Rosie Castro Among NHLI Mujer Award Honorees
By Raisa Camargo, Voxxi
The awards are recognized annually to highlight Latina women and their achievements. It featured a gala dinner with each of the honorees placed in the limelight through a video that summarized their background and accomplishments.
“After 25 years our mission is still relevant. If we were not to exist, someone would have created this organization to serve this audience,” said NHLI board chairwoman, Marieli Colón-Padilla.
Colón-Padilla is herself an NHLI alumna. NHLI is a non-profit organization that has provided one-on-one mentorship to more than 5,000 Latinas.
“It has been proven in our impact survey that for every dollar invested in each of these women, the return of the investment is 200 percent. So there’s no telling what the talent that comes out of our program does, not only in their network, but in their communities,” she said.
Latina leaders honored at NHLI’S dinner gala
The honorees for the Mujer awards include Congresswoman Grace Napolitano (D-Calif.) who received the Legislative Award; Lidia Soto-Harmon, CEO of Girl Scout Council of the Nation’s Capital, who received the Regional Mujer Award; Ivelisse R. Estrada, SVP, and Corporate and Community Relations for Univision, who received the National Mujer award.
Rosie Castro received the Chair’s award for her work as an activist, political figure and educator. During the 1970s, Rosie Castro joined a civil rights political movement known as La Raza Unida to confront the racial tensions in southwest Texas.
She participated in registering voters, identifying candidates and running campaigns. Castro is also known in her advocacy for better education and political representation; a mission she continues as an educator at the Palo Alto College.
“I am greatly honored,” Rosie Castro told VOXXI. “Slightly embarrassed. Many of the folks that are here from San Antonio and throughout the country—many of those women have accomplished a great deal more. They are all accomplished women.”
Soto-Harmon, who is of Cuban background, has worked on boosting morale among young Latinas. Among her initiatives is a conference for young Latinas called “El Encuentro de chicas Latinas,” which she started eight years ago and served 300 young Latinas to teach them about girl scouting.
“Leadership matters. We are all responsible to create our own success,” she told VOXXI. “One of the quotes I keep in my head is a quote my father use to say all the time: ‘Pa’ tras ni pa’ coger impulso,’—You don’t even look back not even to wind a leap. You always need to be looking forward.”
When Ivelisse Estrada walked on stage, the room lit up with applause. Estrada has a history of taking on leadership roles through the various partnerships she has held over the years.
Estrada, who is a native of Puerto Rico, recently developed an education initiative with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to improve academic achievement for Hispanic students in K-12 grade schools. In 2007, she worked closely with the National Association of Elected and Appointed Officials to mobilize more Hispanics to participate in political civic engagement.
The end-result being that more than one million persons became naturalized citizens. The initiative received a Peabody award. Estrada’s alternative project “Enterate” also received a Peabody award for its ongoing national campaign in helping Latinos accomplish a healthy lifestyle.
“Life threw me a curve and my life changed,” Estrada said recalling when she started her work as an educator and later working with Univision. “As Ruben Blades says, ‘La vida te da sorpresas.’”
Rosie Castro says politically Latinas are held to a higher standard
NHLI also strongly believes it’s through Latina mothers that young women learn the skills of achieving tenacity and hard work.
Throughout the night, Rosie Castro sat with her son Congressman-elect Joaquin Castro. Rosie was acknowledged for her own efforts for pursuing political and educational empowerment. The speakers were also quick to note that Rosie had already changed history before she joined the program in 1990.
Born to a single mother, Rosie Castro’s involvement with the Chicano movement compelled her to become one of the first Chicanas to run for city council.
“There’s still a need for Latinas to be trained on how to run for office, how to finance their campaigns, how to have select campaign managers that know what they’re doing and the biggie the fundraising—I think it’s very challenging, very difficult for Latinas to ask for the money for a campaign,” she said.
“We tend to really get involved in the issues and push the issues and advocacy and not always look at that probably if we want those issues to come to the forefront then we’ve got to run for office,” she added. “The scrutiny is very high. So, you’re held to an even bigger standard then others may be.”
Joaquin and Julian Castro are both poised to rise up the ranks
Rosie Castro’s twin sons have raised plenty of eyebrows as candidates to higher office. Julian Castro, the mayor of San Antonio, was tapped to give the keynote speech at the Democratic National Convention. Joaquin was recently elected into the U.S. House of Representatives.
Early on, Rosie taught her two sons about the electoral process by taking them everywhere. She said it’s important for parents to take their children to the voting booth and make them active participants in the community.
“It’s when you don’t have an eye on your representatives or not involved in crafting that policy that you see the worst that gets done, the deals, the things that are bad in politics, but at its best – citizens who talk to their legislators, citizens who attend meetings, who are involved can help those legislators craft the very best solutions,” she told VOXXI. “I’ve had the chance to see that with both my sons.”
When asked why she thinks both her sons have garnered plenty of appeal, she said, “There’s a number of things besides the fact that they’re good looking.”
She added that they have studied the policy issues and continue to look for guidance not just from legislators, but also the community.
“I think when people look at them—they can tell these are two honest men,” she said.
“I think both of my sons are capable of being President or governor. I don’t know, only god knows what is in store for them. I know that what they want is to be good public servants for as long as they can be.”
This article was first published in Voxxi.
Raisa Camargo is a staff writer at Voxxi.
[Photo by Walker Report]