north of Dallas, and you tell yourself you will stop next time. Sound familiar, amiga? Kelly Walker is the woman who wants you to pull in. As Communications Manager for Visit Frisco, she is the one who brings media, creators, and podcasters to town and hands them the itinerary that changes their mind. She started as a coordin...

A Latina from Puebla now oversees 85 girls teams at one of the top youth soccer clubs in the country. Marisa González breaks down how to build a career in sports when you are not going pro, how to beat imposter syndrome, and why representation is what lets a girl dream at all. In this episode of the Latina Leadership Podcast, recorded at the Dallas Cowboys Podcast Studio in Frisco, Texas, host Cla...

They told us the history books were complete. They were not. Most of us walked through twelve years of school and never heard the names of the people who fought, in courtrooms and city councils and newspaper columns, so that a Latina could vote, run for office, and be counted as a full citizen. That history was here the whole time. We just were not handed it. Dr. Sarah Zenaida Gould is the Executi...

You trained for years to become one thing. Then the path bent somewhere you never planned for. Sound familiar, amiga? Dr. Erika Cavazos started as a physician in Mexico. When she moved to Texas she landed in a public health department, and from there she kept following her curiosity into graduate school, into a hospital administration role, and finally into a field most people cannot even define:...

Patty Kirby owns Madison Avenue Marketing Agency, one of the first female owned agencies in Laredo, a city she says won the geographic lottery on the border. She came up through the 2008 crash, opened her doors in 2019, and watched the business grow right through the years everyone told her it should have closed. Seven years in, she has the receipts and the canas to prove it. In this episode she s...

They tell you the border is something to be afraid of. McAllen tells a completely different story. A festival city. A grant written in the area code. A chamber that opens the door for a hundred dollars. The narrative you have been handed about South Texas was never the whole picture, and one day in the 956 makes that obvious. On this road tour stop, Anjelica Cazares and Monica Vallejo sat down wit...

You're tired. Between running your business, showing up for your family, and constantly fighting against the systemic barriers placed in front of us, it feels like the weight of the world is on your shoulders. The news cycle is exhausting, and sometimes you just want to tune it all out. Today's guest, the incredible J.C. Frias, gets it. As a fierce community advocate and voice for South Texas Lati...

You called in. No insurance. Private pay. And the quote came back: $10,000. For one test. That number and the fact that it dropped to $1,500 the moment Bobby Pulido asked to pay cash is why a Tejano legend who spent 30 years selling out stages is now knocking on doors in 11 Texas counties asking for your vote. Jose Roberto Pulido Jr. Known across generations as Bobby Pulido, built his career from...

Nobody is sending a camera crew to Harlingen, Texas to ask what the women there are building. Nobody is calling the vendor at Booth 14 of the Harlingen Bazaar to ask how she started. Nobody asked the 19-year-old with a perfume cart what she figured out before she turned 20. That's exactly why we went. Episode 9 of the Latina Leadership Podcast was recorded live during the Texas Road Tour, deep in...

We've all been there, sitting on the sidelines of our own communities, feeling like the systems around us weren't built for us, and honestly, wondering if our single voice even matters. It's easy to stay in the comfort of our living rooms, but that comfort often comes at the price of the change we desperately want to see for our children and our neighborhoods. On today's episode, we sit down with...

Third spaces are becoming a luxury and Latina communities are feeling it most. Monica Vallejo and Anjelica Cazares get into why gathering together is getting harder, what it costs us when it does, and what one road trip through Texas has to do with all of it. Our Monica, community leader and co-founder of the Cristina Project, gets real about reinventing yourself after your kids leave, choosing jo...

Latinas don't negotiate because we lack confidence, that's the myth. María del Pilar Casal, who oversaw a $400M brand portfolio at Televisa Univision before leaving at 37 to start her own business, breaks down the one salary negotiation tactic that changes everything, and why building your own table is not a backup plan but a power move. This conversation covers the real reason Latinas leave money...

Lucia Mercado knows that room. Born and raised in Riverside, California, she became one of the first — if not the only — person in her family to earn a college degree. She navigated financial aid alone, weathered a CPA internship that ended without warning, and eventually found her footing not in a corporate office but at a Chico pop-up market with five handmade necklaces and a borrowed booth spac...

You built the resume. You showed up. And still that voice follows you into every room: Who do you think you are? It tells you you're too much. Or not enough. Or that the real you the dancer, the writer, the one who wanted to major in something that actually lit you up doesn't belong here. That voice has a name. And Cynthia Platero has been working with it for years. Cynthia Platero is an executive...

Ian Córdova grew up in a small pueblo in Michoacán with nine million streams on Spotify and a Billboard credit—and he's still more himself when he's making regional music. Hear how authenticity, family influence, and the courage to blend genres became his path. In this conversation, Ian shares: Why regional music feels like home, even as his career expands into reggaeton and hip-hop How family bec...

Episode 9: How a Mexican-American Grammy Winner Builds the Stage She Never Had Las Patronas: SXSW Edition — Sounds of Musica Mexicana Presented by Sony Music Latin Mexican pop, bilingual identity, self-belief, and building platforms for the next generation Las Patronas took their microphone to South by Southwest as part of their Sounds of Musica Mexicana coverage, presented by Sony Music Latin. An...

Have you ever felt like your toughest, saddest moments are just holding you back? We've all been right there, feeling stuck in our emotions, especially when navigating the heavy pressures of our careers and cultural expectations. Today, we are changing that narrative completely with Oscar Ortiz, one of the most exciting new players in Música Regional Mexicana. He is a gifted singer-songwriter born...

Healing burnout isn't about taking a week off  it's about finally listening to what your body has been signaling for years. Desiree Vazquez left a decade in television after an autoimmune diagnosis, moved to Madrid, and built a mindfulness practice now reaching Levi's, Chipotle, public school students, and women's healing circles across the country. This episode covers nervous system regulation, s...

Someone slid into her TikTok comments to tell her they were tired of women writing songs about men. She read it. She kept writing anyway. Mariangela already knew the playbook. Jenni Rivera knew it. Alicia Villarreal knew it. Writing your own story out loud, as a woman, has always made someone somewhere uncomfortable. That has never been a good reason to stop. Mariangela is a singer-songwriter from...

Two brothers. A father at the grill every Saturday. Grandparents who ran a restaurant for 28 years, lost it, and set up their equipment in the garage the next morning and kept making tacos. That is where "Prueba de Fuego" comes from. That is why 150 million people hit play. Joel and Leonel Espinoza grew up in Edinburg, Texas deep South Texas, Rio Grande Valley  with roots in Nuevo León, Mexico. Th...

You've heard it from someone in your family. Probably more than once. "Te miras más bonita callada." Stay small. Play the role. Don't want too much. And a lot of us obeyed not because we believed it, but because we didn't yet know we had a choice. Josseline Carr immigrated from El Salvador at nine years old and built a life in Jasper, Indiana a small town with cornfields and not many Latinos. She'...

Growing up between two worlds often feels like you're divided, never fully belonging to either. For many of us, navigating the intersection of our family's heritage and our daily lives in the U.S. creates a unique sense of disconnect. Sylvia Gallardo spent 18 years as an educator and ESL specialist before taking the bold step to write her bilingual picture book, I am from aquí and allá . She recog...

Learn the secrets of high-stakes negotiation and servant leadership with Dallas Sports Commission's Monica Paul. As Latina professionals, we often find ourselves navigating spaces where we are the first, the only, or the one expected to carry the heaviest mental load. Whether you're trying to scale a business, negotiate a massive contract, or simply figure out how to advocate for yourself in a roo...

Ready to step into your power and unlearn the narratives holding you back? Dive into the most transformative moments of Season 12 and discover how real Latinas are redefining leadership, legacy, and community! 00:00 - Welcome to the Finale: The Quilt of Season 12 01:44 - Episode 1: Leading with Purpose & The Power of Our Voices 03:06 - Episode 2: Owning the Room & Phoenix Confidence 04:52 - Episod...

Stop mistaking your exhaustion for "strength." Therapist Lucia Fernandez joins us to explain why your healing is the ultimate act of honoring your ancestors, and how to start without the guilt. Chapter Marks 00:00 - The Cost of the "Strong Latina" Narrative 01:57 - What Cycle-Breaking Looks Like in Real Life 04:51 - Why You Are an "Ecosystem" (Systems Therapy) 07:31 - Survival vs. Values: Why We N...