👨🏻🙋🏽👱🏾👩🏾👧🏻The Latinx Collective - Issue #22

THIS WEEK'S FIVE:

Natalia Oberti Noguera, 35, is the founder and CEO of Pipeline Angels, an organization that is changing the face of angel investing by encouraging women and non-binary femmes to both invest and start their own businesses. She's an inspiring voice in an industry overcrowded by white men, and her goal is to use her power to amplify others. Natalia talks about the obstacles facing Latinx founders, the lesson she's trying to teach members of the Pipeline Angels Community, and how she tries to be mindful of her purchase power even during her downtime. I'm so inspired by her!

Great Q&A with the brilliant Gutierrez: a trans, mixed-raced artist of Guatemalan and White descent, who re-imagined indigenous identity for her latest project "Indigenous Woman", a 146-page magazine she modeled & posed for, and also took every picture, styled every outfit, and designed all the layouts for. The Brooklyn-based artist used costume, photography, and film to produce elaborate narrative scenes that combine pop culture tropes, sex dolls, mannequins, and self-portraiture to explore the ways in which identity, like art, is both a social construction and an authentic expression of self. In one photo series, called Demons, she casts herself as Aztec, Mayan, and Yoruba deities to examine how the sacred feminine in indigenous cultures has been portrayed by the West. Eighteen of Gutierrez’s photographs were recently on view at the Ryan Lee Gallery in NYC.

As streetwear continues to gain more exposure, the irony of the movement continues to ride along with it. Its origins run deep in the lives of black and brown people — even more so black and brown women — and yet, its gatekeepers don’t represent that. For example nameplate jewelry originated as trend that was once labeled ‘ghetto’ or ‘tacky’’ and has since been normalized and replicated in runway shows and on clothing racks. The article features interviews with: Evelynn Escobar (streetwear enthusiast), Gaby Serrano ('18 winner of the Nike: On Air sneaker design contest) Gigi Fernandez (celebrity stylist) and Coco & Breezy (twins who are style icons and eyewear designers).

Vote, vote, vote! Make sure your Latinx friends, family and allies go vote next week (unless, as mentioned previously, they're fans of the white supremacists in power, in which case, make other plans for them that day).

Latinos – the largest minority ethnic group in the US – are powerful. With 66,000 Latinos turning 18, the voting age, every single month, that force is vast enough to transform the political balance of our local, state, and federal governments. Our voting rights were not easy to attain and as mentioned here, our enfranchisement is under perpetual threat by increased voting restrictions that impact black and brown populations the hardest. Here's a great article that takes a look at Latino voting rights in the US, from preserving suffrage in the 1960s to defending it today.

Every year, about two dozen extraordinary people receive the MacArthur “Genius” Grant, a $625,000 grant given out over a period of years with no strings attached. The foundation awards those who "show exceptional merit and promise for continued and enhanced creative work." This year, two Latinas were chosen as grant winners. One of those is poet Natalie Diaz who speaks here with NPR's Shereen Marisol Meraji about her work, which focuses on social justice issues and her Mojave and Latina heritage. Natalie published a critically acclaimed poetry collection in 2012 called "When My Brother Was an Aztec" that address the problems indigenous communities face in this country - poverty, addiction and deep family trauma. I highly recommend sharing her work with any Latinx artists you know who need inspiration. Check out her website here and here's a past interview on PBS from 2012.

SPOTLIGHT SERIES:

I highly suggest you watch this docu-film: (rent or buy it here on Vimeo): This past June, documentary-film 'Rock Rubber 45s' debuted - exploring the connectivity of global basketball, sneaker, and music lifestyle through the firsthand lens of multi-hyphenate Bobbito García, the ballplayer/author/DJ/filmmaker who carved an independent career that inspired millions throughout the world. This article by The Shadow League calls it "a must see for basketball heads around the world, for music connoisseurs, for hip hop historians, b-boys and girls, for Latin music and culture enthusiasts, for Nuyoricans and Puerto Ricans from the island, for party-goers and deejays and everybody in between." I've already seen it twice and would happily organize a viewing if you're in NY and want to watch together. 👟🏀🎶 More info: rockrubber45s.com

Appreciate you checking out this week’s issue of The Latinx Collective. If you've enjoyed it - have friends, coworkers, family and allies sign up on the website so they can join you in celebrating the impact we're making.