Latina Spotlight on Latinas of Legacy

Dr. Elizabeth D. Rios and Silvia Arvelo founded Latinas of Legacy with one mission in mind: to help Latinas make their mark on the world and leave a positive, long-lasting legacy for their family and community. This is their story! What inspired you to establish Latinas of Legacy? Having worked with many women we felt that there are many organizations that were non apologetic about their target audience which were either Black or White. The ones that were “catch all” usually didn’t have a Latina as a speaker and didn’t speak from a perspective that fit us. The ones that catered to Latinas where all Spanish and we felt that the Latina in America is bilingual bicultural. We wanted to focus on Legacy because we wanted Latinas to remember that everything they do in life will live on and we wanted them to be intentional about what “their life speaks”. What is Latinas of Legacy’s overall mission? Our Vision is to help Latinas mark their world and leave a positive, long-lasting legacy for their family and community. Our Mission is to be an illustrious sisterhood of Latina women who have united in purpose to make a difference in society by intentionally letting their life speak in the areas of faith, family and finances. Why is Latinas of Legacy important for the Latino/a community? Latinas of Legacy will help strengthen the family and will help women plan for the future of their families as we will also focus on helping women leave a legacy by leaving wills and financial stability. How has your identity as a Latina enhanced or impacted the work that you do? To be honest, I have always been very aware of my Latina-ness because many of my old bosses were Latino (Puerto Rican) and made sure I knew my history. Focusing on the issues impacting Latinas now helps us stay connected to the struggle of many Latinos who unlike Puerto Ricans have to work very hard to become citizens. My background (Liz) growing up with a PR single mom in the Lower East Side of the NY and my own journey of racism, labels, etc. helps me to remember that every day a Latina succeeds in graduating HS, College, reaching a high level in business, etc all victories to be celebrated. My background (Silvia) was growing up in Passaic New Jersey as an immigrant 6 year old with immigrant parents struggling to make their dreams come true in the USA. I struggled with the culture, the language and with the assimilation process. I have a heart for the new Latinas that step foot on the grounds of the US and the real-life struggles that are faced on a daily basis. I am also well aware “que si se puede” to live out your dreams here. In what ways do you hope to see Latinas of Legacy impact others? We want LoL to impact Latinas by helping young women start believing that they CAN make it to the highest heights of any field, We want to see Latinas plan for their families with wills and life insurance so that the next generation will have a better start than they did. Who can be a part of Latinas of Legacy? Any Latina from 13 + depending on the level of interest as shown here: http://www.latinasoflegacy.com/membership-levels.html How can people get involved with Latinas of Legacy or contact you? They can visit our website and look over the various membership levels or they can attend our vision launch. For specific questions that our website doesn’t answer, they can email us at info@latinasoflegacy.com. What can we expect from the Latinas of Legacy vision launch? We are very excited to share our vision for Latinas of Legacy at the launch. We will have a time of education with Latinas sharing on the importance of our role in society, what Latinas are already doing and why legacy matters. The founders will share what is in store for the 2015 programming calendar and we will have networking opportunities for those who attend. Plus a few little secrets. What is your vision for U.S. Latinas? What do you hope to see them do or be recognized for? We would love to see U.S. Latinas be more supportive of each other and the ventures they undertake, we would love to see them involved in giving back to other Latinas in need of mentorship and marketplace sponsorship. We want to see Latinas do and be whatever they set their minds to do. We don’t want them to think of limits or boundaries. We want them to take over the world.