Everyday Jefas know that community begins with authenticity found from within.
By Kathryn Freeman
Bessy Martinez knows what it is like to feel out of place and the instant joy that comes from that first feeling of welcome. As a child of El Salvadoran immigrants, growing up in the Rio Grande Valley was challenging.
“When I was growing up, everyone in the Valley was Mexican American and finding people who could relate to our struggles as immigrants fleeing oppression and violence in Central America was difficult,” shares Martinez. “But my mom started hosting Sunday dinners after church as a point of connection, and we built a new sort of extended family with people from all walks of life.”
When she reflects on the work she does now, she traces her desire to create an inclusive community for all Latinas–the stay-at-home mom, the entrepreneur, the C-Suite executive–like she watched her mom do in her kitchen growing up.
Martinez’s work in Austin grew from her own loneliness brought on by the pandemic. Her husband was transferred from Dallas to Austin while everyone was in lockdown. She had no trouble making friends in Dallas, but in an isolated Austin she felt alone.
“I trace the roots of the Latina Foundation to my sense of loss during the pandemic, I lost that sense of community and belonging and was craving a space where I felt seen,” Martinez says.
She found building community in Austin to be much more difficult than when she lived in Dallas, and she was not sure the difficulty was solely attributed to her time in the pandemic lockdown.
Martinez says, “When I moved to Austin, it really was a rude awakening, Austin is the state Capital but it felt like representation here was not the same as it was in Dallas. It was hard to find like-minded Latinas, and when I started looking for specific organizations and communities, I could not find anything that resonated with me as an individual.”
So, she decided to create her own organization. “If you can not find what you need, you create it or become it yourself,” says Martinez. I became an advocate because I was advocating for myself first.”
Austin Latinas Unidas began October 2020, from her desire to build a community where she could be her full authentic self–a Latina, a mother, a wife, a business owner, a photographer. Latinas Unidas began with small meetups across Austin; first over coffee and then with a small community pop-up that allowed other Latina business owners to showcase their work. This community building organization started as a way to make friends, and has grown into one that hosts five to nine monthly events with over 1500 members across Central Texas. Several women on the board have been with Martinez since the start, before the brand partnerships with major Fortune 500 companies.
In October 2023, the organization was restructured and became The Latina Foundation. The organization is built around three pillars: Community, Creativity and Entrepreneurship. Latinas Unidas has become the community arm focused on empowerment, people and events around a wide variety of shared experiences. The foundation includes opportunities for “The Everyday Jefa” (a term Martinez coined for herself and other Latinas who are bosses and mothers) to come together for co-working and sharing creative ambitions. Another perk of the foundation features a 12-week accelerator program for entrepreneurs wanting to take their product from ideation to reality.
Martinez has created a community where all Latinas can see themselves, and that can feel scary.
“There is a saying, especially for entrepreneurs, that if you serve everybody you serve nobody…but we have created a space where a VP at Indeed can find support as a mother and a person of faith.”
Creating a space for Latinas to find a community that allows them to be their full authentic selves is what has made The Latina Foundation different and unique. It is geared to the whole person–which makes it both specific and broad–giving the involved women opportunities to meet all kinds of Latinas, where they are and help them find their community in Austin.
“We became a bridge by connecting people with resources, it is not just about me; so we are constantly sending out feedback forms after every single event,” Martinez explains. “We started hearing that our members needed resources, funding for their business, networking opportunities, but also a place to have raw conversations about trauma and breaking generational chains.”
Building community meant making space for all of these discussions, and–despite her fears of being overextended–The Latina Foundation has thrived by expanding from Austin to Waco, with encouraging calls being made from women in Dallas and San Antonio to expand to their cities.
Martinez marvels at the growth of the organization over the course of four years. She has built a community based on trust. “The women know they can come, and they can trust us because we accept them, we see their humanity and care for them as best as we possibly can.”
Even as the tide seems to be turning against diversity initiatives and immigrants, Martinez remains joyful in her work. She sees diversity as a strength, ” Unidos Somos, we are better together and creating communities where like-minded people can gather and move forward together towards a better future for each of us.”
A strong Latina community strengthens the whole city, state, and nation–we all benefit from strong Latino families, business, churches. In fact, according to a report published by CNBC, Latinos represent $3.4 trillion dollars in purchasing power as of 2021 and their collective purchasing power is growing at two times that of their non-Latino counterparts.
This rapid expansion of Latino purchasing power has brought Martinez into contact with some huge American brands who are eager for Latino consumers to purchase their products. But Martinez reminds them that community is the cornerstone of business, and “no one is investing in our communities.”
So this year, through a partnership with Coca-Cola, Southwest Beverage, The Latina Foundation has been able to start seven Latina-owned businesses in Texas. Investing in particular communities strengthens more than just that specific community. “The more you invest, we are all better off,” Martinez says.
Martinez continues to invest in the women of The Latina Foundation community even as she is still figuring it all out herself.
“At my core, I am storyteller. Telling stories is what I did as a photographer and podcaster and now I bring that same skill to my work at The Latina Foundation, I continue to tell the stories of other women out there going on their own journeys, however it looks for them, but hopefully they can see in me that if I made it then they can too.”
Being transparent and admitting her own failures, has helped Martinez realize the importance of her voice.
“When we first came to this country, my mom was one of the few people speaking out about the corruption and violence in our country. At the time her choice to be so vocal about our experiences put a target on our back, but she was so courageous. She told me that she realized she was not alone and she had to speak so that others would not suffer in silence.My mother was courageous in inviting people to our dinner table and in speaking up for those who felt alone in their circumstances.”
That courage is evident in Martinez’s approach to leading The Latina Foundation. It is evident that being her authentic self, means making room for others to join her in doing so.
Over the course of our conversation, it became clear how much of Bessy Martinez’s journey toward finding her Austin community began with a journey to finding herself. When I bring this up in our interview, she immediately agrees.
“[The Latina Foundation] is a love letter to my inner child…. I am advocating for the person that I used to be,” Martinez says.
In sharing her struggles and triumphs as a small business owner, the obstacles she faced as Latina executive in the hospitality industry, the opportunities and challenges she faces as a wife, mother, and nonprofit executive, she is not hiding. She has built a community where Latinas are encouraged to own their stories.
“I am an everyday Jefa, I am an everyday boss. I am owning my life and this is me showing myself, other Latinas and the world what is possible–not just in the work I do, but in who I am,” says Martinez.
The Jefa community Martinez has helped to build in Austin is built on authenticity and vulnerability, on a willingness to extend the first invite, on owning your story and relentlessly seeking the place where that version of you is welcome.
Photo courtesy of Sonali Prabhu, Sonali Productions