At Inclusive Action for the City, Rudy Espinoza serves as the Executive Director and advocates for neighborhoods, entrepreneurship, and financial empowerment. The majority of Espinoza’s work involves identifying profitable investment opportunities within low-income communities, building private/nonprofit partnerships, and training working-class communities to participate in neighborhood revitalization. It is among the groups that took the lead in supporting and promoting the Los Angeles Street Vendor Campaign. The organization also sponsors a bill regulating street vendors throughout California.
Category: Equity
BAMBY SALCEDO, LA group protects Transgender Latinas
Governor Gavin Newsom announced his five appointments to the Commission on the State of Hate, one of them being Trans Latina activist and community leader, Bamby Salcedo. As the President and Chief Executive Officer of the TransLatin@ Coalition (TLC), Salcedo guides the nationally recognized organization which advocates for Transgender and Gender nonconforming and Intersex (TGI) immigrant women in Los Angeles.
California’s Stop the Hate Fund invests in violence prevention in LA
In March, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration announced the complete lists of grantees that, with this money, could provide direct services and support to victims of hate incidents and facilitate hate incident prevention measures in their prospective cities/regions.
EDITORIAL: Latinos face financial hardship, federal stimulus help
Many families, especially Latino families, are struggling. We need solutions whether they are short-term checks or universal basic income.
Latinas fight for reproductive rights
This summer’s ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization took away Americans’ constitutional right to abortion. The webinar brought together Latina leaders at the forefront of the local reproductive justice movement to discuss how they got here, the impacts of the Dobbs decision on Latinas and their bodily autonomy, and the economic wellbeing and political inclusion of Latinos in American democracy.
LIBÉLULA BOOKS & CO. serves Brown, Black, Queer, Indigenous and all people of color
Housed behind a bright, yellow door attached to a 1920s iron and triangular building, the bookstore features floor-to-ceiling length bookshelves, art and greenery, knick-knacks that just belong, and that satisfying just-opened-a-book smell create an atmosphere that feels like one you’ve experienced before. But what truly punctuates the nostalgia of a classroom is the bundles of toys, a decorative and interactive feature, that definitely heals the inner child of both the owners and guests.
EDITORIAL: We must all stand against hate crimes
California’s Civil Rights Department also is launching the ‘California vs Hate’ initiative, a resource line and network to support victims, and to increase awareness around what is a hate crime and how to report them when they occur.
COLUMN: Support Afro-Latino journalists in U.S. media
The National Association of Hispanic Journalists, which represents many working journalists and editors and joined forces with the National Association of Black Journalists to host their national conventions together last week in Las Vegas, is working to support Afro-Latino journalists.
MIRNA MARTINEZ, proud queer bilingual Oaxacan therapist in CA
Martinez likes to refer to herself as a queer Oaxacan, first-generation American, bilingual therapist. At 27, she is also proudly among the approximately 6 percent of Latinos who serve as therapists in the U.S. Martinez credits her Oaxacan culture and the values instilled in her as a driving force for her current career and future goals.
MARCO GONZALEZ, Board Chair of Latino Equity Alliance and his passion to help LGBTQ+
LEA is an alliance of individuals that represent several organizations that came together to promote liberty, justice and equality for the Latinx LGBTQ+ communities. Gonzalez is the Advisory Board Chair of the small Latinx LGBTQ+ nonprofit in Boyle Heights.
ALAN ACOSTA, Latino, queer, proud and Purple Lily Award winner
Acosta is responsible for building strategic plans and advises on organizational policy and communication issues. In addition, at the center he leads the Legal Services, Senior Services, and Cultural Arts & Education departments. His projects and initiatives include the creation of “Mi Centro,” the first LGBTQ+ community center in the Boyle Heights neighborhood, which was developed in partnership with the Latino Equality Alliance.
EDITORIAL: Pride Month reminds Latinos to stand against violence, hatred
LGBTQ+ people are part of our familias; they are our parents, nieces, nephews, aunts, uncles, cousins, brothers and sisters and should be given all the love and respect. More needs to be done to fight the rise in anti-LGBTQ+ legislation across the country. We can work together at the personal, statewide and national level to make sure that the LGBTQ+ community is protected.