By: Harry Lopez, Professional Coach

Patricia,  Spiritual Healer and Intuitive Consultant, Phoenix, AZ

Maya Murillo, Buzzfeed Producer, Los Angeles, CA

Stephanie Fenniri, Social Impact Executive, Philadelphia, PA

Julissa Ramirez, Engineer at Google, San Francisco, CA

Diana Garcia, Google, San Francisco, CA

Lena Gonzalez, Founder and Actress, Miami, FL

Eliana Murillo, Head of Multicultural Marketing at Google

Kathy Cano Murillo, The Crafty Chica, Award Winning Blogger, Artist, Author, Speaker,  Phoenix, AZ

Kateri Gonzalez, Co-Founder of Collective Avenue Coffee & Career Coach, Los Angeles, CA

Betsy Aimee, Entrepreneur and Host of Currently Podcast, Los Angeles, CA

Rosa Pruneda, Public Relations, Influencer Relations, & Social Media, Houston, TX

Melody Estrada, Stanford Latino Business, Palo Alto, CA

Carolina Weber, Product Manager, Washington, DC

Tanya Menendez, Founder, San Francisco, CA

Paola Correa, Marketing at Facebook, San Francisco, CA

Christina Morillo, Engineer at Microsoft, New York, NY

In honor of Hispanic Heritage Month, I’d like to highlight some remarkable Latinas I’ve had the pleasure of working with in 2018.

I highlight them today because I think they are important, and because I think our Latino community needs to see positive portrayals of Latinos defying stereotypes and supporting one another in this way. In a new way.

These women remind me of the beauty and nuances of our Latino culture and inspire me to dream bigger and to dare greater.

They are ambitious, resilient, tenacious, and human. They are just like you and me. Ambitious yet sometimes afraid. Courageous yet sometimes doubt the power of their voice or the wisdom that lies  within them.

They work in all sectors: tech, media, entrepreneurship, finance, marketing, spiritual healing, and more.

Today, they are trailblazing pathways of opportunity for Latina women and young girls and changing the game for what many Latina women imagined possible for their lives.

It’s always been a desire of mine to uplift the Latino community. Growing up witnessing the challenges my mother faced raising me and my brother in a new country with limited financial resources and socio-cultural capital taught me the importance of resilience and grit and demonstrated to me the extent to which hard work pays off.

In stepping into entrepreneurship this past year, I’ve leaned on Latina women for support and guidance in helping me impact Latinos doing important work in the world.

I connected with one Latina months ago and there was a significant ripple effect which gave way to a flourishing community of Latinas that I was meeting and supporting along their personal and professional trajectories.

One of the first Latinas I had the privilege of coaching is Eliana Murillo, Google  Marketing Executive, and most formerly, my mentor at Google while I was an intern the summer of 2011 in Mountain View, California.

How fortunate was I to have crossed paths with Eliana in 2011.

Little did I know that our relationship would continue to unfold and be the catalyst for  so much of my coaching business today. Eliana is presently one of my coaching clients and has been an avid advocate of my coaching services in her spheres of influence. She has connected me with countless young Latino millennials in her network aspiring to greatness in their lives.

I have now been her professional coach going on 9 months and we are going stronger than ever before -- Going deeper into the exploration of herself and stepping into new ways of being, leading, and serving in order to impact the communities she is so fondly passionate about.

In these last nine months, I have had the profound privilege of meeting, coaching,  and working with highly ambitious Latinos, men and women, from all parts of the country. It has been a dream come true. It is the momentum and confidence that I have built in coaching Eliana that has given way for me to meet and serve countless more Latinos.

As they say, as you begin to open yourself up to new possibilities, the universe begins to open doors of possibility for you. It has been one wild ride and my knowing is that this is just the beginning. The idea of seeking support is and has always been a foreign topic in the Latino community, but certainly something that I believe many are now awakening to - especially young, ambitious millennials. For so long the narrative has been highly taboo -- you deal with your own issues. Or the narrative has been more collective in that Latinos typically seek support from their families. In my experience, the narrative is one of hardwork where you throw yourself into your work and the problems will go away.

Nonetheless, more young Latinos are seeking coaching support as they navigate the complexities of personal and professional responsibilities and their inherent desires to make something of themselves in order to more powerfully contribute to the world. There’s a difference in the way you show up in the world when you work with a professional who will challenge, question, hold up the mirror, and push you forward in the direction of your goals.

We need this now more than ever before.

I dedicate this post to the most important and inspiring Latina in my life, my mother, who has demonstrated the real meaning of perseverance and unconditional, unguarded, and unreasonable love throughout my entire life.

In light of my work with many Latinas this year, I’ve put together a Latina Coaching Accelerator Program. To learn more, go to: