Charlotte entrepreneur Yanira Castro is featured in a new anthology book titled, “!Viva Latina!: Wisdom from Remarkable Women to Inspire and Empower.” The book was released last month at the start of Hispanic Heritage Month.
WFAE's Julian Berger sat down with Castro to learn more about her life and message in the new book.
BERGER: Yanira, you are "Nuyorican," a Puerto Rican from New York. What was your upbringing like?
CASTRO: I grew up in a very small town called Elmsford, New York. Again, just north of the city. So access to all the things the city had to offer, but my schools were very diverse. They were full of people from different backgrounds, different cultures and different ethnicities. When I went to college, I was blown away by the lack of diversity where I was. I couldn't believe there were people who had never seen somebody that looked like me before.
BERGER: And you moved to Charlotte about 18 years ago. You were a part of the growing Latino population here in the city. You are also now an entrepreneur with your own communications firm. What has being an entrepreneur in Charlotte been like?
CASTRO: Being an entrepreneur in general is very hard and being a Latino entrepreneur is even harder. Because Latino-owned businesses face these unique challenges at the intersection of gender and equity, we know that access to financing for like-owned businesses is very, very hard. What I really do love about the growing Latino community in Charlotte is that it is increasingly becoming more and more inclusive of all Latinos.
BERGER: And this month, when Hispanic Heritage Month started, you were featured in a book titled “!Viva Latina!” Talk to me about how the book came about.
CASTRO: It was kind of the brainchild of Sandra Velasquez from Nopalera, which is a Latina beauty brand. And you know what Sandra would say is that this isn't her book, this is our book. It's our community's book. I've known Sandra from different spaces just being an entrepreneur, and she reached out to me and 49 other amazing Latina entrepreneurs to say, ‘Hey, I need you as part of this, we need to tell our stories. We need to be able to be visible out there and show other Latinas that we're here, that you can be an entrepreneur.’
BERGER: Tell me a little bit about your excerpt, along with the other 49 excerpts within the book.
CASTRO: The book is broken up into different sections: lead, family, self-care. There are about eight or nine different sections, and so, Sandra said, ‘I really want you for the section that we're calling lead.’ And so as a leader of a company, a leader in the Latino community, what I pointed out that it's we have to center Black and brown voices in order for our businesses to move forward and not only to move forward, to be the most successful they can be.
BERGER: And speaking of being successful, what is your message to Latinos here in Charlotte?
CASTRO: I would tell folks, you have to ask for help. You have to seek out the people that look like you because they're out there and you have to talk about your challenges as well as your successes because we need to see other people that look like us doing the things that we want to do.
BERGER: And some of the proceeds from this book are benefitting young Latinas here in the city of Charlotte. Can you explain to me a little about how that will work?
CASTRO: My message with this book is to raise money for Circle de Luz, which is a Charlotte nonprofit that mentors young Latinas from 7th grade to 12th grade. So if folks buy the book, all the profits go directly to Circle de Luz because we also need these young Latinas to see people that look like them and that are supporting them.
BERGER: Well Yanira, thank you so much! If you are interested in purchasing a book, go to givebutter.com/vivalatina. Just to note, through Friday, Circle de Luz will be donating its book proceeds to support the nonprofit UNIDXS WNC in its Hurricane Helene relief efforts.
