ABOUT LATINAS OF LEGACY
LET YOUR LIFE SPEAK
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LET YOUR LIFE SPEAK ✦
Living Legacy Now
We exist so that Latina women will not wait until the end of their lives to think about legacy. We invite them to live it now - with culture, curiosity, courage, authenticity, justice, and wholeness - so their lives can speak to the Church, their communities, and generations still to come.
Latinas of Legacy honors the faith, courage, and contributions of Latina Christian women whose stories have too often been overlooked while equipping today’s Latinas to live their own lives with intention.
Through historical preservation, storytelling, spiritual formation, intergenerational wisdom, and justice- centered community, we help Latinas remember whose shoulders they stand on, recognize the sacred value of their own voices, and consider what they will do with their one wild and precious life.
We envision generations of Christian Latinas who know their history, trust their God-given voices, and live with the courage to shape a more just and faithful future.
We imagine a Church in which Latina women are no longer treated as footnotes, hidden laborers, or occasional exceptions, but are recognized as:
→ theologians & pastors
→ prophets & organizers
→ caregivers & scholars
→ artists & builders
Our vision is for every Latina to understand that legacy is not only what is remembered after she is gone.
Meet Rev. Dr. Elizabeth Rios
I'm Rev. Dr. Elizabeth "Liz" Ríos, an Afro-Boricua Nuyorican shaped by Manhattan's Lower East Side, Pentecostal faith, motherhood, and ministry. I'm an educator, ecclesial strategist, and advocate for women in leadership, and my work is deeply informed by womanist thought and mujerista theology. At heart, I'm a Liberative Pentecostal in a mainline tradition, grounded in the belief that following Jesus must include pursuing justice.
Latinas of Legacy grew out of Hidden Figures, my master's project at Union Theological Seminary. It was a labor of love to uncover and honor the overlooked spiritual matriarchs of the Pentecostal movement in the Northeast, women whose faith shaped churches and communities but whose names rarely made it into the history books.
What began as academic research has grown into a living, expanding storytelling and historical preservation project. It chronicles religious leaders, women, whose faith bore calluses (fe con callos) because it worked, served, and struggled alongside the people.
But this work isn't only about the past. I also want to lift up the Latinas leading faithfully right now, often without platforms or recognition, and to walk with women as they discern their callings and build lives of legacy today, not someday.
Through it all, my life's work comes down to this: helping people become better humans, developing bolder leaders, and cultivating braver churches.
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.
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.
Authen-ticity
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.
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.
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.
Whole-ness
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.
Whole-ness
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.
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.
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.
FOR LATINAS ACROSS GENERATIONS, DENOMINATIONS & VOCATIONAL CALLINGS
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FOR LATINAS ACROSS GENERATIONS, DENOMINATIONS & VOCATIONAL CALLINGS ✧
Frequently Asked Questions
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Read our story our Dr. Liz’s Substack
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You don’t have to be famous. A Latina of Legacy is a woman of faith whose life left a mark on a nation, a neighborhood, a congregation, or a single family. She might be a pastor, organizer, teacher, artist, entrepreneur, or the abuela who held everyone together. We honor women across the entire Latina diaspora, from every country and generation.
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Dr. Elizabeth D. Ríos is a mujerista public theologian, educator, and strategist working at the intersection of faith, justice, leadership, and technology. A New York Rican from Manhattan's Lower East Side with roots and a home base in Santurce, Puerto Rico and Kissimmee, FL. She has spent more than 35 years in ministry including pastoring with the last 15 training faith leaders nationally and building justice-oriented communities. She is the founder of Passion2Plant and the voice behind Your Tialogian on social media. Learn more at elizabethrios.com.
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No to both. We honor our ancestors and the women still among us, especially elders whose stories we need to capture while they’re here to tell them. Faith runs deep in these stories, but legacy takes many forms, so we welcome women whose faith shaped their activism, education, art, business, or community life.
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You can nominate a woman to be profiled or add your memories of someone already on the site. Use this submission form to tell us who she is, what she did, and why she matters to you.
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The real ones. A lesson she taught you, a moment she stood up when no one else would, a recipe, a prayer, a dicho she always repeated. The ordinary and extraordinary both matter, and photos, documents, and recordings are especially welcome. Stories can be in English, Spanish, or Spanglish. ¡Cuéntalo como lo vives!
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We may lightly edit for length and clarity, but we keep your voice and the heart of your story intact. If you’re sharing about a woman who is still living, please get her blessing first. Honoring her legacy means honoring her right to tell her own story.
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Start small. Sit with your elders, ask questions, and record their voices. Write down the dichos, migration stories, recipes, and names, and label your photos. Then come back and share what you find. For more direction, visit our Live Your Legacy page.
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Share the site, nominate a woman, add your story, and invite your mother, abuela, tías, and friends to do the same. You can also donate in honor of someone special or offer your time and talents. [Link to donate]
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Yes, we love seeing these stories taught and celebrated. Please credit Dr. Liz Ríos, Latinas of Legacy, and any named storytellers. For publications or larger projects, please reach out first.
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Dr. Liz speaks on legacy, Latina leadership, faith, and justice for churches, universities, conferences, and community organizations. Book her through elizabethrios.com, email drlizrios@gmail.com, or follow @drlizrios and @yourtialogian on social media.