🙋🏽👨🏻👱🏾👩🏾👱🏻‍♀️A bilingual audio telenovela | the first Latino wine directory 🍷 | Spotify's most-played artist 🇵🇷

NEW ORIGINAL CONTENT FROM US

Jessica Yañez recently launched the first-ever Latiné-owned wine brands directory. I caught up with Jessica to talk about what inspired her to launch it, why she thinks it’s important, and her thoughts behind “hustle culture.” Check out the Q&A!🍷

MUST-READ NEWS

Culture

In case you missed it, a 36 episode telenovela called "Princess of South Beach" debuted in October. The series pays homage to everything we love about telenovelas but adds modern storylines (like LGBTQ relationships, unfair beauty standards, and more). What makes it unique: it's an audio telenovela that's available right in your podcast feed, in both English and Spanish. Co-produced by Sonoro and iHeartMedia, the series was written, directed and sound engineered in both English and Spanish and features A-list Hollywood talent that's 100% Latinx. There are still 10 new episodes in the first season that have yet to launch, but you can binge up to 26 episodes here, if you want to catch up.

Set to open in May 2022, the Molina Family Latino Gallery is the first gallery dedicated to Latino contributions to the U.S, and will serve as the preview of the National Museum of the American Latino. It is envisioned as an introduction to centuries of Latino heritage and culture. This is a great preview on what the latest updates are on the much-anticipated museum, and how hard the team has been working to make it happen.

Puerto Rican reggaeton star and rapper Bad Bunny — who released albums YHLQMDLG and EL ÚLTIMO TOUR DEL MUNDO in 2020 — received more than 9.1 billion streams worldwide this year, an increase from 8.3 billion in 2020. He edged out Taylor Swift for the coveted title of most-played artist this year. WEPA!

Business + Economy

Michael Sayman, who comes from Peruvian and Bolivian parents, arrived in Miami in 1996. His struggle with isolation at school inspired him to spend time with technology. He created 4Snaps, a popular smartphone game, which caught the attention of Mark Zuckerberg. When Zuckerberg hired him, Sayman became the youngest Facebook employee at age 17. Now at age 25, Sayman is the Senior Product Manager at the video game company Roblox. He strives to inspire young teens to get passionate early on and not let anything get in their way.

Sayman said “Ultimately, it doesn’t matter how smart you are, but how crazy and determined and annoyingly persistent, that decides whether you will be successful.”

The Latino community is twice as likely to start a new business in the United States, compared to any other segment of the population. And according to the Peterson Institute of International Economics, over the next two decades it will also account for 85% of all new job holders in the U.S. workforce.

EXTRAS:

• NPR: Harvard's 148-year-old student newspaper gets its first Latina president. Congratulations to Raquel Coronell Uribe, a history and literature major from Miami.

• Stanford Graduate School of Business Presents: The 2020 State of Latino Entrepreneurship Report. 💸

• Amazon spotlighted some of its Latino leaders across various departments including: Elena Marroquín, Paul Font, Pedro Maldonado, Vanessa Velasquez, Juan Gonzales, Diana Enriquez, Dora Maria Abreu & Ana Sánchez-Jáuregui.⭐

SPOTLIGHT SERIES:

For this edition of the Spotlight series, I want to shout out some of the people who have helped this passion project of mine grow throughout the years! Thanks to Carlos Russo for being our incredible web developer since day one, Carolina Gonzalez for her impressive design skills & her support in getting the Etsy store launched this year, Bianca Alvarez for her many editorial contributions as our 2021 Summer intern, and Danielle LeBaron for her patience with me, overall persistence and operational superpowers. 💐

I really appreciate you checking out this issue. Please forward this to friends or family. You can also:

• Visit The Latinx Collective's Etsy store!

• Post a tweet to share this with your friends, and tag us on social if you share any of the the articles in the newsletter: Twitter, Instagram, Facebook.

• Browse The Latinx Collective’s first-of-its-kind (Free) directory of 150+ Latinx business owners around the country. Follow the instructions to submit your info if you’d like to be added, or suggest a friend or family member ❤️

• Support this Latinx-led team anytime by buying us coffee: Venmo: @thelatinxcollective. Cash App: $thelatinxcollective