Latinx Heritage Month | Follow the Leaders

‘LLERO Editors

4 years ago

Latinx Heritage Month or, as it is also referred to, Hispanic Heritage Month is customarily a time to honor and celebrate the history, past accomplishments and customs of Latino culture. However, given the unprecedented nature of 2020, we felt it appropriate to take a different approach.

This year, for Latinx Heritage Month, rather than look back – we focus on the present. Although the world is facing unprecedented challenges. There are leaders among us at local and national levels.

Each week during Latinx Heritage month we are highlighting two leaders

that are recognizing and rising to the challenge of bringing about that change.

Manuel Natal

Wanting to make the world better is a noble cause, making it happen is harder. Manuel Natal Albelo has spent his professional life working towards this goal. After graduating from Cornell, he returned to his native Puerto Rico for law school where he helped lead a student strike at the University of Puerto Rico to stop financial aid cuts for students and athletes. After spending two years seeking justice for labor unions as a lawyer, he took his fight to the political arena that was largely missing young voices. A just 27 years old, he became the youngest person elected to the island’s House of Representatives. Dissatisfied with obvious corruption in his political party, he went independent in 2017 and most recently joined a collective of people looking for new solutions in the Movimiento Victoriosa Ciudadana. Rather than run for another term in the House, Natal has his sights on a bigger though harder opportunity: becoming Mayor of San Juan, the nation’s capital, to improve daily problems like healthcare, education and quality of life. The position is often a stepping stone to the Governor’s mansion, but it’s an aspiration Natal no longer holds. Serving his people, and changing Puerto Rico, is far more important.

Jose Albino

“Respect your elders” is a common phrase heard among Latinos. Jose Albino has gone a step further and made it his life’s mission. He has worked in the gerontology field for over 20 years and has led the Griot Circle, the first and only organization that caters to LGBTQ seniors, for the last five. Respecting and advocating for this especially vulnerable group of elders is something he thinks about daily. “They arguably were the creators of the LGBTQ movement back in the 1960s for queer people of color.” He also sits on the board of directors for the Stonewall Community Development Corporation to provide affordable housing for New York LGBTQ elders of color. In this case, the professional is also personal. Albino acknowledges this is a group he will one day belong to. Albino also understands how interconnected we all are and applies it to his work. “There are layers and diversity to who we are in the Latin community. To be individualistic in our approach to who we are will not serve [us holistically.]”

Yung Pueblo

The pen is always mightier than the sword. In the case of Yung Pueblo, the pen allows him to help others conquer their personal battles and in turn heal the world through words. Battling his own anxiety and depression, Diego Perez, found peace in Vipassana meditation. Finding real healing through his practice inspired him to share his personal lessons and musings on everything from freedom to the human condition via prose and poetry. Pueblo self-published Inward, a collection of his writing, which touched a nerve and brought him global attention. But before publishing and public speaking spread his message far and wide, he shared it on Instagram to see if people were interested in his ideas. Interested is an understatement. To date 971,000 people who follow his daily mantras. The core of his message is clear: personal healing and growth are the first steps to changing the world. Pueblo’s example and peaceful process is leading people to self awareness, one post at a time.

Ritchie Torres

Most things are easier said than done. Don’t tell Ritchie Torres that though. The 30-something from the Bronx took his frustrations of seeing everyday New Yorkers struggle and did something about it. In high school Torres completed a leadership program that helped him get a job with a city councilman. At 25 he ran for, and won, a council seat himself representing the Bronx. For Torres the political is all personal. He is the first openly gay, Afro Latino councilman in history and fights for those communities. As a child who grew up in public housing, he has led efforts to improve New York City’s public housing system, mental health services, and LGBTQ issues. Most importantly, Torres isn’t afraid to question politics as usual. His new focus is on winning a seat in Congress to bring the same fighting spirit to Washington. We can’t wait to see who he will inspire in return.

Alfredo Angueira

From boy scout to businessman, Alfredo Angueira has married his love for entertaining with a deep impulse for giving back. As a principal partner in several Bronx eateries including The Bronx Drafthouse and Beatstro, the latter a themed venue that pays homage to hip hop culture in the borough that birthed it, he has helped rejuvenate his community through restaurants that also serve as community meeting hubs. While working as an attorney he did legal work for local government he learned the value of a dollar. “A dollar spent in a community circulated within it six times before it left.” So “keeping it local” became a business motto, not just because he’s a Bronx native but because he wanted to give back in a positive way. Whether sponsoring back to school supply drives, turkey giveaways and most recently pandemic recovery meals to keep people fed and employed, Angueira gladly pays it forward. “While being a restauranteur has defined [my partner and I] living a life of purpose has invigorated us,” he said.

Marcus Ceniceros

Iconic calculus teacher Jaime Escalante once said “Ask ‘How will they learn best?’ not ‘Can they learn?’”

The quote speaks to equity in education, rather than students’ abilities. One look at Marcus Ceniceros’ life and career and you see that he embodies this quote through his commitment to ensuring that students of color have equal opportunities in education.

Ceniceros is the Director of Leadership for Educational Equity in Houston, Texas. The group’s mission is to eradicate the injustice of educational inequity. Yet, if you do a deeper dive into Ceniceros history you see that his role at LEE is really just the culmination of a career spent championing equity for students of color.

Ceniceros joined Teach for America in 2008 and has taught in New Orleans, Chicago and Houston. Each city’s students had one thing in common: “the problems facing students of color or from low income backgrounds were very similar,” he told TFA. So Ceniceros went about trying to address those problems.

In 2016, Ceniceros launched weekly Impact Meetings in Houston to help educators and students build the skills necessary to eliminate educational barriers. More than 500 people have engaged with LEE and ONE Houston, a volunteer community-organizing group. Their work has also led to major policy shifts in school discipline practices that overwhelmingly affected students of color.

“We all have a moral responsibility, whether it’s supporting our undocumented community or drastically reducing the number of arrests of young people of color, to not just speak of change, but to take action toward it.” Clearly, Ceniceros has the action piece down pat.

Photo of Marcus Ceniceros Property of Teach for America

Marco Davis

“Leadership is a process, not a position,” said Marco Davis, President and CEO of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute (CHCI). This belief is why he’s spent his career developing young Latinos to be the stewards of society. Davis arrived at CHCI after decades working in leadership development, community advocacy and civic engagement.

Prior to joining CHCI, Davis was a partner at New Profit, a national nonprofit philanthropy, where he led an effort to create a more equitable social sector and served as lead on diversity and inclusion efforts. Before that, he served in the Obama Administration as Deputy Director of the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanics.

His most recent mission? Equipping leaders to address society’s current ills. “My greatest fulfillment comes from helping others – especially young people – reach their full potential and achieve impact in their communities and the world beyond.” It’s this soul-filling purpose that fuels Davis’s work.

Ramon Contreras

Ramon Contreras is not your average, twenty something college grad. You see, Contreras found his “why” well before that.

Contreras call to action came when he lost a longtime friend to gun violence in his Harlem neighborhood. As he told MariaShriver.com “His death came right around the time of the Parkland school shooting, where I witnessed heightened advocacy by primarily white students. This made me feel like there needed to be a voice for colored communities, so I started speaking out.” The result was co-founding, Youth Over Guns. The organization’s mission is to combat gun violence in Black and Brown communities.

Since its inception, Youth Over Guns has had quite the impact. Most notably, the now infamous march over the Brooklyn Bridge, where Contreras gathered with thousands of youth activists, carrying a casket symbolizing the deaths in Black and Latinx communities. Currently, Ramon has turned his sight on political organizing with Organizing Corps. 2020, which gives young people skills to work on the 2020 general election.

On the issue of increasing voter engagement in Black and Brown communities Contreras also told MariaShriver.com “You connect voting to real issues that underserved communities experience. Unfortunately, a lot of politicians’ platforms don’t connect with our issues, which is why I believe we need more people of color in positions of power in government.”

With experience and passion demonstrated thus far, Contreras is well on his way to becoming one of those people of color in a position of power!