Currently serving as Managing Director for Poderistas®, the fastest growing and influential digital community for Latinas in the US, Charlotte was hand-picked by the founders to launch and ultimately lead the breakthrough organization that leverages modern media platforms and in-culture content to harness Latina power and drive civic engagement and participation.
As Managing Director, Castillo oversees all areas of the 501(c)(3) organization including operations, strategy, programming and brand, fundraising, and partnership development.
Before Poderistas, Charlotte was an award-winning senior executive at ViacomCBS (now Paramount Global) for 14+ years and prior to that the founding Head of Marketing of Latina Magazine, the breakthrough first print publication for the bicultural Latina.
Poderistas® is a non-profit organization that uses storytelling, convening and organizing to shift la cultura, build lasting confidence, and inspire a lifestyle of civic participation among Latinas. Our mission is to build a community that INFORMS, CELEBRATES, and MOTIVATES Latinas to take action for ourselves and our communities and harness our poder in the voting booth and beyond. Our hope is that our community adopts a lifestyle of civic engagement and exercises her power across all aspects of her life.
Our mission matters because demographics are not destiny after all. Despite remarkable population growth, Latinas still have only a fraction of the political power they need and deserve. Latinas make up the largest age and gender cohort in key states, which means Latinas should be driving growth in the electorate across the country particularly in Texas, Florida, California, Nevada, Arizona and New York. Yet, numbers tend to show that more than half of eligible Latinos still stayed on the sidelines and did not participate.
Why is that? What we have learned from research and experience is that Latinas, in particular, do not believe their vote matters because they are not yet certain their lives matter, much less their votes. U.S. media and society still portray us as “outsiders'' in this country - a perception that we have internalized. Add to that the fact that many of our parents were not citizens or came from countries where democracy is not fully realized meaning that we were, likewise not inculcated with a culture and practice of voting while we were growing up in this country. We believe this sense of confidence and belonging is directly tied to low political participation.
To fully realize our civic, economic, personal and political power, we need to transform the narrative about ourselves to ourselves. Shift the sense of our own influence, identity and belonging from WITHIN, and know our power year around - this is why Poderistas was created.
Big question - I think one of the biggest challenges facing our community is the fact that we are seen as a monolith by many. While we share a language (or two) the diaspora is comprised of people from so many countries, experiences and values that the question - ‘what is the Latino perspective’ is limiting, and not useful at all. And this tends to be how our community is addressed - with a blanket question, statement, ‘answer’ about what is important for us...
And now we are all well aware that this approach does not accurately reflect the sentiments of the community and does not serve anyone.
Support can and should come in many forms - but I'll boil it down to the 3 A’s - Access, Advocacy, and Advice:
Be nimble! Be like the water and flow…
Sometimes we are so ‘in the weeds’ trying to tick off the various steps of our ‘master plan’ that we miss opportunities that may lead to greater more impactful things.
Be open to opportunities that might not fit what you thought your ‘plans’ or ‘path’ might be…the learning and the stretch comes from those moments.
There are many - to name a few:
Hmm… I would have to say MUSIC. Music is my first love. I come from a musical family - my uncles were musicians and had a small, local merengue band so I grew up dancing, listening and watching them rehearse and write and bring joy to so many. I went on to host a radio show for all 4 of my college years at Wesleyan. WESU 88.1FM in the house! I interned at a few young start-up hip hop labels during the summers between my college years - LOUD Records, ROWDY Records and others… And had a stint at a record company/recording studio for a bit. Ultimately I pivoted to media/entertainment but music will forever be a part of my life.
It got away from me for a few years but recently I have embraced it once again and am finding so much joy in both discovering new genres and revisiting old favorites. And my ultimate joy is introducing my teen son to ‘old school’ hip hop and r&b classics and watching him fall in love as well…
A focus on intentional self-care and wellness. Taking the moment to breathe, be present, do nothing, and look for joy in the everyday…it’s the only thing that will allow us to keep going and survive all the things that are coming our way.
That’s hard to say but one book that I always go back to as having been foundational for how I see myself, my family, my community is Junot Diaz’s 2008 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel - The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.
That book was a revelation to me as I gained some understanding about the way in which my Dominican family communicates, how they live, how they think about and approach relationships and more.
It was also brilliantly written and incredibly innovative in its approach. And LOL funny in so many ways. Definitely one of my favorite novels.
