The story below is from our March/April 2022 issue. For more stories like it, Subscribe Today. Thank you!
Begun one year ago, Latinas Network has grown to fill a Roanoke void.
The ballroom of the Vinton War Memorial buzzes with excitement. There’s a cash bar. The scent of refried beans and rice drifts through the air. Almost no one is sitting at the big round tables that fill the space. They are talking and laughing and hugging and tapping their toes to the salsa music that plays in the background.
This is a night to celebrate.
FarmBurguesa co-owner and Roanoke native Kat Pascal steps up to the microphone. “Hello,” she speaks to the crowd of 200-some supporters. She introduces herself as founder and leader of a new nonprofit. “Thank you so much for coming tonight…” her voice waivers with emotion.
It’s the one-year anniversary of the spark of an idea that caught fire and began blazing bright.
Latinas Network exists, she continues, because throughout the disruptions and the uncertainty and the stress of 2020, Pascal was watching women drop out of the workforce and Latina-owned businesses close down. The strain of kids home from school and parents who needed care and businesses that were losing money was causing women to walk away from their dreams.
“And so I was like, there has to be some way that we can all connect … on an emotional level, a mental level, a professional level. That’s how Latinas Network was born.”
From an informal meeting in the fall of 2020, a dozen organized, well-connected Latina women vowed to design a space that would foster relationships and share information and create community. Despite pandemic shut-downs and COVID spikes and supply chain disruptions, the group gathered for monthly lunches and professional development training and organization-building meetings. They grew their membership from a handful to hundreds, began soliciting sponsors and shoring up support from community organizations, filmed Facebook Lives and YouTube presentations.
And on this night, meant to applaud all that Latinas Network has accomplished so far and chart a path forward for the future, organizers are shaking hands with Virginia Del. Sam Rasoul and Roanoke City Council member Joe Cobb. Among the evening’s presenters is Roanoke City Council member Vivian Sanchez-Jones.
“We’ve got to hold each other up as we go,” Sanchez-Jones tells the crowd. “This is hard work. It’s exhausting work. But it’s good work.”
Pascal’s need to connect in hard times struck a chord.
Iliana Sepulveda moved from the Washington, DC area to Roanoke in 2017, after her husband landed a new job. Sepulveda was building her career as a project manager, working from home. She deeply missed her friends and neighbors from Northern Virginia, especially the rich and well-established Latina community there.
She realized how isolated she had become when, in 2019, she was filling out paperwork to enroll her baby in day care. A form asked for a contact who could be called if she or her husband were unavailable. She couldn’t think of a soul.
“We have been in this city for two years and I didn’t have a single relationship that I could trust my son with,” she remembers asking herself. “That is finding myself with zero social capital. Out of 100,000 people, I had zero relationships.”
She vowed to change. So, in addition to her job and her husband and her new baby, she began joining professional groups, asking around for Hispanic resources. She had nearly decided to start a Hispanic women’s organization herself when a friend told her that a similar group might be forming. She showed up at the first Latinas Network get-together. Before there was a name. Or a Facebook page. Or a board of directors. It was October 2020.
Pascal remembers wanting to create community but not knowing exactly how. “I think all I really did was say, ‘Hey: here’s an idea,’” she recalls.
Sepulveda attended virtually. By the time she closed her computer that day, she knew she’d found her village. And her purpose. She had experience organizing and volunteering for networking groups in DC.
“I knew the potential. I knew the many initiatives we could create to connect the community and make the community stronger,” she says. “That’s what I wanted to share.”
Sepulveda spent the next year organizing events, reaching out to city leaders, searching for Hispanic women from all professions who could serve as examples and speak to Latina issues. She and other board members applied to become a 501(c)(3) nonprofit last September. She helped write the grant that enables Latinas Network to give small sums to Latina-owned entrepreneurs. She was on the team that put together a full calendar of events for Hispanic Heritage Month in September and October 2021.
She spoke at the Latinas Network anniversary celebration, giving the keynote address on “social capital.”
“My heart is so happy right now,” she opened her presentation. “I see so many faces … of people I now consider my friends though I’m sure we didn’t know each other a year ago.”
Shannon Dominguez has another reason for giving her time to Latinas Network.
She has a Hispanic last name and speaks fluent Spanish. She has two Latina daughters. But she, herself, is not Latina.
When her eldest daughter was four, she came to Dominguez and told her: “‘Mommy, I don’t think I’m pretty.’ And that broke my heart,” Dominguez says. When Dominguez questioned her daughter further, she said. “‘My Barbie dolls have yellow hair like you. And they have blue eyes like Paloma. But I don’t have yellow hair. And I don’t have blue eyes.’”
Dominguez remembers she immediately logged on to Amazon and ordered “every color of doll that you can imagine.” She started lifting up pop stars like Selena Gomez and Ariana Grande. But she realized her girls needed to know successful, beautiful women in their community that looked like them.
So when Pascal considered forming a group for professional Latinas, Dominguez encouraged her. Then she joined the board, then she volunteered to make phone calls and pour drinks and lead training sessions — whatever Latinas Network needed to thrive.
For Dominguez, it’s all about providing positive role models for her children.
“I want my children to be surrounded by women who are economically empowered, who are developing businesses and have an entrepreneurial mindset,” she says. “That is why Latinas Network is important to me. Not only is it creating an impact with this generation, but it’s creating an impact for the next.”
With their first year behind them, the women of Latinas Network are making big plans for the future.
They’re working to increase fundraising, expand membership and create a more robust roster of volunteers.
They are continuing the program they consider the backbone of the organization: On the third Friday of every month, they schedule lunch and a presentation at the Williamson Road Branch Library. It’s open and free to anyone. This gathering allows the network to get to know each other and, over time, forge deep connections. It’s also a way for Latinas Network to invest in its community. Group leaders purchase the lunches from Latino-owned businesses. And it’s a way for them to tap into the expertise of the network, as presenters often come from within the Latinas group.
But leaders have new designs, too. They hope to cast their net wider to find Roanoke-area Latinas from all walks of life, especially the healthcare and technology sectors. They plan to create a mentorship program for area youth, helping young Latinas see their future possibilities. Another goal of the group: work to seat more Latinas in leadership roles throughout the community, from board roles on large nonprofit groups to city citizen groups, from area foundations to school PTAs.
“Representation to us means … having a voice of the Hispanic community at the table,” Pascal explains. That’s important, she says, because it can share Latina perspectives and needs to a wider audience, it can help Latinas build their resumes and extend their contacts. It also strengthens the network when those serving on boards and councils bring back the information they’ve learned and share it.
For many who show up month after month, the importance of Latinas Network is that it provides a way to consistently connect with those who share their culture.
Lydia Aluise recently moved to Roanoke from South Carolina. She says discovering Latinas Network was like coming home.
“I really love this group,” she says. Being a member has helped bolster her confidence, connect her with a culture she had lost touch with and give her sense of belonging in Roanoke. “They have really created community for me.”
The story above is from our March/April 2022. For more stories, subscribe today or view our FREE digital edition. Thank you for supporting local journalism!