Latiné communities are, and always have been, an indispensable thread in the fabric of our nation’s past, present, and future. Across decades, Latiné organizers have expanded access to civic life and built community power through strategies that have taken many forms, including:
- Workers who have organized cross-industry coalitions, boycotts, and unions to demand safety, fair wages, and dignity across all sectors.
- Activists who litigated landmark civil rights cases and fought for bilingual access in schools and at the ballot box to ensure language is never a barrier.
- Neighborhood collectives which established sanctuary networks, health clinics, and legal defense funds to protect families and resist state violence.
Today, these hard-won protections are being actively dismantled through intensified immigration enforcement, healthcare rollbacks for mixed-status families, and hateful anti-immigrant rhetoric designed to make people afraid to live their lives and participate in civic society.
But the fight continues.
This Hispanic Heritage Month, we honor the Latiné movement-builders who carry forward a long lineage of care and resistance. Their work is the living practice of what labor and civil rights leader Dolores Huerta proclaimed: “The great social justice changes in our country have happened when people came together, organized, and took direct action. It is this right that sustains and nurtures our democracy today.”
We are proud to spotlight a few of our brilliant grantee partners at the forefront of today’s movement, and uplift a glimpse of Latiné-led organizing in our country:
[Alt text: Eleven Enlace Latino NC team members smile together for a close group selfie indoors, gathered in a bright studio space and dressed in colorful attire.]
Enlace Latino NC, a nonprofit Spanish-language newsroom, makes election information more accessible across North Carolina. Through voter guides, candidate forums, statewide election coverage, and reporting that counters mis- and disinformation, they help community members understand the voting process, learn about the candidates and issues on their ballot, and feel informed and prepared to participate.
Dr. Conchita Hernández Legorreta of METAS on creating programs and resources that reflect the lived realities of disabled Latinx communities.
Mentoring, Engaging, and Teaching All Students (METAS) helps blind and low-vision communities gain access to resources and build self-advocacy skills. METAS extends this work through Spanish-language voter guides grounded in disability justice principles to help schools, agencies, and community organizations strengthen access and support the civic power of blind and low-vision voters.
[Alt text: Six Conecta Arizona team members pose together in matching brown t-shirts, with one holding a large coffee mug shaped sign that reads “Conecta Arizona.”]
Conecta Arizona, a nonprofit community newsroom, has made election information easier to access by using WhatsApp-based community newsrooms, voter guides and timely election updates, and in-person outreach in rural areas. By coupling journalism with direct community engagement, they make election information more accessible by utilizing platforms and spaces people already use and trust.
[Alt text: Arizona Center for Empowerment community members smile and pose together outdoors holding signs that read “My Vote, My Power,” “Healthcare for All,” “Education for All,” and “Nuestro Barrio, Nuestro Futuro.”]
Arizona Center for Empowerment (ACE) develops community members into organizers and civic leaders across Arizona. Through its Barrio, Digital, and Narrative Leader programs, ACE trains people to organize their neighborhoods, mobilize voters, identify community priorities, and advocate for those priorities with elected officials.
Ivan Hernandez and Cassandra Hernandez of Gente Organizada on how their advocacy programs build power and counter misinformation.
Gente Organizada brings young people and parents together to organize around the decisions shaping Pomona, California. From creating voter guides and Know Your Rights resources to producing youth-led reporting on voter eligibility, they’re helping their community navigate misinformation and protecting safe, accessible participation at the polls.
[Alt text: Three MIWISCONSIN staff members sit under a red canopy, wearing headphones and speaking into microphones, with recording equipment and informational materials on the table.]
MIWISCONSIN Media & Community, a nonprofit newsroom, uses community-centered journalism to strengthen civic engagement across Wisconsin. Through voter education, reporting that responds to disinformation, and digital and on-the-ground outreach, they connect communities across Wisconsin with the information they need to participate in public life.
How Can Funders Strengthen Civic Participation?
Generations of Latiné organizers have shown us that civic participation is built through trusted information, language access, community leadership, and organizing that gives people meaningful ways to shape the decisions affecting their lives. At a time when many of those pathways are being threatened, philanthropy has a responsibility to protect and strengthen those on the frontline working to make participation possible for all.
To support those who are building and protecting these pathways, we encourage our funder peers to:
- Fund beyond elections: Support civic engagement year-round, not only during election cycles or when communities are in crisis.
- Fund across intersections: Queer, trans, BIPOC, and disabled people face distinct barriers to civic engagement. Resource work that addresses overlapping systems of harm.
- Trust community leadership: Resource the people closest to their communities to build the strategies, relationships, and solutions that make participation possible.
- Commit to the long haul: Provide sustained, flexible funding that allows organizations to build power, respond to emerging needs, and plan for the future.
And finally, partner with Borealis to move resources across an ecosystem of leaders and organizations building power in communities across the country. Together, we can strengthen the collective power communities need to shape their futures and move us closer to a truly multiracial democracy.