Photo credit: Janet Donovan
It’s a good thing they weren’t serving Red Bull at the 10th Anniversary party of Voto Latino at Hamilton Live…. guests were already on an energy high.
Rosario Dawson, Wilmer Valderrama and America Ferrera were the highlighted celebrities who joined María Teresa Kumar, President and CEO, on The Red Carpet. Guests crashed the reporters section creating what some would call chaos. We prefer to call it Latino spontaneity.
Voto Latino, according to the mission statement, is a nonpartisan organization that empowers Latino Millennials to claim a better future for themselves and their community. United by the belief that Latino issues are American issues and American issues are Latino issues, Voto Latino is dedicated to bringing new and diverse voices to develop leaders by engaging youth, media, technology and celebrities to promote positive change.
“I’m America,” said America Ferrera after being introduced by Kumar, “and I am America. I remember in the 2012 election feeling really frustrated that I only had two choices and that we as a community were being solicited, but not being heard.”
“I grew up watching Chips and I grew up watching I Love Lucy and The Fresh Prince,” said Venezuelan born Valderrama, “so I thought that’s what America looked like. For me it was about painting the America that I grew up knowing and reminding everyone that it was not what we were watching on TV.”
The Innovators Challenge participants
The evening celebrated participants in The Challenge Project. Each innovator must use a tech tool to address a need in the Latino community. The VL Innovators Challenge was created to get Millennials, especially Latino Millennials, thinking about technology both as an innovative change agent and as a potential career. We were particularly impressed by one that alerts school children to potential danger in their path as they walk home. Rosario Dawson explains that in the video. The winners split $500,000 in grant funding.
Marie Teresa Kumar, Wilmer Valderrama, America Ferrera and Rosario Dawson talk to Hollywood on the Potomac:
