Editor’s Note: This piece is a personal reflection from Gloria Ramón, Chief Strategy Officer at TSNE, written in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month. In it, Gloria shares her lived experiences and perspective as part of her ongoing commitment to advancing equity, justice, and belonging.
Hispanic Heritage Month is a time of honoring and unearthing. It is a time to uplift the histories, cultures, and contributions of people whose identities stretch across continents, whose languages carry generations of resistance, and whose labor has been central to the building of this country.
It is also a time to acknowledge that within the umbrella of “Hispanic” or “Latinae ” identity, not all stories are equally seen, valued, or remembered. Too often, Afro-Latinae people, especially from Central America, are erased from the dominant narratives.
I am Afro-Latina. I am Garifuna, a proud descendant of a people who fought back against slavery, colonization, and forced removal from their lands. My family is from Honduras, and like so many Central Americans, we have carried stories of displacement and survival across borders and generations.
The Garifuna people are uniquely positioned within the Central American diaspora, descendants of West Africans and Indigenous Arawak peoples, exiled from St. Vincent by the British and forcibly relocated to the Caribbean coast of Central America in the late 1700s. We are Black. We are Indigenous. We are Central American. And we are still here.
Growing up in New York City, I quickly learned that the dominant stories about “Hispanic heritage” rarely reflected me or my people. They didn’t include the rhythms of punta music, the language of Garífuna, or the legacies of Black resistance in places like La Ceiba, Trujillo, or Livingston. They didn’t speak to the unique struggles faced by Central American immigrants, particularly the invisibility, criminalization, and systemic exclusion we endure both within and outside the Latinae community.
But invisibility has never meant absence.
As a Garifuna woman, I come from a lineage of people who fled enslavement and built communities of freedom. That legacy lives in me. It informs how I lead, how I fight for justice, and how I build power with others. It also informs how I see strategy, not simply as a technical practice, but as an opportunity to realign institutions with values of equity, sustainability, and belonging.
At TSNE, I serve as Chief Strategy Officer, where I steward our strategic vision and champion initiatives that uplift nonprofits and grassroots movement organizations. These are the institutions that anchor our communities, providing critical infrastructure, care, and advocacy, yet they are increasingly under siege. We are witnessing a coordinated wave of administrative, legislative, and ideological attacks on the nonprofit sector, fueled by efforts to defund, discredit, and dismantle organizations that operate at the intersections of equity, justice, and the public good.
And let’s be clear: the harm is not distributed equally. It is BIPOC-led, women-serving, immigrant-serving, LGBTQ+ affirming, and grassroots economic justice organizations, particularly those supporting poor and working-class communities across race, who are bearing the brunt of this backlash. While these attacks are often framed as political or cultural conflicts, they are, at their core, part of a long-standing struggle over power and resources, disproportionately impacting those who have historically been pushed to the margins. This is not simply a conflict between racial groups; it is a deeply entrenched system in which the wealthiest and most powerful protect their dominance at the expense of the rest of us.
In this moment, when the language of diversity, equity, and inclusion is distorted, when racial equity efforts are labeled as divisive, and when nonprofit advocacy is framed as partisan, I am reminded that my leadership is not coincidental. It is ancestral. It is intentional. It is necessary.
This work has always been personal. It has always been political. And it has always been spiritual.
Now more than ever, I feel called to harness my heritage, to lead with the same audacity, clarity, and love that my Garifuna ancestors embodied in their resistance to empire. Today’s battleground may look different with funding inequities, cultural erasure, and policy rollbacks but the struggle for dignity, self-determination, and collective liberation continues. And we must rise to meet it.
To my fellow Central Americans, Afro-Latinae leaders, and nonprofit warriors: I see you. I honor your brilliance. I honor the heaviness of leading in institutions that weren’t built for us, and the miracle of what we’ve created anyway.
Let this month be a reminder that our presence is not peripheral to Hispanic Heritage.
We are central. We are critical.
We are the rhythm, the rupture, and the roadmap.
Let’s lean into our ancestry.
Let’s use the power of our lineage to push forward, create change, and make space for those who come after us.
Our resistance is our leadership.
Our history is our power.
And our future will be defined by the strength we inherit and the boldness with which we move forward.
About the Author
Gloria Ramón (she/her(s), ella) is the Chief Strategy Officer at TSNE, where she leads cross-organizational strategy, equity-centered planning, and sector-wide initiatives. A proud Afro-Latina of Honduran Garifuna, Italian, and Scottish heritage, Gloria is a Ph.D. candidate in Leadership & Change at Antioch University and a dedicated advocate for BIPOC leaders across the nonprofit and social impact sector.
About TSNE
At TSNE, we partner with nonprofits to create a more just and equitable society. Reflections like this remind us that centering lived experiences and diverse voices is essential to advancing equity, fostering strong leaders, and building thriving communities. We invite you to learn more about our work and join us in supporting organizations and leaders who are driving social change. https://tsne.org/