Nov 5, 2020
Latino civic engagement is a thing now – it’s all over the news. In this episode of I HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY I sit with María J. Torres-López, founder of Diáspora en Resistencia (focused on building a new Puerto Rico) and former Executive Board Secretary Women’s March Florida, to discuss how to effectively engage and mobilize Latino constituents. As a lead community organizer, who works in coalition with other local, national and international social justice groups such as The National Latina Institute of Reproductive Health, Florida Immigrant Coalition, Vamos Puerto Rico, and Black Lives Matter Alliance, María knows A LOT about 1) Participation 2) Organization, 3) Mobilization and 4) Representation, and I needed her insight. These are the four pillars of a new platform I’m launching – Comadres In Action (C.I.A.) – for BIPOC women and allies to help each other infiltrate all sectors of society and across all industries. Approximately 1 in 10 people in the U.S. is a Latina (Census) and it behooves us to take action because we are the matriarchs of the new América. We need to help women learn how to: Participate, Organize, Mobilize and Represent, from local PTAs and boardrooms to elected office.