¡Hola! Hello!
I have always loved language, and words have been a constant part of my life from an early age. As a toddler, I was eager to learn to read and write, constantly begging my parents to let me go to school with my older sister. Eventually, I was sent to a local teacher who taught me the ABCs. Over time, I became an avid reader, asking for books as birthday gifts instead of anything else, which eventually led me to choose journalism as my professional path.
I was monolingual until I was 20 years old when I began learning English, studying for two years. While I wasn’t fully bilingual at that point, I was confident enough to apply for an exchange program that brought me to the United States for the first time. Becoming bilingual changed my life in many ways, particularly in my professional life. New opportunities opened up for me in the Dominican Republic because of my bilingualism, and it became the foundation for even more opportunities once I moved to the United States.
That’s why I am dedicated to raising bilingual and multicultural children and committed to raising cultural awareness to create social change.
My Professional Bio
I’m an Afro-Latina journalist, international speaker, published author, and trainer specializing in cultural diversity, inclusion, language justice, multiculturalism, and the American Latine experience. I have over 20 years of well-rounded experience in the communications arena, from working as a journalist and editor to being a copywriter for national advertising campaigns and a linguist for both private and non-profit organizations.
With my writing background, I started my first blog in 2007, during the early days of Latino blogging, where I documented my life in New York City. Three years later, in 2010, when my daughter was just six months old, I created the blog La Familia Cool to write about my journey as a Latina mom raising a child in the United States. I’m proud to be among the first group of Latina mom bloggers and influencers (though it wasn’t called that back then) who began making an impact both online and offline in the United States.
Through my role as an influencer and mom blogger, I became a brand ambassador, speaker, and trainer, collaborating with national brands such as Johnson & Johnson, Prudential, Southwest Airlines, Toyota, and Nestlé. As a speaker, I’ve spoken at top conferences like LATISM, Hispanicize, Blogalicious, Converge South, Families in Global Transition, The Motivated Mom, Latinx Education Summit, among others.
In the last five years, I’ve focused on working as a linguist (translator, proofreader, copywriter) for social justice movements and organizations across the United States. Since 2020, I have been working for tilde Language Justice Cooperative in North Carolina, where I’m part of the translation and capacity-building teams.
My work on the capacity-building team focuses on language justice training and workshops for organizations of all sizes that are interested in expanding their language access and transforming their organizational culture to support language justice and multilingual spaces.
If you’d like to read my detailed work history from the last 20 years, please visit my LinkedIn profile.
For information about my talks, seminars, and workshops, you can download my
Speaker Sheet.
Want to know more? Here are some fun facts…
- I had my first job at 14 years old, going door-to-door with paper surveys in hand, asking people questions about everything from local Dominican politics to new products about to be launched.
- I completed 5th grade in summer school, which allowed me to start college at 16 years old.
- My first international trip was at 18 years old to visit my mother in Aruba.
- The first time I was published in a newspaper was…
Have more questions? Please fill out this [Google form] to send me any questions or requests for writing samples, resumes, videos, voiceover recordings, or general inquiries.
