A living archive of Latina stories and history.

HONORING THE WOMEN WHO CAME BEFORE US & EQUIPPING THE WOMEN WE ARE BECOMING.

FOR LATINAS ACROSS GENERATIONS, DENOMINATIONS & VOCATIONAL CALLINGS

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FOR LATINAS ACROSS GENERATIONS, DENOMINATIONS & VOCATIONAL CALLINGS ✦

Close-up of lush green houseplant leaves in a white pot
Person in a black striped dress holding a book beside a yellow note quoting Mary Oliver: “What will you do with your one wild and precious life?”
Round blue logo featuring three women’s profiles and the text “Ladies of Life: Self Care is a lifestyle.”

Latinas of Legacy remembers the women who made a way, amplifies the women speaking now, and helps you live intentionally for those who will come after you.

You inherited more than a history. You inherited courage, faith, struggle, wisdom, and unfinished work.

Your choices are forming a story, and your faith is shaping the people around you in ways you may never fully see. Courage can open a door that once seemed closed, and healing can interrupt a pattern that has run through generations.

When you use your voice to tell the truth and pour yourself into your work, you make room for someone coming behind you.

So the question isn’t only, “What will people remember?” The greater question is, “What is my life making possible?”

HERE’S HOW WE LIVE OUT OUR LEGACY

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PAST

Learn the stories of overlooked Latinas from the past whose faith, courage, and service impacted churches and communities.

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PRESENT

Discover today's Latina voices and the roles they play to create a better world

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BECOMING

Discern what you have been given, what you are being called to do, and what you want your life to make possible.

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OUR VALUES

Legacy isn’t only what we leave behind. It’s how we live today. These six values guide how we honor the women before us and become the women we’re called to be.

Woman wearing glasses reads a book while sitting cross-legged in front of packed bookshelves.

Curiosity

We ask questions, seek wisdom, study our histories, and remain open to growth. Faith does not require us to stop thinking; it calls us to love God with our minds as well as our hearts.

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Culture

We honor the languages, histories, rhythms, faith traditions, food, art, stories, and communities that formed us. We do not have to leave our cultura behind to become who God has called us to be.

Close-up portrait of a woman with a nose piercing sitting among green houseplants in warm sunlight.

Courage

We tell the truth, answer our callings, and enter places our foremothers were told were not meant for them. Courage is not the absence of fear. It is deciding that fear will not have the final word.

Black-and-white portrait of three smiling women posing together against a plain background

Authenticity

We resist shrinking, performing, and dividing ourselves to make others comfortable. Our lives speak most powerfully when we live as our whole, God-created selves.

Protest crowd holding a cardboard sign reading “Justice” in front of a columned building

Justice

We understand faith as more than private belief. Our faith must confront what harms people, restore dignity, challenge exclusion, and help build communities in which all can flourish.

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Wholeness

We reject the idea that exhaustion, self-erasure, or suffering proves our faithfulness. We seek lives in which spirit, body, mind, relationships, joy, rest, and purpose belong together.

Smiling woman with long gray dreadlocks wearing a white dress and layered necklaces in a warmly decorated room
MEET YOUR CURATOR ✧ MEET YOUR CURATOR ✧ MEET YOUR CURATOR ✧ MEET YOUR CURATOR ✧ MEET YOUR CURATOR ✧ MEET YOUR CURATOR ✧ MEET YOUR CURATOR ✧ MEET YOUR CURATOR ✧
Collage of church photographs clipped together, showing historic church buildings, a woman speaking outdoors, and a church group portrait.

Rev. Dr. Liz RĂ­os

Rev. Dr. Elizabeth "Liz" RĂ­os is an Afro-Boricua Nuyorican educator, ecclesial strategist, and advocate for women in leadership, shaped by Manhattan's Lower East Side, Pentecostal faith, motherhood, and ministry.

Rooted in mujerista and womanist thought, and convinced that following Jesus must include pursuing justice, she has devoted her life to helping people become better humans, developing bolder leaders, and cultivating braver churches.

Latinas of Legacy grew out of Hidden Figures, her master’s project at Union Theological Seminary, which honored the overlooked spiritual matriarchs of Pentecostalism in the Northeast. Today it is a living storytelling and preservation project that celebrates leaders whose faith bore calluses (fe con callos), lifts up Latinas leading now, and empowers women to discern and build lives of legacy.

Collage honoring Bishop Dr. Rosa Marta Silva, featuring her portrait and a family photograph.

MATRIARCH HIGHLIGHT:

A Life Stitched Together by Faith, Education, and Service

A Nuyorican born in Manhattan, Bishop Dr. Rosa MarĂ­a Silva lived at the intersection of deep faith and fierce intellect. From the classroom to the pulpit to substance abuse counseling and elder care, she guided generations of Latinx students, pastored the overlooked, and treated healing as holy work.

Her story reminds us that faith can fuel education, that ministry can reach far beyond church walls, and that Latina leadership is essential to the story of the Church.

FOR LATINAS ACROSS GENERATIONS, DENOMINATIONS & VOCATIONAL CALLINGS

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FOR LATINAS ACROSS GENERATIONS, DENOMINATIONS & VOCATIONAL CALLINGS ✦

NOW IT’S

OUR TURN.

The women before us often lived without platforms, titles, resources, or recognition, yet their lives still speak. Now it’s our turn to carry that legacy forward: to remember their stories, tell our own, and live today with tomorrow in mind.

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Join our community for updates, resources, and ways to stay connected.