HIPGivers 2016 by Hispanics in Philanthropy

We believe Latino equity, participation essential for a widely-shared democracy the U.S. and the Americas.

and inclusion are and prosperity in

HIP’s mission is to strengthen Latino equity, voice and leadership. Our core values embrace · EMPOWERMENT · · INCLUSION · · EQUITY ·

· SOCIAL JUSTICE ·

within a transnational mindset.

LETTER FROM THE LEADERSHIP

Dear Partners and Friends,

The annual HIPGivers campaign is a celebration. A recognition of the time, commitment, and philanthropic dollars that we so graciously and abundantly give to our communities. The following pages include 32 of the many stories of Latino giving that don’t often get told. Through this publication, and for the third year in a row, Hispanics in Philanthropy is working to paint a more accurate portrait of Latinos as the givers that we are. The 2016 cohort of Latino HIPGivers are as distinct and accomplished as they are kind-hearted and charitable. There are philanthropists, actors, writers, doctors, lawyers, artists, and professors. Some give their time by serving on foundation and nonprofit boards, or working tirelessly as Directors and Presidents of organizations. Others give their talent through art, books, or film. They all give their treasure by committing to their work and by understanding that meaningful change and advocacy stem most deeply from dedication and true generosity. They are givers in the most authentic sense. There is no doubt that 2016 will be a watershed year for our communities, with more and more Latinos poised to assume leadership roles and a larger presence in philanthropy, entertainment, business, politics, and more. Through its work, HIP will continue to empower Latinos by amplifying the voice of our communities, strengthening Latino leadership, and striving to achieve equity for Latinos families. By emphasizing equity, voice, and leadership, we, as philanthropists large and small, can do a world of good. Our warmest agradecimiento to all HIPGivers, the ones we honor in this issue and the many others throughout the Americas.

Nelson I. Colón Chair, Hispanics in Philanthropy

Diana Campoamor President, Hispanics in Philanthropy

2015 Year in Review

2016 HIPGivers

Alejandra Ancheita The Project on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, A.C. (ProDESC) Founder and Executive Director

Elisa Arévalo Wells Fargo Market Growth Development Consultant and Vice President in the Consumer Credit Solutions Channel Partnership

Toti Cadavid U-Fulfilled Founder and President

Arturo Castro Actor, Producer, Content Creator

Adela Cepeda A.C. Advisory, Inc. President

Oscar Chavez Sonoma County Department of Human Services Assistant Director

Jennifer Clement PEN International President

Michael Cortés University of Denver Graduate School of Social Work Scholar in Residence

Paul Cuadros Scholars’ Latino Initiative Chair

Sandra R. Hernández, MD California HealthCare Foundation President and CEO

Irma Herrera Equal Rights Advocates Senior Advisor

Juan Felipe Herrera United States Poet Laureate

Claudia Jasso-Stevens Jasso Development and Planning Managing Partner

Salvador G. Longoria New Orleans Regional Transit Authority Chairman

TABLE OF CONTENTS Mónica Lozano U.S. Hispanic Media Chairman and Aspen Institute Latinos and Society Program Chair

Diana Magaloni LACMA Director of the Program for Art of the Ancient Americas

Julio Marcial The California Wellness Foundation Program Director

Arabella Martinez Latino Community Foundation Vice Chair

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Amalia Mesa-Bains Educator, Artist, Cultural Critic José Padilla California Rural Legal Assistance, Inc. Executive Director

Debra Joy Pérez Annie E. Casey Foundation Vice President of Research, Evaluation, and Learning

Eliseo J. Pérez-Stable MD National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities Director

Catherine Pino and Ingrid Duran D&P Creative Strategies Co-Founders

Thomas A. Saenz President and General Counsel, MALDEF (Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund)

Juan Salgado Instituto Del Progreso Latino President and CEO David Suro Piñera Tequila Restaurant Owner

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Olga Talamante Chicana/Latina Foundation Executive Director

Raymond Telles Filmmaker and University of California, Berkeley, Professor

Maria de los Angeles ‘Nena’ Torres Professor of Latin American and Latino Studies, University of Illinois at Chicago and Executive Director of the Inter-University Program for Latino Research

Wilmer Valderrama Actor and Voto Latino Co-Chair

Olga Viso Walker Art Center Executive Director

Osvaldo Sánchez inSite Casa Gallina Mexico Project Director

Board of Directors

HIP Staff

Thank You

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2015 AT A GLANCE Our year in review

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2016 HIPGivers

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Being a human rights defender is challenging and personal. I have faced betrayals and disappointments. But it is worth it.

ALEJANDRA ANCHEITA

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Boldly Advocating for Human Rights

The Project on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, A.C. (ProDESC) Founder and Executive Director

Alejandra Ancheita is an award-winning attorney and social activist who has championed the rights of immigrants, workers, indigenous communities and women. Her promotion of human rights takes place in Mexican areas that have long been fertile ground for abuses. For her efforts, Ancheita received the prestigious Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders in 2014. The Geneva-based program is designed to both honor and protect, through publicity, the exemplary human rights advocates whose work puts their lives at risk. “My journey as a human rights defender started when I recognized my privilege and access to a free university education in a country where the majority of people have little to no possibilities…” said Anchieta, who in 2005 founded The Project on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, A.C. (known as ProDESC). She recalled how her father, an attorney, worked in very marginalized areas even now in Chiapas, Mexico’s southernmost state. “As a young girl, I would go with my father to meetings with indigenous communities who were collectively defending their territory,” she recalled. Anchieta lost her father when she was eight years old, but his example stuck with her.

“These three rights are the foundation of autonomy,” she said. “It was such a formative process for me, and I brought much of what I learned to ProDESC.” Along the way, Anchieta interned as a lawyer at the Center for Justice and International Law in Washington, D.C. In 2005, she became an international fellow at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs in the program for human rights advocates, focusing on the defense of economic, social and cultural rights. Later identifying the need for this defense work in her country, she founded ProDESC. Mexico City-based ProDESC focuses on conflicts over land use and ownership with transnational firms, as well as issues of fraudulent visas and forced labor in the United States. “I hope I can be an example for other young women,” she said of her human rights work. “It’s not all pain. It is a very challenging career, but there are many joyful, happy and fun moments in this work. “We must recover and remember that,” she added. “We must recognize those moments every chance we get. Integrate this into our experience as a human rights defender.”

Anchieta pursued her goal of protecting marginalized people throughout her law school career, fellowships, postgraduate programs and other work in Mexico and the United States. At a small Chiapas nonprofit supporting indigenous women’s cooperatives, Anchieta saw how increased incomes empowered the women to stand up for their economic, cultural and social rights.

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“Being a human rights defender is challenging and personal. I have faced betrayals and disappointments,” she said. “But it is worth it.”

ELISA ARĂ&#x2030;VALO

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HIP Co-Founder Sets Example of Latino Leadership

It has been really important to me that I recognize the unique situation that Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m in and leverage it to support other Latinas and Latinos.

Wells Fargo Market Growth Development Consultant and Vice President in the Consumer Credit Solutions Channel Partnership

The Hispanics in Philanthropy Director Emeritus has carried that focus on giving throughout her career. At Wells Fargo, Arévalo works as Market Growth Development Consultant and Vice President in the Consumer Credit Solutions Channel Partnership. During her time at the bank, Arévalo has worked on, among other projects, managing the national marketing of its loan goal commitments for women and minority small business owners. “It has been really important to me that I recognize the unique situation that I’m in and leverage it to support other Latinas and Latinos,” she said. This life-long priority is part of what led Arévalo to help found Hispanics in Philanthropy (HIP) in 1983, one of the accomplishments for which she feels proudest. Her co-founders, Luz VegaMarquis, President and CEO of the Marguerite Casey Foundation, and Chicano community activist Herman Gallegos, now retired, are also HIP Directors Emeritus. Arévalo’s family immigrated to the United States from her native Leon, in Mexico’s Guanajuato state, when she was four years old. The experience of growing up and attending school in San Francisco’s Bay Area was a memorable and unique one. “Because of my parents’ hard work,” she recalled, “we [Arévalo and her sister] were able to go to a private all girls’ high school. I am very happy that I was in that situation, but I was also awestruck that I had the opportunity.”

She and her sister were two of only three Latinas in the entire school. Upon graduation, Arévalo attended Santa Clara University on a substantial scholarship awarded only to Hispanic students. Later, she attended Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, where she was the only Latina in the program. When asked, she said that these experiences – and the understanding that success is so rarely achieved alone – have helped her find a variety of approaches for giving back. She recalled that, when she attended Santa Clara University, there was a Latina dean of students. “That was huge for me,” she said, “Sometimes people don’t even know that they’re giving. Just by being successful in their position they [could be] helping other people who look up to them.” Throughout her career, Arévalo said, she has always considered sharing her experiences with others to be part of the job. In addition to her bank work, Arévalo is an active member of the Latino Community Foundation’s Latina Giving Circle San Francisco, which supports Latino communities. She has two adult children, who she said were raised with the same values that have fueled her lifelong success: give back, whenever you can, give back.

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ForElisaArévalo,givingandlivingareinextricably linked. “There are so many ways to give,” she said. “ You just have to look around and see where you can contribute.”

TOTI CADAVID

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Helping Others Learn to Lead

People in positions of influence should help take away the reluctance some people have about giving.

U-Fulfilled Founder and President One could say that Toti Cadavid was born into a culture of giving. Originally from Cali, Colombia, her earliest childhood memories are of helping people and encouraging others to do the same. Cadavid cites her mother, a lifelong philanthropist, as her source of inspiration.

Cadavid is currently a volunteer board member of: the Colorado Health Foundation; the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce; Denver International Airport’s Management Advisory Council; Junior Achievement, and El Pomar Foundation’s Denver Council.

“My mother volunteered several times per month and she often took me along so I would inherit her passion of helping others,” she said. Cadavid’s mother worked to provide food for the hungry, to help women prisoners develop job skills before they got out, and to act as a first responder after tragedies, such as earthquakes.

“Both at work and in my personal life, I try to emphasize the significance of philanthropy to others,” said the business leader and philanthropist who enjoys mentoring young Latinas.

“Just like my mother, when I discover a need, I not only invest my own energy and resources, I also gather others to participate in moving the cause forward,” said Cadavid. With her mother for inspiration, Cadavid has long provided leadership in business and civic organizations. She worked with others to create the Latino Community Foundation of Colorado (LCFC). It was launched in 2007 by the Rose Community Foundation in partnership with Hispanics in Philanthropy, The Jay and Rose Phillips Family Foundation of Colorado, Western Union Foundation, and individual donors, such as Cadavid.

Currently, she is president and founder of U-Fulfilled, acoachingandleadershipdevelopmentcompany that focuses on helping top performers lead better teams and companies through selfawareness, emotional intelligence and, the alignment of their actions with their values. “I want to inspire consciousness in other people,” Cadavid said. “I have gone from teaching it in my inner circle to going out into the world and touching as many people as I can with this message.”

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Cadavid recalled how, when she was a teenager, her mother took a special interest in a porter who worked in their apartment building. After discovering that his dream was to attend law school, her mother enlisted the help of others to assist the man in taking night classes and eventually going on to college. He ultimately became a judge, changing his life and also that of the subsequent generations of his family.

“People in positions of influence should help take away the reluctance some people have about giving,” she added. “For instance, many people don’t know how to interact with people in need, but the reality is that their presence and support is always welcomed with open arms.”

Actor, Producer, Content Creator

The value of influence is not lost on Arturo Castro. As an actor with a recurring character on Comedy Central’s hit show, “Broad City,” as well as the creator of the new digital sketch show, “Alternatino,” he is in a unique position to inspire, and he does not take this role lightly.

Castro is also quick to credit his mentors and those who have helped him succeed.

“Inspiring hope is the best gift you can give your community,” Castro said.

In working with youth at alternative learning centers in impoverished neighborhoods in the Bronx and in Brooklyn, he sees the importance of this type of personal and community support.

Castro was born and raised in Guatemala. When he was 19, he moved to New York to attend the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and Vassar College. Since then, Castro has worked in theater and television on a variety of productions and shows. “I never saw somebody [on TV] that I could aspire to, growing up as a Latin kid in Guatemala,” he said in a segment for Mic.com. “I never saw anybody that looked like me on television and, if they did look like me, they were either in the field, or getting shot by Antonio Banderas.” Castro said that, through his work as an actor and content producer, “My hope is that I’m changing the conversation on what Latinos are or are not. I’m trying to improve our image on a worldwide level. We’re as much a part of this community as anybody else.” Part of this desire to change the narrative on Latinos comes from a deeply rooted sense that giving is just a part of life. Castro recalled that everything in his house growing up was shared, and that this sense of generosity was simply second nature.

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“I do drama therapy and teach kids how to deal with their emotions through acting,” he said. “Kids who have gone through trauma are very closed off; having them open up to me has been incredibly inspiring.” “It’s easy,” he added, “to throw up your hands. But inspiring hope in somebody – goals in the younger generation – it’s the best gift you can give to a human being.” When asked to consider how others can inspire giving in their own communities, Castro said, “If this planet is going to be fixed at all, we need an army of inspired young people.” In a world that can feel full of hopeless inequity and strife, taking a cue from Arturo Castro is not only wise, but inspired.

ARTURO CASTRO Changing the Latino Narrative

“The reason I do what I do is because I love my community and the people who have supported me thus far,” he said.

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Inspiring hope is the best gift you can give your community.

ADELA CEPEDA

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Municipal Finance Expert Gives Back

I’m fortunate to be a Latina from a community that actually gives more than it gets.

Advisory, Inc. President

Finance specialist Adela Cepeda isn’t buying the argument that U.S. philanthropies don’t need to target Latino communities because they fund schools and human service programs that benefit many low-income Hispanics.

refrigerationneeds,havingsetuphisownbusiness by the time his oldest daughter graduated from college in 1980. She was an honors graduate in economics from Harvard College and obtained an MBA from the University of Chicago.

“I don’t agree,” said Cepeda, president of A.C. Advisory, Inc., one of the top 10 municipal financial advisors in the United States. “I think that often the attention isn’t being paid to ensuring that these dollars reach the Latinos.”

Her grandmother, Edonia Patiño, “really helped to keep the family together while my parents worked,” Cepeda recalled of their settling on New York’s Upper West Side and later in Queens. And it was her grandmother who first taught Cepeda the importance of giving.

“I’m fortunate to be a Latina from a community that actually gives more than it gets,” she said. “As poor as we are, the hardest working and lowest paid communities that we are, and yet our incomes contribute significantly to the [gross domestic product] of countries in Latin America,” she said. “There are cities and towns [in Mexico and elsewhere] that are supported by their relatives here in the states.” The oldest of five children, Cepeda moved from her native Barranquilla, Colombia, to New York City with her parents and grandmother when Adela was just six years old. Her father, Diógenes Cepeda, had sold his air conditioning and heating business in Barranquilla and worked for others in New York. Eventually, he helped many bodegas on Long Island with their

“My grandmother had very, very, very little but was always trying to give to others in need,” she said. “As little as it was, it was always enough to share.” Much later, Cepeda’s husband, attorney and Chicago Police Board president Albert Maule, died of cancer when he was 40 in 1995, and Cepeda raised their three daughters in Chicago, where she feels particularly attached to the Latino community, in addition to her New York roots. Having served on many Chicago community boards, she is particularly proud of her work on the Nuestro Futuro fund of the Chicago Community Trust. Nuestro Futuro, already one of the largest Latino funds in the country with more than $3.5 million in assets, supports Hispanicserving organizations. “I want to emphasize that I get much more than what I give to these organizations,” she said. “Like in the case of Nuestro Futuro – helping to build an endowment that will give in perpetuity – that is just so gratifying.”

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Cepeda, 57, said that she believes that the country’sfastestgrowingminoritydeservestosee increased philanthropic spending for its complex issues of poverty, low educational attainment and other barriers.

Creating Opportunity for Future Generations

OSCAR CHAVEZ Sonoma County Department of Human Services Assistant Director

In the Latino community, there’s so much abundance, and there’s a real commitment to helping others. As a foundation board member and former school board trustee, Oscar Chavez models community leadership with an eye on the future. Chavez and his wife Christine live in Windsor, a small town in Northern California, with their four boys. They work hard to instill the same values that have propelled Chavez’s career in public service.

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“[We] encourage [our] boys to get involved and think about the injustices in our world and get them to be curious and question assumptions,” he said. “It is important to us, that they grow up with a real sense of purpose in life and a commitment to better our community.”

They have also offered valuable lessons in community leadership. “Helping other people realize their potential and leading by example inspires giving,” said

Chavez, who works as assistant director of the Sonoma County Department of Human Services, where he oversees the County’s Upstream Investments. It is a policy initiative that promotes effective and preventionfocused approaches to mitigate the negative impacts of poverty and inequality. Chavez has a prolific track record of this type of leadership. For five years, he served as the executive director of the Community Action Partnership of Sonoma County, an organization dedicated to helping low-income families achieve economic and social sustainability while also building community. Prior to that, Chavez directed a series of pilot initiatives for the Office of Economic and Community Development at Oxnard College in California. He also worked to increase college access to first generation lowincome high school students at California State University Bakersfield. In 2008, he was

Currently, Chavez serves on the Board of the Community Foundation of Sonoma County and Rise Together, a nine-county Bay Area initiative to cut poverty in half by 2020. He is also a member of Sonoma County Latino Leaders (Los Cien), among others. “We don’t get to where we are on our own; there are many individuals that I credit for helping me get to where I am today. These mentors saw something in me that, in my youth, I could not see for myself,” he said. “I really feel a sense of obligation to all of those people to give back and pay it forward by helping others.”

When Chavez was six years old, his parents immigrated to California from Tuxpan, a small town in Mexico’s Jalisco state. Two years later, they sent for Chavez and his sister. Through the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, Chavez became a legal resident and has remained in California ever since. Chavez acknowledges the need to encourage young people to challenge misrepresentations that harm Latinos in general and immigrants in particular. “In the Latino community, there’s so much abundance, and there’s a real commitment to helping others,” Chavez said. “Maybe it’s the immigrant mentality; there is always a hunger to do better and help others.”

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recognized by the North Bay Business Journal as one of the North Bay’s 40 Under 40 leaders and was the recipient of the 2012 Jefferson Awardrecognizing him as one of the County’s strongest leaders on poverty, education, and health.

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I give by shedding light on [the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s] complex problems through writing.

JENNIFER CLEMENT Writing for a Cause

PEN International President

“I’m a writer,” she said simply. “I write about things that hurt me, that don’t let go of me.” As the president of PEN Mexico, Clement focused largely on the disappearance and killing of journalists in Mexico from 2009-2012. As part of this work, PEN partnered with other human rights organizations to shine a spotlight on these murders, which were intended to suppress media coverage. This collaboration resulted in charges for killing a journalist being elevated from a state matter to a federal crime in Mexico. She is also the first woman to become president in the 94-year history of PEN International. The London-based PEN International, which was founded as a writers’ forum, has become since the 1960s a stalwart defender of freedom of expression and of persecuted writers worldwide. Clement was born in the United States and raised in Mexico City. The poet and author of three novels obtained a master’s in fine arts from the University of Southern Maine. She is fluent in English and Spanish and has also studied French. Her third novel, “Prayers for the Stolen” (Hogarth/Crown, 2014), was a New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice and a PEN/ Faulkner Award finalist.

The book, which spins a compelling tale around the disappearance of young girls and the lives ruined by Mexican drug cartels, won the 2015 French magazine Elle’s Grand Prix des Lectrices Lycéennes. For the book, she also received the New York-based Sara Curry Humanitarian Award, which recognizes vision and dedication to helping others. “I give by shedding light on [the world’s] complex problems through writing,” she said. For nearly two decades, Clement and her sister Barbara Sibley have run the San Miguel Poetry Week. The event takes place at the start of each year and brings together poets from Mexico, England, and the United States. Clement said that she sees the week as, among other things, a chance to bridge some of the creative and cultural differences that exist between countries. When asked to consider how others can inspire giving in their own communities, Clement focused on the need for people to pay attention. “There needs to be a sense of outrage,” she said. “My outrage is always greater than my fear. When things are not going well we should feel outraged and we should try to change that.” This notion has inspired not only her writing, but also her commitment to giving back. “We shouldn’t be complacent,” she added. “We must work to make the world a better world.”

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Jennifer Clement has worked tirelessly to illuminate and explore a number of human rights crises while serving as the current president of PEN International and formerly as the PEN Mexico president.

I look for opportunities to make the world a better place, and I go for them.

MICHAEL CORTĂ&#x2030;S

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Giving without Reservations

University of Denver Graduate School of Social Work Scholar-in-Residence

A student at San Ramon Valley Union High School in Danville, California, in the early 1960s, Cortés was acutely aware of the injustices toward Black citizens occurring in Southern states surrounding the right to vote. He wanted to help, and at the time, the American Friends Service Committee had a project called, Students for Social Responsibility, that encouraged high school aged students to get involved with causes and movements that inspired them. Cortés took this to heart, recruited a few of his peers, and launched a program at his school called, “Fast for Freedom.” Through this initiative, students donated their lunch money, and the funds were then sent to minority rights’ groups working to amend unjust voting laws. This experience was pivotal, and the sense of excitement and responsibility has continued to guide Cortés throughout his career. He now describes himself as “an activist by temperament.” Cortés currently serves as Scholar-in-Residence at the University of Denver Graduate School of Social Work, where he teaches courses in policy analysis and development and social policy advocacy. He holds both a master’s and Ph.D. in Public Policy from the University of California, Berkeley. Prior to teaching, which he calls, “both a duty and a pleasure,” Cortés was the founding vice president for Research, Advocacy, and Legislation at the National Council of La Raza; director of Planning, Finance, and Administration in the Corporate Community Affairs Department at Levi Strauss & Co. and

the Levi Strauss Foundation, and one of the founders of Hispanics in Philanthropy (HIP). More recently, he contributed his philanthropic and public policy expertise as a member of the first group of Hispanics in Philanthropy’s Latino Age Wave Fellows. For Cortés, giving his time to important social justice causes has always meant operating in the background. “I have respect for the community organizing tradition where people go out, not to make themselves leaders, but to encourage others to be leaders and empower their communities and those around them in the process,” he said. It has never been about accolades or glory for Cortés. He grew up in a household that encouraged strong values rooted in social justice, and being curious about the issues going on in the world. “I look for opportunities to make the world a better place,” he said. “And I go for them, whether I can make money at them or not.” Cortés is the sort of giver who does so with his shoulder to the wheel. “There have been times,” he said, “when I’ve worked on things as a volunteer because I was afraid it wasn’t going to get done otherwise.”

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While most high school students spend their time worrying about prom dates and SAT scores, teenage Michael Cortés was worried about voting rights.

Photo Credit: Patrick Davison, for Los Jets

PAUL CUADROS H IPGiver s 201 6

Journalist Uses Sports to Reach Young People

I give my time and myself. Whatever energy or expertise Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve gotten in life, I give.

Scholars’ Latino Initiative Chair

Paul Cuadros is a journalist, a professor, an author, a nonprofit chair and, yes, a major fútbol fan and coach. So, the co-founder of the Scholars’ Latino Initiative is not your typical nonprofit chair. When asked about his most significant contributions to the Latino community, the associate professor of Journalism at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill hones in on his work as a soccer coach. “Young people don’t have a tradition of volunteering or engaging with the community,” he said. “I like to do that through soccer and mentoring...” Cuadros rose to national prominence in 2006 with the release of his book, “A Home on the Field” (HarperCollins), which examines Latino immigration to the American South through the success of a predominantly Latino high school soccer team in a rural North Carolina town. The reporting in the book was the culmination of research Cuadros had conducted that year as an Alicia Patterson Foundation Journalism Fellow. Originally from Michigan, Cuadros credits his father with initially inspiring his desire to help his community. He remembers that, despite his humble means, his father Alberto Cuadros, who grew up and lived in Peru, would consistently offer support to family members and those in need. “I saw him reaching out and being receptive to people who asked him for assistance,” Cuadros recalled. In his own life, Cuadros has found ways to give that go far beyond money.

AlongwiththefellowshipfromtheAliciaPatterson Foundation, he has received numerous awards, and his articles have been published by The New York Times, Time Magazine, and The Chicago Reporter. Cuadros, who obtained a master’s in journalism from Northwestern University in 1991, founded the Scholars’ Latino Initiative at the University of North Carolina in 2007. UnderCuadros’leadership,theinitiativefacilitates mentorship between Latino high school students and students at the University of North Carolina. For Coach Cuadros, promoting leadership in Latino communities is vital. “I’ve worked hard to try to create opportunities to engage in the community in some way,” he said. “It has become a personal philosophy for me, putting energy into the community, not just taking from it.” The results of this approach have already begun to come full circle. “Some of the people I’ve coached now have kids who want to play,” Cuadros said. “I’ve encouraged them to coach and ref and develop leadership skills through athletics.” The same is true at the university, where Cuadros encourages his mentees to return home to their communities and engage. “Help build those avenues and encourage people to participate,” he said. “It will take up your time, but you’ll be rewarded in ways that you don’t even know yet.”

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“I give my time and myself,” he said. “Whatever energy or expertise I’ve gotten in life, I give.”

SANDRA R. HERNĂ Physician and Health Foundation CEO Leads by Example

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California HealthCare Foundation President and CEO

I feel like I have been well-mentored and try to give back in terms of time, energy and sometimes philanthropic dollars.

ÁNDEZ MD “Everybody, regardless of where they started, has the opportunity to help others come up the scaffolding,” the physician and foundation president and CEO said. “That means you have many responsibilities to serve and should be promoting as many opportunities as you can. Human services, the arts, civic participation, politics. All are places we should be promoting as opportunities to serve.”

“I watched my abuela help neighbors, help friends, help comadres,” recalled Dr. Hernández, who was born in Tucson and raised in New Mexico. “…I saw that very young and… she was illiterate. All of my eight aunts and uncles – 10 if you count the niece and nephew she also raised – went to school and had careers.” “She had never heard of any of the places I was going,” but cheered for the young Sandra Hernández, who went on to graduate from Yale University and the Tufts School of Medicine.

The 57-year-old philanthropist is a former San Francisco Health Director and board member of the Council on Foundations and Grantmakers in Health. She also served on President Clinton’s Commission on Consumer Protection and Quality in the Health Care Industry and on two Institute of Medicine committees.

These days, Dr. Hernández is a trustee of the Reno-based Asbestos Settlement Trusts and an independent director of First Republic Bank. In addition to serving as an assistant clinical professor and member of University of California, San Francisco, advisory boards, she also treats patients every Friday afternoon at the university’s Continuity Clinic for HIV.

Nevertheless, she considers herself, “a Southwest girl who’s been transplanted to the [San Francisco] Bay Area” and who has benefited from valuable mentoring and support from her family and others along the way. The Fred G. Acosta Job Corps Center in Tucson, Arizona, is named for the eldest of her four brothers, the late civic activist Fred Acosta. She described him as an extraordinary role model for her and others.

“I feel like I have been well-mentored and try to give back in terms of time, energy and sometimes philanthropic dollars,” Dr. Hernández said.

Dr. Hernández named a donor advised fund after an “early influencer,” her grandmother Altagracia Hernández, of Lordsburg, New Mexico. She established the fund at The San Francisco Foundation, where she was CEO for 16 years before moving, in 2014, to the California HealthCare Foundation.

“Too often, our community is characterized by deficits, gaps and disparities, instead of looking at assets and attributes …” she said. “We all have something to give …input, critiques, time, mentorship, working to solve social problems.” H IPGiver s 201 6

The California HealthCare Foundation’s top executive, Dr. Sandra R. Hernández, imagines scaffolding when she thinks of Latino community building.

IRMA HERRERA Social Justice Activist Pays It Forward

The best way to inspire giving is by the way you live your life. If people see that you are generous, and you do your part to make things better, they’re likely to remember and embrace this concept of paying it forward.

Equal Rights Advocates Senior Advisor

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Irma Herrera has worn many hats with great style. But the key to the philanthropy of this self-described, “social justice activista” is her role as a convener who resourcefully establishes links.

In her impressive San Francisco Bay Area career, Herrera has worked as: co-director of the Women Immigrant’s Project for New America Media (NAM); an editor at Pacific News Service before it became NAM; executive director of Equal Rights Advocates; an attorney with the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund; and, most recently, as a playwright. She has also been a freelance journalist and a college instructor. Herrera understands the value of access, and she’s happy to help make connections that can be beneficial, especially for young people.

“I feel that how I best give to the Latino community is by being a connector of people,” she said. “The best way to inspire giving,” she said, “is by the way you live your life. If people see that you are generous, and you do your part to make things better, they’re likely to remember and embrace this concept of paying it forward.” Mentoring has long been a cornerstone of this approach. Herrera prioritizes the opportunity to mentor and encourage young people whenever possible. She also sits on the boards of the Public Interest Law Project and Prospera (formerly Women’s Action to Gain Economic Security (WAGES), and recently joined the Advisory Board of The Butler Koshland Fellowship Program.

Herrera recalled being raised in the sort of household where limited resources were shared generously. “My parents were very generous people,” she said, “I grew up with the notion that there’s always enough, and that you can find more to

share with others. If you have enough, within that pot, some of it can be shared. It’s all relative.” Thelawyer/journalist/nonprofitleader/college instructor/playwright and philanthropist said that she believes that pursuing multiple interests and trying new things broadens one’s perception of the world and cultivates a deeper sense of empathy. “Giving is so much more than just money,” she said. “It’s giving from your heart and giving because you care about humanity and when you see people struggle, you offer an arm to lean on.” Reflecting on her experiences she added, “Try new things and apply those skills to other gratifying experiences. That’s another way to give back to the community.”

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Most recently, Herrera has written her first solo play titled, “Tell Me Your Name,” which will be produced by the Ross Valley Players and performed at the Barn Theater at the Marin Art and Garden Center in Northern California in March 2016. The play is based on Herrera’s experience growing up in South Texas, and working in professions where people of color are greatly underrepresented. The play explores issues of cultural identity, our relationship with names, the cost and perception of privilege, and the ways in which we treat and welcome those around us.

Giving is not just a bar of soap and a 20-dollar bill. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s using all our capacities, all our human capacities.

Photo Credit: Carlos Puma

JUAN FELIPE HERR

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U.S. Poet Laureate Gives with Words

U.S. Poet Laureate

Juan Felipe Herrera understands, on a deeply personal level, that kindness is at the root of all giving. Through his eyes, kindness is not a privilege or something to be transacted. It is simply the glue that binds people together. “Poetry is a gift of kindness,” according to the 21st U.S. Poet Laureate, who is also the first Mexican-American in that position. “Creative expression,” he said, “brings along creative thinking, which helps us examine what life is all about and apply those learnings to contribute to a whole new society that acknowledges our unique voices.” At least some of those voices will find their way into his Poet Laureate project, La Casa de Colores. The project’s website, through the Library of Congress Center for Poetry and Literature, includes two parts: La Familia and El Jardín. Through La Familia, people may add submissions of up to 200 characters per monthly theme, from their experiences and inspirations to create a joint epic poem. El Jardín features selections from the American Folklife Center and other works from the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. Herrera, who lives in Fresno, California, was raised in San Diego. He recalls growing up in a very humble household that brimmed with generosity.

Herrera has carried this mantra ever since. He has authored 30 books, including: “Half of the World in Light: New and Selected Poems,” which received the PEN/Beyond Margins Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award, and “Crashboomlove: A Novel in Verse,” which garnered the Américas Award from the Consortium of Latin American Studies Programs. Not only does he write, but he strives to positively address social issues. From 2012-2014, while Herrera served as California’s Poet Laureate, he created the i-Promise Joanna Project, which sought to curb bullying by encouraging elementary students to write candidly about their experiences with bullies. Herrera plans to collect and publish the poems. He credits Lelya Sampson, his third-grade teacher in San Diego, for being one of the first to inspire him to use his voice, both as a soloist in his school’s choir and on the written page. “Giving,” Herrera said, “is not just a bar of soap and a 20-dollar bill. It’s using all our capacities, all our human capacities.”

RERA

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His mother, Lucha Quintana de Herrera, was born in Mexico three years before the Mexican Revolution started. She taught him that happiness is most attainable through goodness: If you respect and take care of those around you, even on a small scale, the rest will work itself out.

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Strengthening Latino Communities Through Philanthropy

Transformative Latino philanthropy means fostering a better understanding of Latinos and our relationship to giving.

Jasso Development and Planning Managing Partner

“I love community, I love philanthropy,” she said, “I feel passionate about the diversification of the leadership in the field of philanthropy.” Born in San Antonio, Texas, Jasso-Stevens recalled early memories of her parents working in the Latino community. It had a strong impact on her. “I remember them [my parents] canvassing neighborhoods during elections with the Raza Unida party,” she said. “Growing up Chicana, my values were formed by family and community…those experiences inspired giving in me, shaped me. As an adult, I honor those experiences through my work.”

EVENS

According to Jasso-Stevens, these experiences gave her a profound understanding of the importance of celebrating her own heritage and recognizing that Latinos are resilient and resourceful. They also helped her to create her own path. After attending Baylor University, JassoStevens worked in corporate training, managing and developing individuals across the nation and internationally. She then stepped into the world of nonprofits, leading development and marketing initiatives in the U.S.-Mexico border region.

In 2009, she started her own firm, Jasso Development & Planning. Her firm provides development services to both private and public sector clients, and seeks to nurture responsive philanthropy and to empower corporations to be change agents. Her longterm goal is to use this work to help Latinobased nonprofits across the nation build their capacity and to change national perspectives about Latinos and giving. “Latinos have a long tradition of giving... It is part of our social tapestry,” she said. “Philanthropic institutions must recognize the promise and power of partnering with Latino leadership,” she said, understanding well that Latino organizations receive a small percentage of all philanthropic dollars. “Transformative Latino philanthropy means fostering a better understanding of Latinos and our relationship to giving. We must continue to find our role in philanthropy.” Jasso-Stevens was recently appointed as a trustee of the Community Foundation for Southern Arizona, where she serves as the chairperson of development. She created Cariño, the first Latino giving circle in the 35year history of the Foundation, which is setting the stage for a Latino initiative, also the first in the Foundation’s history. “Latinos must build a stronger, more cohesive philanthropic vision. Currently, there is no coordinated way to give philanthropically to nonprofits that strengthen the Latino community in Southern Arizona. The Latino giving circle and initiative will meet that need by inspiring action to support them.” Her hope is for the work to continue with the next generation of leaders. Claudia has dedicated herself to mentoring emerging Latino philanthropists by cultivating their skills and potential so that they are poised for the social and political influence that comes with philanthropic leadership.

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Claudia Jasso-Stevens is one of the most accomplished leaders in today’s nonprofit and philanthropic worlds. In addition to heading her own development consulting firm, she serves on multiple boards and has received several congressional recognitions for her commitment to community service. And yet, if you ask her about her work, what shines through is an unmistakable passion for her causes.

SALVADOR LONGORIA An Unwavering Commitment to Help

New Orleans Regional Transit Authority Chairman

You can be a regular person and still make a difference, an incredible difference.

Throughout his life, Salvador Longoria has always made it a priority to remain in tune— in tune to his community, to the realities and struggles of those around him, and to his convictions. “Once you’ve shared somebody’s pain and their stories,” he said, “it takes a very hardened person not to do something.”

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His community service has come in all shapes and sizes. As a lawyer Longoria has defended death row inmates and worked with U.S. immigration detainees; he has also founded service organizations and taken in homeless youth who had nowhere else to go.

“You can be a regular person and still make a difference, an incredible difference,” he said. Longoria traces this commitment to service back to the period after his family emigrated from Cuba, when he was four years old. A number of relatives and friends followed them, and he watched his parents help with translation and tax returns, anything to ease the process of moving to a new country.

He first focused on a social justice career while attending Loyola University in New Orleans. As an undergraduate, he helped found the Loyola University Community Action Program, a student-led advocacy organization that engages the community in tutoring, mentoring, anti-hunger, homelessness, and other projects. As a graduate student at the Loyola University School of Law in the mid-1980s, he also was very affected by the HIV/AIDS epidemic. “I started seeing my friends drop dead,” he recalled, “I saw the stigma and the government inaction, and the hatred.” So he and some of his peers started holding parties and fundraisers, and later founded The Committee For Caring, Inc., which raised funds to pay hospital, medical, and funeral expenses for New Orleanians affected by AIDS in those early years. Longoria has a remarkable track record of developing lasting solutions to address emerging issues. In 2005, he spotted a demographic shift in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

As people arrived to help with the recovery, he also saw among them additional tens of thousands of Latinos, including many who lacked immigration papers. He founded Puentes New Orleans, Inc., a nonprofit dedicated to supporting the needs of the Latino community. He said that the time was right for, “… just a place that’s out in the community with no filters, designed to help the Latino community be empowered, organized, and part of the community.”

Since 2013, Longoria has served as chair of the Board of Commissioners of the New Orleans Regional Transit Authority, where he is committed to ensuring that all public transportation users have a voice. It’s a position for which he seems ideally suited.

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“As people trickled back into the city, the Latino population was one of the groups that came back the fastest and entirely. It wasn’t 30 or 50 percent,” he recalled. “Most all Latinos came back to help rebuild their city.”

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Media Executive Accents Public Service

MĂ&#x201C;NICA C. LOZANO

…I want to bring long-lasting change by impacting policies and institutions to be more responsive to the needs of our communities. I think this is the most important thing that I can do today. U.S. Hispanic Media Chairman Aspen Institute Latinos and Society Program Chair the family-owned La Opinión, The Los Angeles daily has long been considered, with El DiarioLa Prensa in New York, to be the top tier of U.S. Spanish-language dailies.

In fact, she sees giving and effecting positive change as intrinsically connected.

“Our grandfather had an ideal that we could build an institution to carry forward the voice of the Latino community,” Lozano said of Mexican journalist Ignacio E. Lozano Sr., who founded La Opinión 90 years ago.

“I want to bring my voice to institutions that might have a better understanding about the need to participate with, and contribute to, our community,” she said. “It is the power of influence. I want to bring long-lasting change by impacting policies and institutions to be more responsive to the needs of our communities. I think this is the most important thing that I can do today.”

His granddaughter began at La Opinión in 1985 and worked her way up to become publisher in 2004, the year that her family and a group of private investors established the national media company, ImpreMedia. In 2010, she was named chairman and CEO of ImpreMedia and, in 2014, the company was acquired by U.S. Hispanic Media, Inc., a U.S. subsidiary of La Nación newspaper in Argentina.

In April 2015, Lozano joined the Aspen Institute to chair the newly-created Latinos and Society Program, an initiative dedicated to increasing the awareness of the growing Latino community and its important contributions to all aspects of American society.

Two years after the merger, Lozano stepped down as CEO although she continues to serve as board chair of U.S. Hispanic Media. She is also a member of the boards of Bank of America and the Walt Disney Company.

She also chairs the University Of California Board Of Regents and the Weingart Foundation Board in Los Angeles, and is on the boards of The Rockefeller Foundation and Inter-American Dialogue, a think-tank based in Washington, D.C. She has served on two presidential task forces. “I am fortunate to be part of a family and business that believe in being of service to our community,” said Lozano, who started at

She says she has an obligation to give back, in part, because her family would not have what it has today without the support of the Latino community. “It is really extraordinarily fulfilling to be able to give back,” Lozano added. “The act of giving needs to be celebrated and acknowledged.”

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Monica Lozano, one of the most respected Hispanic business leaders in the United States, worked her way up through the ranks of philanthropy just as she worked her way to the top of a media conglomerate. And she has never lost sight of the role of the media in serving the public interest.

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If you support a cause through your giving, that means something to your heart and conscience.

Director of the Program for Art of the Ancient Americas at L.A. County Museum of Art

Diana Magaloni speaks four languages. She is the former director of the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City and a proud product of National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). Although she currently resides in Los Angeles, on any given night, she could be resting her eyes after a long day of work somewhere in Mexico, Ecuador, perhaps Switzerland, or Italy. Magaloni is an expert art historian, researcher, and lecturer, who views giving time and information as an integral part of her work. As the director of the Program for Art of the Ancient Americas at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), in Southern California, Magaloni is in a unique position to share information and expose people to cultures and ideas. She believes that helping people to understand what came before them holds inherent value and weight.

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“I have been able to integrate the way of the ancient world and people to our modern life to expand the horizon and criteria of present day people who would be touched by the beauty of the objects and paintings on display.”

She said that exposure to different cultures and ways of life is a key component to building a culturally savvy and empathetic community that encourages participation and values diversity. “Individuals don’t actually achieve anything, if we don’t do it as a community,” Magaloni said.

Magaloni grew up in Mexico City. At the public UNAM, she obtained bachelor and master of arts degrees and then completed her PhD in Art History at Yale University. Through elementary and high school she attended an all-girls Catholic school, which she credits for instilling values of generosity and the importance of community. “I learned the value of friendship and solidarity, and giving,” she said. “We [as students] were encouraged to be really active in the community.” This environment fostered friendships that Magaloni still keeps today. “The group of friends I made when I was very young, 10 years old, are still my best friends. We are always around to help each other,” she said. “Women are willing to help each other.” Magaloni believes strongly in the power of community, and how it is linked to art, knowledge, and kindness. If you support a cause through your giving, that means something to your heart and conscience,” Magaloni said. “People can see that, by giving, you are a better person, and you share a lot, and sharing makes you happier.”

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Art Historian Drives Community

JULIO MARCIAL

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Commitment to Philanthropic Service

The best way to give back is to lose yourself in the service of others. And when you do give back, it is not how many hours you accrue but how much you love doing it.

Program Director, The California Wellness Foundation

For Julio Marcial, two of the most important gifts that someone can give are time and patience. “As I begin my 17th year in philanthropy, I am reminded of how privileged I am—and we all are— to serve The California Wellness Foundation,” Marcial said. “But with that privilege comes a level of responsibility to be an authentic partner.” Marcial is a former board member of Hispanics in Philanthropy and a native Angelino, who grew up in Pacoima, one of the oldest neighborhoods in Los Angeles. He knows firsthand the impact that nonprofits can have on communities where people who work for a living still can’t pay their rent. “My local elementary school was in a neighborhood that suffered from an intergenerational cycle of violence and abuse. Yet the local nonprofit sector provided me and my family a safety net of services, including access to food, shelter, healthcare, and a safe place to go after school,” Marcial said. Despite this early exposure to the receiving end of nonprofit services, Marcial said it was his family’s commitment to generosity that inspired his career. His mother, a house cleaner, and his father, a janitor, combined their spare money to send remittances to their home country of Mexico to support their family and community.

More recently, in his capacity as a program director at The California Wellness Foundation, Marcial manages the foundation’s grantmaking related to violence prevention, leadership development, capacitybuilding,andinnovation. Ultimately, he believes that philanthropy is at its best when it promotes and protects a marketplace of ideas, centered on giving everyone a fair shot and opportunities to succeed. “After 17 years of experimentation and experience, I have to come to the conclusion that social change does not follow a formula. It happens at different paces, in different places, and with different people.” By taking into account the uniqueness of each situation and listening to those who are closest to issues, Marcial thinks people will be empowered to better serve their own communities. “We stand on the shoulders of others who came before us,” he said. “It’s also our responsibility to allow others to stand on our shoulders.”

These experiences informed Marcial’s dedication to working with communities looking for fairness and opportunity. As a student at the University of California, Santa Barbara, Marcial was awarded an American Sociological Association fellowship to study racial and ethnic disparities in the California juvenile justice system. Later, he held a fellowship with the Committee on Institutional Cooperation through the Rackham School of Graduate Studies at the University of Michigan; his fellowship focused on the importance of using a multidisciplinary approach to address exposure to violence.

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“From the beginning,” Marcial said, “I learned the concept of giving.”

ARABELLA MARTINEZ Latina Pioneered Aid to U.S. Hispanics

Latino Community Foundation Vice-Chair

Arabella Martinez has made a career of investing in Latino communities. For decades, she has promoted building and strengthening Latino institutions. “If we were ever going to change and address the disparities that faced our community, then we really needed to build these institutions and support them with time, energy, and imagination,” she said. In 1977, as the first Latina appointed to a subcabinet position, she served as assistant secretary for the Office of Human Development Services in the former U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare (before it was morphed into the Department of Education and the Department of Health and Human Services). Martinez also was a founder and CEO of The Unity Council of Alameda County, one of the most prominent community development corporations in the country.

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The place-based strategies that Martinez pioneered have been emulated by foundations, government agencies, and various other localities across the nation.

In addition, Martinez has served as the interim CEO for the Latino Community Foundation, and on the board of a number of other Latinoserving organizations. They include: National Council of La Raza; the Mexican Museum; the Oakland Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce, and the Bay Area Latino Nonprofit Association.

She is the Latino Community Foundation vicechair and the Raza Development Fund vicechair and secretary. Martinez knows that government, nonprofit, and philanthropic services all play a significant role in the development and strengthening of Latino institutions. Another key piece of this, she said, is the sharing of successes. “It’s really important to let foundations, corporations, and the general public know how these organizations are able to do so much with so little,” she said of community nonprofits. “People need to literally see [what has been accomplished],” she added. “Getting the message out is critical.” Her dedication and perseverance have been recognized with many awards. They include: the Community Leadership Award from the San Francisco Foundation; the President’s Award from the National Council of La Raza; the Lifetime Achievement Leadership Award from the Non-Profit Housing Association of Northern California, and A Woman Who Could Be President Award from the San Francisco League of Women Voters. “I am persistent,” she said. “Once I get involved in something I really stay involved, and I really try to make a difference.”

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Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s really important to let foundations, corporations, and the general public know how these organizations are able to do so much with so little.

AMALIA MESA-BAINS Celebrating Heritage through Art

Educator, Artist and Cultural Critic

Amalia Mesa-Bains is a veteran leader in the Latino creative and activist communities. An educator, artist, and cultural critic, her artistic and scholarly work has focused on defining a Chicano and Latino aesthetic in Latin America and the United States. “I consider art and culture a form of activism,” says Mesa-Bains. “Our communities have rich cultural histories and traditions that have made up the core of American life, and that is rarely discussed.” Mesa-Bains’ work, which has been exhibited in both national and international institutions, has left an indelible mark on our collective understanding of the Latino experience.

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Originally from Northern California, MesaBains began her path toward activism as a young member of the Teacher Corps in the San Francisco Unified School District in the 1960s. She trained under Yolanda Garfias Woo, a native Oaxacan and San Francisco teaching veteran who brought many of her native cultural practices into her classrooms. According to Mesa-Bains, this experience taught her the importance of using education, particularly art, to celebrate heritage.

“I became a big believer in linking the arts as a vehicle for achieving social justice, understanding histories, and building selfdetermination,” she said.

After working with the Teacher Corps, MesaBains continued her own education, eventually earning a Ph.D. in psychology from the Wright Institute in Berkeley, California, in 1983. Combining her academic credentials and passion for art, Mesa-Bains has had a successful career as an educator and practicing artist. Her art installations, which interpret Chicano traditions as they appear in Mexican-American art, have been featured in the Museum of American Art at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., and the Museum of Modern Art in Dublin. Additionally, the book she co-authored with Bell Hooks, entitled “Homegrown: Engaged Cultural Criticism,” has become a mainstay in both Chicano and Black studies programs. For her work, she has received multiple awards, including a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship in 1992. She also served on the San Francisco Arts Commission and the Board of Directors for Galería de la Raza, and the Center for the Arts at Yerba Buena Gardens. Through her work with Galería de la Raza, Mesa-Bains created the ReGeneration Project, a program designed to help emerging artists, in particular Latino artists, navigate the art world and develop professionally. Reflecting on her career, Mesa-Bains said that her work is guided by a passion to lift up the

Latino community through programs that celebrate heritage and enrich creativity. “We need to keep the distinctions that make us Latino,” she said. “We need to understand that our identity, history, heritage, and lifeblood come through art and culture.”

She said that her giving reflects the generosity that was so moving to her earlier in her own family life and career. “All the givers in my life, I learned from,” she added. “That is why when I am in a position I give - so others can learn.”

We need to keep the distinctions that make us Latino. We need to understand that our identity, history, heritage, and lifeblood come through art and culture.

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Photo Credit: Aubrie Pick Studio

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Legal Aid Empowers Rural Latinos

JOSĂ&#x2030; PADILLA

The expectation was clear. We should serve those rural communities that had raised us.

California Rural Legal Assistance, Inc. Executive Director

In the 1920s, part of Padilla’s family moved from Guanajuato to the Imperial Valley in Southern California, where his paternal grandfather and father were farm workers. He recalled that they both became community leaders. His grandfather helped found the Sociedad Mutualista Miguel Hidalgo, a mutual aid group for Mexican immigrants in their town of Brawley. He also remembered his parents registering voters and getting out to vote in support of mejicano candidates. His father served for nearly 30 years on the school board and was 78 when he won his final election. “The expectation was clear,” for the youth of his generation, Padilla said. “We should serve those rural communities that had raised us.” As a student at Stanford University, Padilla became involved with the United Farm Workers (UFW) and the Chicano student movements. He then got a law degree from the University of California, Berkeley. “I chose law because I saw that a fledgling union like the UFW needed attorneys to defend its interests,” Padilla said. “But when CRLA offered to place me in the rural [Imperial] Valley, where I was born and where I had promised myself that I would return with an education, I chose to become a CRLA lawyer.”

During his 40-year CRLA career, the Oakland, California-based organization has expanded to 20 offices in 24 California counties, serving about 40,000 rural poor. It focuses on pesticide exposure, housing, labor, education, civil rights and environmental justice. Of all of his accomplishments, Padilla said that two stand out for him. First, he said, was CRLA’s rol in the passage of the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act. He sent a CRLA advocate to Washington, D.C., to work with then U.S. Rep. Howard Berman and UFW co-founder, Dolores Huerta, to help craft the law that created amnesty for more than a million undocumented immigrants. Secondly, Padilla is proud of having received Mexico’s prestigious Institute of Mexicans Abroad Ohtli Award for his work with the Mexican community in the United States. For Padilla, the Ohtli had brought his family’s migrationfromMexicofullcircle. Thegovernment of the land they had loved, but fled because of poverty, honored their grandson 80 years later because of his service to those who arrived after them. And the pioneering attorney who has led by example still looks to the future. “We need to tell the younger Latino generations following us that they also are going to succeed and take their leadership place—they will be the doctors, lawyers, physicists… and senators and governors and U.S. presidents when it is their turn…” he said.

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José Padilla describes his career as the executive director of California Rural Legal Assistance, Inc. (CRLA) as a fitting result of his family’s migration from Mexico to the United States.

DEBRA JOY PĂ&#x2030;REZ

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Setting the Example for Future Leaders

Vice President, Evaluation and Learning Annie E. Casey Foundation

“My whole life has been about community work,” Perez said. “I grew up in a poor Puerto Rican household in Trenton, New Jersey, one of nine children with Spanish-speaking but illiterate parents with an elementary education. In Trenton, there weren’t a lot of opportunities for kids like me.” The first in her family to graduate from college, Perez has worked to advance social justice causes such as reforming public systems, improving access to healthcare, expanding graduate training and education opportunities for minorities, building the field of public health systems research, increasing diversity, and advancing culturally responsive evaluation and mentoring opportunities for underrepresented emerging leaders. Currently the vice president of research, evaluation and learning at AECF, Pérez focuses on ensuring that all people who impact the lives of children, families and communities, make research-informed and data-driven decisions. Pérez feels privileged to be working at AECF, where she believes she has the responsibility to make a difference. She is proud of the foundation’s unwavering commitment to equity, inclusion and social justice.

As part of her commitment to community, Pérez invests in the professional development of others. “I do a lot of mentoring, and always say that, as you move forward, you must bring others with you,” she said. “Giving back is about opening doors for someone else, and never forgetting where you came from.” At the end of every conference presentation, Pérez shares her personal story. For her, it was a guidance counselor who made the difference and paid for her college application. “The foundation’s work is based on the fundamental belief that every child should be able to live up to his/her full potential, regardless of their racial/ethnic background, where they were born or how they grew up.” Pérez believes that every person, regardless of status and position, has the ability to make a difference in the life of a child. “We tend to look at people, especially those who are different from us or have different backgrounds and we think of them as separate from who we are. But in truth, we are all interconnected; what happens to one of us happens to all of us,” she said. “If people understood this awesome responsibility, that investing in children would make us better as a human race, I think we would all be better off.”

As you move forward, you must bring others with you.

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Debra Joy Pérez is grateful to those who have encouraged her to rise above her circumstances while she was growing up. And now, at the Annie E. Casey Foundation (AECF) she wants to help others succeed.

As a clinician I took care of patients with a variety of backgrounds and took tremendous reward in helping them.

ELISEO J. PĂ&#x2030;REZ-

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Providing Care through a Social Justice Lens

National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities Director

Born in Cuba in the 1950s, Pérez-Stable’s family relocated to Miami, where he spent much of his early life. Pérez-Stable says that coming of age during the contentious 1960s and 1970s shaped the way he viewed the world. “My inspiration comes from a strong sense of social justice,” he said. “Growing up, I was always involved in a variety of activities that were promoting different political or social causes.” After graduating from the University of Miami with an undergraduate degree in chemistry in 1974, Pérez-Stable chose to follow his father’s path to the medical profession. Upon finishing medical school, Pérez-Stable relocated to California for an internship with the University of California, San Francisco. He finished his residency in primary care internal medicine in 1981, at which time he became a clinical instructor during a research fellowship, and in 1983, an assistant professor in residence with the Department of Medicine at UCSF. According to Pérez-Stable, he did not originally intend to blend his affinity for social justice with medicine. “I thought I’d have a job as a doctor and then do other things,” he recalled. Soon, however, his two callings intersected. “As it turned out,” he said , “my interest in scholarship and research led me to social issues, which had

motivated me and always interested me. As a clinician, I took care of patients with a variety of backgrounds and took tremendous reward in helping them.” Most recently, Perez-Stable served as the chief of the Division of General Internal Medicine until 2015, at which point he was named the director of the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities, National Institutes of Health. In his post as the director of the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities, Pérez-Stable oversees the institute’s $270 million budget to conduct and support research, training, infrastructure development, and public education programs to improve minority health and reduce health disparities. For his work, Pérez-Stable has received numerous awards, including the National Medical Fellowships Humanitarian Award, the Society of General Internal Medicine John Eisenberg Award for Lifetime Achievement, and the UCSF Lifetime Achievement in Mentoring Award. Pérez-Stable maintains that his dedication to social causes has led to a fulfilling career, and he hopes that public service and philanthropy will continue to gain traction in the Hispanic/ Latino community. “The notion of philanthropy,” he said, “is, I think, a wonderful opportunity to both do things that are different, as well as be rewarded as someone who has generated a lot of resources.”

-STABLE MD

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Dr. Eliseo J. Pérez-Stable gives back to the community by pursuing work that is, “focused on health and presenting accurate information about health to patients and to the population in general.” Since joining the University of California, San Francisco, Department of Medicine in the early 1980s, Pérez-Stable has turned this humble mission into an illustrious career.

Giving is an integral part of our personal and professional lives. - Catherine Pino

CATHERINE P & INGRID DU Pioneer Latina Activists Working for Change

D&P Creative Strategies, Co-Founders

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Catherine Pino and Ingrid Duran are not only paving the way for future generations of givers, but they are also changing the narrative and proving that Latinos are generous givers. They do this partly through leading by example in their business and community endeavors and partly by producing documentaries about the Latino experience.

The two have committed their lives to helping underserved communities and their actions speak louder than words. They founded a political action committee by Latinas for Latinas, PODER PAC, which aims to increase the number of Latinas in Congress

by providing critical resources and tools to help candidates launch winning campaigns. They advance social justice issues not only through their business and volunteer work, but through direct involvement in the issues they are passionate about. For example, Pino has served as a director of the Arcus Foundation Board and Duran was the first Latina to serve on the Human Rights Campaign Board. Pino and Duran have adopted an approach that they call, â&#x20AC;&#x153;consulting with a social conscienceâ&#x20AC;? as founders of D&P Creative Strategies. Their firm is the only 100% Latina, LGBT, and womenowned consulting firm in the Washington

“Giving is an integral part of our personal and professional lives,” Pino said. “We are committed from the get-go to use our business and resources to give back to the communities we really care about,” Duran added. They also like to lead by example and encourage their employees to give back. “A lot of young people don’t have resources, but they do have time,” Duran said. “Lend time to organizations that are important to you, and you inspire others through example. We try to set that example every day.”

PINO URAN

They both credit their upbringing as having influenced their philosophies on giving. Duran’s parents were active in the farmworkers’ movement and Pino’s mother always invested time, effort, and though she didn’t have much money, she always found a way to give to her local church and worked through the church to help the less fortunate. “[There is a] misconception that Latinos don’t give, while data shows that Latinos typically choose to give to their churches,” Pino said. “It is important to share stories so that people can see the value and importance of giving.” In addition to their work with D&P Creative Strategies, Pino and Duran have created two production companies, Brown Beauty Productions and Freemind Beauty Productions, dedicated to creating film projects that change the narrative of minorities and help to advance social justice through media. In addition to the Latino List series, which aired on HBO, they have produced films to influence social change by exploring issues of gender, sexuality, accomplishment, and identity. “There are not a lot of places where kids can see positive images of Latinos,” Duran said. “Our hope is to really change hearts and minds through these stories by sharing and highlighting the positive contributions our community has made in this country,” reflected Pino.

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D.C. area that is certified as an LGBT business by the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce (NGLCC) and as a Women’s Business Enterprise by the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC).

THOMAS A. SAENZ Championing U.S. Latino Civil Rights

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President and General Counsel, MALDEF (Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund)

Thomas Saenz remembers when, as a child, his father loaded him into the family car and drove him to a protest. He watched from the back seat as his father, a picket captain in the local chapter of his union, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, facilitated conversations and managed picket line shifts. That exposure to advocacy and civil rights work made a big impression on the kid who would grow up to study law, counsel the mayor of Los Angeles and become president and general counsel of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF). In delivering the 2013 “Latinos and the Law” lecture to law students at New York University, the Los Angeles-born Saenz recalled his days as a Yale University law student. “The opportunity to be able to work on behalf of Latinos in civil rights is really what I knew would help me to get through law school,” he said. Early in his career, Saenz rose to regional counsel and then vice president of Civil Litigation at MALDEF, challenging parts of California’s anti-immigrant Proposition 187; California’s 2001 congressional redistricting plan; an anti-bilingual education ballot measure; and local ordinances keeping day laborers from seeking work. He also initiated the 2003 employment discrimination suit against U.S. retailer Abercrombie & Fitch that was settled for $50 million.

Later, he left MALDEF for four years to serve as counsel to Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, where he focused on school reforms and labor negotiations, among other issues. He returned to MALDEF as its top executive in 2009. When asked how others may inspire giving in their own communities, Saenz responded, “by making sure they’re informed about issues, needs, and the approaches that exist [to address them], and sharing that knowledge with others.” Indeed, his experience has given Saenz a singular take on giving back to the community by championing Latino civil rights. He said at NYU that U.S. Latinos have faced discrimination by proxy. “The Latino community continues to struggle with how to fit the day to day challenges of laws targeting day laborers, targeting immigrants… that seem clearly to be targeting the Latino community, but without the smoking gun of intentional statements that this is anti-Latino discrimination …” Saenz said. Lawmakers and the court system must focus, he added, “on an expanded vision of civil rights that will ensure that our claims – that our laws – will serve to root out every form of irrational discrimination…”

The opportunity to be able to work on behalf of Latinos in civil rights is really what I knew would help me to get through law school.

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Saenz had been the lead drafter of a “friend of the court” brief in the 1997 U.S. Supreme Court affirmative action case (Grutter v. Bollinger). The court upheld the University of Michigan Law School’s use of affirmative action in admissions.

JUAN SALGADO Community Leadership at Its Core

Instituto Del Progreso Latino President and CEO 2015 MacArthur Fellow Juan Salgado believes that leading by example is not simply good practice, it’s an obligation. “Toinspiregiving,youhavetobeinspiredyourself,” he said. “When you’re really feeling a mission, building a community of people to surround that mission/purpose is really powerful.” Since 2001, Salgado has served as president and CEO of Instituto Del Progreso Latino. Throughout his tenure, Instituto has established itself as a national leader in education and workforce development. Salgado’s conviction is rooted in the idea that, if people are fundamentally committed to the work they are doing, if they truly love to do it, change and success will come. “Start by figuring out what you’re passionate about,” he said.

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Salgado’s passion has always been with lowincome, Latino immigrant communities. Long before he was chosen as a “genius grant” Fellow by the MacArthur Foundation, he was a kid growing up on Chicago’s South Side surrounded by a small, but dynamic, Latino presence.

In 1918, his grandfather immigrated to Illinois to work the railroad. His father, who was born in the United States but raised in Mexico, returned to Chicago as an adult to work in a steel mill. By then, South Chicago was becoming one of the city’s first neighborhoods with a growing Mexican community. The influx of Mexican immigrants did not come without challenges and, before long,

harassment and violence from more assimilated groups became commonplace. According to the Salgado family, one way to combat this discrimination was to strengthen the community. His mother became deeply involved with the church, and invested a great deal of time in cultivating relationships and bringing people together. His father helped start an organization called Latin Americans for America (LAFA), which raised money and provided scholarships for lowincome students to attend college. These working class roots and his family’s commitment to helping those around them instilled in Salgado a profound sense of what it means to give, and why giving is so important. “Every human being has the capacity to achieve theirowngreatness,”SalgadosaidinhisMacArthur Fellow profile video. “And so it’s my responsibility, I’ve taken it on, to make sure that that happens for the people that I can actually touch.” For Salgado, who is a former program director of The Resurrection Project in Chicago, dedicating time and energy to causes that make a difference is just a way of life. He said he understands that these commitments encourage other people to do the same in ways that matter to them, and that it’s this ripple effect that results in the largest waves. “Inspiration comes from people living out their lives in a way that dignifies them as human beings,” he said, and this is the impetus at the heart of why giving matters.

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To inspire giving, you have to be inspired yourself.

To give a hand to solve somebody else’s vulnerability — a vulnerability that is not only economical, but many times is about a need for human connection — makes a huge difference.

OSVALDO SÁNCHEZ

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Fostering Creative Expression for Social Change

inSite/Casa Gallina Project Director

Osvaldo Sánchez sees giving as a basic human responsibility. In fact, to be called a giver seems almost redundant to this former museum director who is also an art scholar and a writer, as he understands that the very nature of the human experience necessitates compassion and generosity. Sánchez was born in Havana. The experience of living in a place in deep political turmoil helped to shape his worldview. “I grew up in a dictatorship,” Sánchez said. “You understand fast how important it is to be politically involved, how much politics, civil rights, and social engagement mean not only for the safety of a society, but also for the personal and emotional survival and resilience of its people.” Through art and education, Sánchez’s life and career have focused on helping people who are vulnerable. “If I have to consider something I think of as my ‘give,’ maybe it’s sharing my passion for creative daily life,” Sánchez said. Indeed, as the project director for inSite/Casa Gallina, Sánchez oversees an initiative that is designed to blend art and creative expression into the daily lives of those living in the working class neighborhood of Santa María La Ribera in Mexico City.

Sanchez has also been the director of the Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil and the director of the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo, both in Mexico City. Since 2007 he has also served as a member of the Advisory Board of the House der Kulturen der Welt, one of the preeminent European centers for contemporary arts in Berlin, Germany. When asked to reflect on his inspiration, Sánchez recalled his mother’s example. “She was the daughter of two immigrants who worked the earth, farmers from the Canary Islands who made a living harvesting,” he said. “Her love for a simple life, her internal commitment to being a caring person, and encouraging justice and love, were inspiring.” Sánchez encourages small acts of kindness and giving, and creating a world that is interconnected and genuine. “Take on small initiatives to create a network of caring,” he said. “To give a hand to solve somebody else’s vulnerability — a vulnerability that is not only economical, but many times is about a need for human connection — makes a huge difference.” “We are all responsible for the state of the planet, and we have to encourage a shift of paradigm…,” he added. “Any small thing we can do is important.”

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After earning a master of art history degree from the University of Havana, Sanchez taught at the Academia de Arte San Alejandro and the Instituto Superior de Arte in the Cuban capital. In 1990, he moved from Cuba to Mexico City, and there he co-founded the Patronato de Arte Contemporáneo in 1999. It is a civicphilanthropic platform to support art practices and art criticism in public forums in Mexico.

DAVID SURO PIÑERA Distilling Community Aid

Tequilas Restaurant Owner Siembra Azul Tequila President Tequila Interchange Project President

When David Suro Piñera first opened the doors to Tequilas Restaurant in 1986 in Philadelphia, few in the city were aware of what authentic Mexican dishes were. “It was a challenge,” he recalled. “People were more familiar with Tex-Mex dishes.” Even suppliers had a hard time meeting his requests. Today, Tequilas Restaurant is world famous for serving authentic cuisine, as well as offering a list of artisanal, sustainable brands of more than 95 tequilas.

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Suro Piñera’s passion for his culture and heritage has expanded with every project he has pursued. After opening Tequilas Restaurant, he returned to his hometown, Guadalajara, Mexico in 2007, to produce his own tequila, Siembra Azul (Blue Harvest). In 2010, he helped found the Tequila Interchange Project, a nonprofit that advocates for sustainable, traditional, and quality practices in the tequila industry.

Suro Piñera’s dream is to give back to his community through his business and as a champion in addressing the needs of Mexicans living in the United States. Early in his career he understood the interdependence between the restaurant industry and the immigrant community.

In 2008, he founded the Siembra Azul Foundation to empower Mexican migrant workers and U.S. Hispanics to achieve their goals. It is funded with proceeds from Siembra Azul Tequila. The foundation also supports education, health, and arts programs in the Mexican state of Puebla, particularly in the towns of San Mateo Ozolco and San Lucas Atzala, because many of the Mexicans who live and work in Philadelphia hail from that area. In addition to his businesses and foundation work, Suro Piñera serves on the boards of community-based organizations, including Friends of Farmworkers and Puentes de Salud. “It’s important to stay connected to the community,” he said. “To understand and support the challenges facing the community, I must stay involved and continue to be present in meaningful and authentic ways.”

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Follow your passion. Passion you will not learn in any school. If you have a dream, go and get it.

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Lifelong Activist Looks to Open Doors

People who don’t have much, out of love, they will give. That’s where I start.

Chicana/Latina Foundation Executive Director

Olga Talamante, a champion of system change, has lived intensely and worked long and hard in giving back to the community, especially to the young women who will stand among tomorrow’s leaders. The longtime Chicana/Latina Foundation executive director, who believes that giving and loving are inseparable, is also a veteran of activism. Having immigrated to the United States from Mexicali, Baja California with her family when she was 11, Talamante grew up in Gilroy, California. Before she graduated from the University of California, Santa Cruz, she was active in the Chicano Movement and the anti-Vietnam War movement. After obtaining a bachelor’s in Latin American studies, she moved to Argentina to work for an anti-poverty group. Talamante became caught up in Argentina’s dictatorial repression. She was arrested, held for 16 months and tortured. Only international pressure led to her release in March 1976 and to her return to the United States. Thirty years later, she was among the harshest critics of the U.S. administration’s interrogation tactics in the Iraq war. “Americans once shocked by my experience now hear officials defend torture as a necessary evil in the war against terrorism,” she wrote in a March 2006 Los Angeles Times op-ed. “But it is only evil.”

Then,about12yearsago,shebecametheChicana/ Latina Foundation’s executive director. Under her direction, the Chicana/Latina Foundation’s programs have promoted the empowerment of Latinas by providing scholarships and leadership development to Latina college students. The Chicana/LatinaFoundationLeadershipInstitute’s 300-plus graduates represent the new cadre of Latina leaders. “When you love someone or an organization and the work that the organization is doing,” she said, “whatever your means are, I believe that it will lead you to give. People who don’t have much, out of love, they will give. That’s where I start.” Talamante says her parents set an example of extending whatever resources they had to those in need. She recalled the nearly three months during which they hosted a stranger in their small house in an agricultural labor camp in Gilroy. “My parents really fit the definition of philanthropists who looked at the big picture, not just a quick fix,” she said. Only by getting to know community members, Talamante said, can philanthropists truly understand how to work with and empower them. The veteran activist added that the goal of philanthropy should not be to, “regulate and control the lives of those that it’s trying to help.”

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She kept going, working to give back and make her world better. First, she was named to the Argentine Commission for Human Rights. Later, she made her way up in her nonprofit career to Western branch vice president of INROADS, helping U.S. minority business and engineering students.

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Inspiring a New Generation of Storytellers

Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s really important to tell our stories. [Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s what] connects us between generations and races and communities.

Filmmaker and Adjunt Professor at University of California, Berkeley

“My give is giving voice, storytelling from people from our community whose stories need to be told,” he said. Over the past 35 years, Telles has built a career in film and television that has hinged on this sentiment. He has produced many awardwinning documentaries for PBS, ABC, NBC, National Geographic, Discovery, and Univision. His accolades include three Emmy Awards, as well as a Peabody, an Alma, and a Dupont Columbia award. Telles chooses to tell stories of significant historical and cultural significance. They have included: “Inside the Body Trade,” National Geographic; “The Peril and the Promise,” Episode 6 of the PBS “Latino Americans” series; “The Storm that Swept Mexico,” a featurelength history of the Mexican Revolution; and “The Fight in the Fields,” a feature documentary on Cesar Chavez and the Farm Workers’ Movement. The story of Pedro E. Guerrero was released earlier this year by American Masters (PBS). “A Photographer’s Journey,” [produced and directed by Telles] tells the tale of a MexicanAmerican photographer whose work, until now, has been known to a relatively small group of photography and architecture aficionados,” said Latino Public Broadcasting executive director Sandie Viquez Pedlow, who partnered with American Masters to support the film. She was interviewed for PBS.org.

“Being showcased on American Masters provides a high visibility platform to share his remarkable story and brilliant photographs with the American public,” she added. “We hope the broadcast will finally give him the national recognition that has been long overdue.” “It’s really important to tell our stories,” Telles said. “[It’s what] connects us between generations and races and communities.” In addition to his career in film, Telles is an adjunct associate professor in the department of Comparative Ethnic Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. When it comes to learning, succeeding, and giving, “mentoring is really key,” he said. “We all have talents that we can pass on to young people.” According to Telles, mentorship is not just about helping young people realize their potential. It’s also about having someone who can show you the ropes, or at least provide the tools that help you to succeed. “I had a few professional mentors who really made a big difference in my career,” he said.. “They were people who took the time to help me work on writing and advised me on how the business of television works.”

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Helping people learn and relate to one another is the foundation on which award-winning filmmaker and college educator Raymond Telles has built his career, and the lens through which he sees every new project or endeavor.

Shifting Perspectives Through Academia

MARÍA DE LOS ‘NENA’

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Educating students, Latinos and others, helping them develop creative skills that they can then take out into the world has made me a better person.

Professor of Latin American and Latino Studies, University of Illinois at Chicago Executive Director of the Inter-University Program for Latino Research

OS ANGELES A’ TORRES “I have spent my entire professional life contributing to changing the ways that people have misconstrued Latinos,” she said. Torres understands that portraying Latinos accurately and fairly helps to level the playing field and open opportunities, particularly in education. And she should know. She’s been countering negative stereotypes with facts since at least 1983, when she became the director of the Bilingual/Bicultural Studies and Hispanic liaison at Mundelein College in Chicago. “Academia effects policies, the way monies are distributed, and the way people live,” she said. “Ideas matter and our job in academia is to help re-conceptualize the ways that Latinos are thought about.” In addition to her work as professor of Latin American and Latino Studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago and as executive director of the Inter-University Program for Latino Research, Torres is preparing a manuscript titled, “The Elusive Present: Time and Politics in Cuban Thought.” Her commitment to shaping the scholarship around Cuba is not only to help people move away from polarizing and divisive discourse, it’s also personal. The Cuban-born Torres was sent to the United States when she was six years old, in an airlift of about 14,000 unaccompanied children called Operation Peter Pan, and was subsequently raised in Midland, Texas. She sued the CIA in a quest for records and went on to write a scholarly book about the airlift.

As an academic, she understands that to achieve a change in perspective, people must all join in the conversation together. “Discrimination is something you can’t fight alone,” she said. “What I do has to be done with other people and for other people.” Over the years, Torres has woven this philosophy into all her work. She has served as executive director of the Chicago Mayor’s Advisory Commission on Latino Affairs and as director of Latin American/Latino Studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Among other publications, she was co-editor of Peter Lang’s 2014 book “Global Cities and Immigrants”. Torres said some of her most valued work has to do with teaching. “Educating students,” she said, “Latinos and others, helping them develop creative skills that they can then take out into the world ... has made me a better person.” When asked how other people can inspire giving in their communities, Torres emphasized the importance of learning by example. “When people receive help, or are given opportunities that they wouldn’t otherwise be given, because others have been kind and supportive,” she said, this encourages them to reciprocate by helping others.

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María de los Angeles Torres — “Nena,” as she prefers to be called — has spent her career working to change the Latino narrative and, in the process, undo deeply rooted stereotypes.

WILMER VALDERRAMA

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Actor Nurtures Millennial Leaders and Activism

My biggest â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;giveâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; is the sharing of my heritage, as it defines the origin of my passion for defending and paying tribute to our community.

Wilmer Valderrama is deeply committed to his roots. Through many television and film appearances, numerous Teen Choice Awards, an American Latino Media Award nomination, and many years in the entertainment industry, Valderrama has never lost sight of what is most important. “I’ve never lost my first language, which is Spanish,” he said, “as it is my direct connection to who I am.” Valderrama was born in Miami to a Colombian mother and a Venezuelan father. He lived in Venezuela with his family from the time he was three until he has 13, at which point they moved to Los Angeles, California. The young Wilmer had to adjust to the new city, the new culture, and learn English. Then he pursued an acting career. He is best known for his role as Fez on FOX’s “That ’70s Show.” But he has over 50 acting credits, as well as experience producing, directing, and writing. Fame aside, Valderrama said that it is his immigrant experience that informs his worldview. “Like millions of other immigrant families,” Valderrama wrote in The Huffington Post, “my immigrant story is ingrained in me. It has become part of me — the blood that runs through my veins.”

“My biggest ‘give’ is the sharing of my heritage as it defines the origin of my passion for defending and paying tribute to our community,” he said. “In the United States, the immigrant story is part of the blueprint of our country,” he wrote in the Huffington Post. “It is an enduring legacy. It is a story often told by other Latino families and one that I will proudly continue telling.” In addition to his leadership at Voto Latino, Valderrama is an executive board member of the Environmental Media Association. He is also a spokesperson for the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute (CHCI) and the founder of CHCI’s Ready 2 Lead program, which is designed to educate and empower Latino youth. He is an active participant in President Obama’s Organizing for Action campaign around issues of immigration and education reform. When asked to reflect on how others can inspire giving in their own communities, Valderrama returned to the importance of storytelling. “By sharing their stories and fearlessly speaking about their struggles and obstacles and how they have overcome,” he said. “This creates examples that others can aspire to be.”

Valderrama’s interest in encouraging young Latinas and Latinos to tell their stories fits very well with his real-life role as the co-chair of Voto Latino, a nonpartisan organization which encourages civic participation and voter registration of Latino millennials, as well as their leadership in technological innovations. The nonprofit group was co-founded in 2004 by New York advertising executive Phil Colón and actress Rosario Dawson.

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Actor, Producer, and Voto Latino Co-Chair

OLGA VISO H IPGiver s 201 6

Museum Director Supports Underrepresented Artists

Many [artists] of color are underrepresented in mainstream art museums, and a good part of my career has been devoted to giving voices and visibility to lesser known artists.

Walker Art Center Executive Director

Those communities would include, in chronological order: Atlanta and her four years at its High Museum of Art; West Palm Beach, Florida, where she was an assistant curator at the Norton Museum of Art, and Washington, D.C., where she worked her way up from assistant curator to director of the Smithsonian Institution’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. Most recently, they would include Minneapolis, where she has, since 2008, been the executive director of the Walker Art Center, a contemporary art center that houses a world-renowned cinema, performing arts theater, and art museum. In 2013, Viso was appointed by President Barack Obama as a member of the National Council on the Arts that advises the National Endowment for the Arts. As a leader of an art institution, Viso said that she strives to leverage the platform of her institution to give visibility to underrepresented artists and their works. “Many artists of diverse cultural backgrounds and heritages have not been acknowledged by major arts institutions,” she said. As a curator, she has championed the work of underrepresented artists, in particular from Latin America, and has sought to bring greater attention to their art. Under Viso’s direction, the Walker Art Center has organized exhibitions of artists such as Jack Whitten, an African American abstract painter, the Argentine painter Guillermo Kuitca, and the late feminist Cuban sculptor and performance artist Ana Mendieta.

“Due to the tragic circumstances of Mendieta’s death at a young age, there was much misunderstanding about Mendieta’s life and art,” Viso said. “My work on the exhibition and catalogue about Mendieta was intended to bring greater understanding of her global impact on contemporary art and challenge an array of stereotypes about her practice, which often drew on her experience of exile and interest in Afro-Cuban religious practices.” Viso, whose parents came to the United States from Cuba in the 1960s, talks about the power of individual giving by sharing her experience as a board member of various philanthropic organizations including the Cintas Foundation. She said that the late Cuban industrialist Oscar B. Cintas once asked David Rockefeller for advice about giving back. Rockefeller urged him to set up an endowment of one million dollars. Today, almost 50 years later, the foundation has supported over 300 Cuban artists working outside Cuba. The Walker Art Center recently purchased an artwork by one of its scholarship recipients, artist Carmen Herrera, who turned 100 last May and sold her first painting in her 80s. Viso said that she and her husband also support organizations by contributing financially and through their volunteerism. “The best way to inspire giving is to give yourself,” she said.

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A career as a contemporary art museum director informs Olga Viso’s philanthropy, along with her commitment to support artists and communities where she works and lives.

OFFICERS

DIRECTORS

Nelson I. Colón

Rafael Cortés Dapena

CHAIR President Fundación Comunitaria de Puerto Rico

Joyce Lee

TREASURER Chief Financial Officer Marguerite Casey Foundation

Sandra L. Vargas

SECRETARY President and CEO, The Minneapolis Foundation

Miguel Bustos

AT-LARGE OFFICER Senior Vice President Community Relations and Outreach Regional Director Wells Fargo

Diana Campoamor

PRESIDENT Hispanics in Philanthropy

President Fundación Ángel Ramos

Marcus R. Escobedo

Program Officer The John A. Hartford Foundation

Gabriella Gomez

Deputy Director of Postsecondary Policy and Advocacy Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

John Govea

Senior Program Officer Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

Rui Mesquita Cordeiro

Director of Latin America and Caribbean Programs W.K. Kellogg Foundation

Ronald B. Richard

President and CEO Cleveland Foundation

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BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Cynthia Rivera Weissblum

CEO and President Edwin Gould Foundation

Tara McKenzie Sandercock

Senior Vice President, Foundation & Community Relations Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro

Mary Skelton Roberts Senior Program Officer Barr Foundation

Beatriz Maria Solis

Director, Healthy Communities, South Region The California Endowment

EMERITUS MEMBERS Elisa Arévalo

Vice President and Latino Remittance Acquisition Marketing Manager Wells Fargo Bank

Herman Gallegos

Retired Corporate and Foundation Director

Luz Vega-Marquis

President Marguerite Casey Foundation

Diana Campoamor President

Alexandra Aquino-Fike Director of New Initiatives

Kimberly Arana

Program and Development Coordinator

Marcela Buzo

Program Assistant

Carlos Campos Staff Accountant

Rebecca English

Manager of Governance and Membership

Erin Ginder-Shaw

Evaluation and Learning Coordinator

Gracia Goya

Vice President of U.S. and Transnational Programs

Anne Elizabeth Hand

Program Manager, Health and Education Focused Initiatives

Elizabeth Hernandez

Director of Finance and Programs

Sally Kuhlman Chief of Staff

Gloria Mayne Dav贸

HIPGive Representative for Latin America

Alex Parker Guerrero

Communications Coordinator

Dana Preston

Project Coordinator

Stephanie Ruiz

Coordinator to the Office of the President

Danielle Sherman

Senior Development Manager

Ismael Soto

Development Fellow

John Yap

Technology Coordinator

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STAFF

Andrea Perez

HIPGive Marketing and Project Coordinator

CHAIR Nelson I. Col贸n PRESIDENT Diana Campoamor HIPGIVERS PROJECT TEAM Erin Ginder-Shaw Evaluation and Learning Coordinator Gracia Goya Vice President of U.S. and Transnational Programs Sally Kuhlman Chief of Staff

THANK YOU

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Gloria Mayne Dav贸 HIPGive Representative for Latin America Stephanie Ruiz Coordinator to the Office of the President DESIGN To帽o Limon Rojo EDITORS Cheryl Brownstein Santiago Chief Copy Editor Kimberly Arana Program and Development Coordinator Danielle Sherman Senior Development Manager

WRITERS Erin Ginder-Shaw Dana Preston Beatriz Vieira John Yap Alex Parker-Guerrero SPONSORS