What does it mean to be Latino, and who gets to decide? This conversation challenges the flattening of Latinidad in the United States and makes space to explore its complexity, power, and contradiction. Too often, Latino communities are reduced to trauma, immigration headlines, or abstract data. These narratives are real and urgent, but they are incomplete. They reflect the weight we carry but not the worlds we are creating in spite of it. They miss the agency, imagination, and leadership Latines bring to culture, politics, the economy, and daily life. 

This event invites participants to move beyond simplified categories and limited frames. Together, we will ask: What narratives emerge when we honor the full depth of Latino identity? How are our histories, geographies, racialized experiences, genders, and languages shaping who we are and where we are going? Through spoken word, storytelling, and discussion, panelists and participants alike will reflect on what it means to be Latine in the Midwest in 2025—not as a static identity, but as a force for transformation.

With a spoken word introduction by Lupe Castillo, La Poetress.

Presented in partnership with the Movida Initiative.

Image courtesy Olivia Levins Holden. "We Heal Together." 2020. Mural located at Take Action Minnesota.