- Promoter] Funding for this episode of Que Pasa New Jersey with Carlos Medina has been provided by Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey, the New Jersey Economic Development Authority, the Engineer's Labor Employer Cooperative 825, Hackensack Meridian Health, PSE&G, NJM Insurance Group, PNC, Bank of America.

- Welcome to Que Pasa.

I'm Carlos Medina.

Representation matters, and today, we spotlight two Latinas leading the way in fields where women, especially Latinas, are still underrepresented, law and media.

Melinda Colon Cox stands among New Jersey's top lawyers.

She now serves as general counsel and chief compliance officer at New Jersey Community Capital, shaping policy and championing affordable housing for underserved communities across New Jersey.

Marisol Gonzalez is an award-winning filmmaker and producer whose documentaries and storytelling bring Latino voices to global audiences.

Her latest project captures the life of golf legend, Chi-Chi Rodriguez.

Los Mujares redefining representation to inspiring journeys with big impact.

Let's get started.

(upbeat Latin music) - You're one of those people that should have had a show for a long time.

It's amazing.

- It's amazing.

- It's amazing.

Our first guest is Melinda Colon Cox, General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer at New Jersey Community Capital.

Like me, she's a lawyer.

Melinda has been named a super lawyer, rising star, and highlighted as a Latina leader to watch.

Beyond the honor, she uses her expertise to champion underserved communities and affordable housing.

Melinda, welcome to Que Pasa.

- Thank you.

- (speaks in a foreign language).

How has that played a role not only in the law, but all the good things you do for the community?

- Sure, thank you and thank you for having me here today.

Being (speaks in a foreign language) is extremely important to me.

It's the person who I am and it embodies my passion, my drive, my perseverance, and truly it all stems from my family, right?

Both my mother and my father were born in Puerto Rico.

My mother only went to school till about fifth grade, because her parents died when she was two, and her grandparents actually raised her but pulled her out, because they needed help living and being taken care of.

So I come from very humble beginnings.

She came here when she was about 17 years old and actually in Jersey City and worked really hard.

She was going night school to learn Spanish and then had to work three to four jobs at any given time.

So I always say that her roots were Puerto Rico.

My roots are Puerto Rico, even though I was born here in the US, and she taught me so much, and she taught me about our culture and our community and how bright and vibrant and how important family is but also giving back to the community.

Growing up, I really took that to heart, 'cause I always felt like I had to work a little bit harder than some of my other peers who were not Puerto Rican or Latino.

I took that in very passionately.

So I decided very at a very young age that I wanted to become a lawyer, 'cause I wanted to help my family, and I wanted to be able to give back to my mother to help her have the life that she really deserved after sacrificing so much for me, and so that really just embodied a lot of my trajectory of where I ended up going.

I went to Union College in upstate New York.

I majored in political science, very clearly wanted to go to law school.

So after I graduated, after working for two years, I went to Rutgers Newark.

There, I became very embodied in the Latino community, and I got involved with what I learned for the first time was the Hispanic Bar Association of New Jersey.

- How have you seen the law evolve for Latinas, in particular, the time that you've been a member of the New Jersey Bar?

- Sure, thank you.

The tough thing about our profession is that when I at least first entered it, and even today, it was very heavily male-dominated.

So you don't see a lot of women in general, and then when you talk about Latinas, the population dwindles significantly.

I think I read somewhere that only about 2% of attorneys nationwide in the US are Latina, and then when you start thinking about corporate law and fortune 500, I think less than 1% are in the executive level at the C-suite level.

So it really opens up my mind and idea of the fact that we don't have enough representation and the importance and the unique aspects that we bring to the law.

It makes a difference, and so I'm a staunch advocate of making sure that the profession continues to go in that direction by empowering others and helping them move up the chain.

- Great, so your general counsel at a CDFI called New Jersey Community Capital.

For our viewers, Community Development Financial Institution, a CDFI, they play a pivotal role in New Jersey for those businesses and people that are unbankable, a bank won't talk to them.

So they go to a CDFI, which helps 'em with training and for reasonable terms for their loans.

So tell me about what you do there and that experience, and again, of course, giving back as you always do and the feeling when you even help somebody get their first home or their first business.

- Our mission is truly to help bridge that racial wealth gap by providing all these lending opportunities, financial opportunities through loans, business loans, affordable housing.

We also do a lot with community development and community facilities like charter schools, daycare centers, health facilities, and the idea and thought process behind that is that by putting money and investing in our communities, we're creating job wealth, job opportunities, home ownership for the first time opportunities.

We have this wonderful down payment assistance program that lets people buy their first house and create generational wealth.

This is how you uplift the communities, right?

You give them the opportunities that traditional banks and financial institutions can't provide, and it's the best feeling when you see someone have their first house.

When you see someone do that ribbon cutting at their new business that's gonna open up for the community, and many of the businesses that we're supporting are bringing other community members in and giving them equal opportunities and similar opportunities.

So the social impact and the mission alignment is everything.

- I used to be a board member at the Hispanic Bar Association.

You are their illustrious president.

Tell me a little bit about the HBA.

How do they elevate Latino voices?

How are they helping more Latinos enter the legal profession?

- Yeah, so as you know, the Hispanic Bar Association is very near and dear to my heart because we really are like a familia.

Like the Latino professions in New Jersey are a small group, but we're a very tight-knit group, and we're always empowering and elevating each other.

The HBA of New Jersey is probably the largest and most active bar associations for Latinos nationwide.

Certainly at least the one of the most active, and we're a family.

So we are not only helping each other to find job opportunities to help elevate people throughout their careers, we're also going to the law schools.

We're talking to the law students, helping them and mentoring them to figure out what their career trajectory may look like.

We even go to local high schools now to help with the pipeline, but in addition to the Bar Association, we're also very community-driven and active with the community, 'cause we're teaching them things like know your rights, immigration rights, especially with the current administration and the state of the political climate.

So it's a really, it's an active bar association, A lot of great folks that have gone up to even judgeships to the judiciary.

I think you've had some here in Que Pasa.

- Yes, yes, yeah.

- So yeah, so it's a wonderful way to move up and get involved if you are a Latino attorney who's looking to get into a network of people who are gonna help you in your career, it's certainly something that I could recommend.

- Can you tell us the website, and we'll put a little-- - Yes, absolutely.

It's www.njhba.org.

- Excellent, excellent.

Now the pandemic hits, and you react in a positive way, like many of us Latinos did during the pandemic, and you launched the W-E-L-L, Well Conference.

Tell me a little bit about that and why it was so important to also support women in politics and law.

- So I was the first president under the COVID when things transitioned and everyone started to go remote.

So we definitely had to pivot and shift, and we took it with stride, and the Well Conference, the Women's Empowerment Leadership and Law Conference, was actually already enacted prior to me.

I think we were going on our 10th year, I wanna say, but that was always traditionally held at Rutgers University on a weekend.

It's an all day conference where women come together, Latinas, and we're speaking to each other.

We're having very candid and honest conversations about work-life balance, career trajectory, how you can get to where you want to go, and we also bring in a lot of vendors that are women-owned vendors, Latina-owned, and so it's a really nice weekend of coming together.

- You often compare Latinas to unicorns.

They're rare.

They're using discipline, hard work, tenacity.

We use the word grit a lot here on the show.

So tell me, who are some unicorns in your life and what makes them a unicorn?

- Well, I have so many.

I'm blessed.

I have a lot of Latinas who I call near and dear friends, past presidents of the Hispanic Bar Association, certainly, Anna Maria Tahada and Julia Lopez are two very good friends.

They're both attorneys and partners who have just helped to elevate me, but of course, as I mentioned earlier, even my mother.

She's not a traditional professional that you would think of, but she is my unicorn, because she is just so magical.

I think of other people like Judge Salas, who has an amazing story here in New Jersey, and she is such an inspiration.

She's also a past president of the Hispanic Bar Association, and we really are blessed here in New Jersey with some really amazing Latinas.

We just wanna see more, and I think it's about empowering the next generation.

- Sure, lastly, I'd like to ask your chair of the Christian Rivera Foundation.

Tell me, what is the Christian Rivera Foundation and what are, you know, what's its mission?

- So another passion of mine, the Christian Rivera Foundation is a nonprofit that has a mission to find a cure for DIPG, which is the diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma.

It's a mouthful, DIPG, and so what that is is a really rare, aggressive, inoperable brain tumor that unfortunately there's not a cure for, and it primarily impacts young children anywhere from the age, I would say, from four to about 12 years old and in some young adults too, but mostly in that age range, and sadly, most of those kids won't survive more than two years.

The survival rate is abysmal, and we're trying to raise awareness, raise much needed funds to help support medical research and the clinical trials that are out there, but the interesting story about the Christian Rivera Foundation is the founder, John Gunge Rivera.

He sadly lost his son, Christian Rivera, who the foundation's named after to DIPG after a two years long battle, but John was already in the music industry before that.

He was one of the top Latino music producers at the time, and so when his son passed away, he was like, I'm going to make this my lifetime goal to find a cure for DIPG, and he used his celebrity status and network to bring in some really amazing people into the foundation.

So today, we have like Kenan Thompson on our board from SNL.

We have Louise Guzman, who's currently starting on Wednesdays in Netflix.

We have Berto Colon who was also a guest here in Que Pasa who's just joined the board.

All these great people are coming together to help us try to find a cure and to raise awareness.

So there is hope out there that we'll find a cure.

- Thank you, Melinda.

It's been a pleasure chatting with you and keep doing the good work that you're doing.

- Thank you, thank you.

You as well.

This has been so much fun.

Thank you for having me.

(upbeat Latin music) - Our next guest is Mariso Gonzalez, a Dominican filmmaker, writer, and producer based in New York.

She works at HBO and earned international recognition for her award-winning documentary Children Behind the Wall.

She has spoken at the United Nations on the role film plays, both in education and social change.

Marisol's latest project, Remembering Big, the one Chi-Chi Rodriguez story premiered at the Boston Film Festival.

She's also working on writing her first memoir.

Welcome to Que Pasa.

- Thank you.

Thank you for having me.

- Let's dive into your story though, Mericana, living in New York.

Tell me how being Dominicana and the New York experience got you into a career in filmmaking, telling stories, being a storyteller.

- You know that we Latinos and Caribbeans, we love to tell stories.

I grew up with McCuen parents, and they are, I came here when I was 13, but those 10, 12 years, every night there was a story.

Every night, my grandfather, who they both lived, that they, (speaks in a foreign language), the dictatorship, they always had something to say.

There was not electricity sometimes, and we were like scared or excited about it.

What are you gonna tell us today?

So I grew up with that.

I remember I used to look up at the stars under a coconut tree, and I used to dream.

I had no idea what was New York, but I used to dream being like in a big city with tall buildings, and it became true.

- So tell me how you brought your storytelling to HBO.

- Well, I went to school for journalism.

I started actually at the news.

I started working at Univision, I did Telemundo, and through that, I was so lucky to cover one of the World Cup in 1994.

I'm not that old.

I started working in sports for a while and from there, HBO called me to work on their sports content, boxing, real sports.

It was interesting, because I wasn't really aware of how big they were.

I was so into my own little world, and I remember when I started working, I was like, okay, this is okay.

This is a nice gig, and then 26 years after, I'm still there.

- You've received proclamations from the state of New York for the work you do for the Latino Hispanic community.

Tell me how those accolades and those recognitions shape your vision when you're working on a documentary or storytelling in a film or other environment.

- Well, it's always nice to be recognized.

I'm not gonna say, oh, I don't care about it.

When they call me for that and some of the other things that I have been recognized, I felt really humble, and I think about my grandparents.

I think about that little girl that used to dream under the starts.

I have to be that person who can help our Latino next generation, my son, he's gonna be a father, my grandchild who's coming soon.

I really would like to be somebody that that they can look up and say, if she did it, I can do it.

- Children Behind the Wall, a documentary about children in Tijuana got international acclaim.

Tell me how you got involved in that story and how creating that documentary, I know it had a huge impact on your life, but tell us about that impact.

- Children Behind the Wall changed my life.

As I said, I started in news, and I did sports, and I had that little feeling like I need to go back to news, and I started doing freelancing as I was working at HBO, and I did a Sin Fronteras for Telemundo, and there was a story about a child who was trying to cross the border, and he got terribly, you know, like raped and abused.

It was terrible.

I'm talking to you about 2005, 2005.

That story wasn't really out there.

People didn't wanna talk about it, because it's hurtful.

So I got into that.

I got into the border.

I was like, how can parents can send kids to cross the border by them, you know, with (speaks in a foreign language), that's by themselves.

That's crazy.

My son wasn't seven years old at the time.

I was like, oh my God, this is crazy.

So I got into that.

I got a connection in Tijuana, and that's the way it started.

I traveled there three years.

It took a long time to, for me to make my documentary, because I did not have the experience.

For me, I see Children Behind the Wall, it was like my PhD.

Now I can do it very easily.

I can see the story.

It changed my life, because I saw the pain.

There were a lot of kids that they were trying to cross the border, and they got stuck in Tijuana, and they got involved in drug addiction, prostitution.

It was tough, it was tough, and I came here, as I say, I came here when I was 13.

I came legally to the country.

I had no idea, you know, I knew people, of course, that they've been through that, but to see the border at the time, it was very impactful.

- You've spoken at the United Nations, which is very impressive, and your topic was how film could educate, how it could effectuate change.

Tell me about that experience.

- Carlos, it was an amazing experience, because when I was working at Univision for the National News, one of the things that I used to do, it was going to the United Nations to cover the news, and I remember, so being sitting there talking there, it was like a full circle.

It was a beautiful experience talking to different people, different countries, about the importance of filmmaking and telling stories.

This is the way people feel related to you, to life.

So it was an amazing story, and when I see the picture, I'm like, oh my God, I cannot believe I did that.

- Now, when I first met you, you were talking about a project, and I'm happy to say it's come to fruition.

I'm gonna read it just so I don't make a mistake.

"Remembering Big Juan" in quotes, "Chi-Chi Rodriguez' Story", his story from Waterboy to Hall of Fame.

Tell me about that.

What a project, wow.

- Chi-Chi Rodriguez has a beautiful, inspiring story.

We need those kind of stories now.

He came from a very, very humble beginnings from Puerto Rico, and he was in the army, and he started playing golf when he was like 27.

He taught himself how to play golf, and he is in the Hall of Fame, the only Puerto Rican in the Hall of Fame.

He dedicated himself to help kids.

He has a foundation, beautiful person.

Chi-Chi Rodriguez, he was playing in the 1960s in elite sports, and he never changed who he was.

He used to dance in the green, salsa.

He used to do the toriador.

People were mad, like what he's doing?

He's gonna damage the green, and he never, never changed who he was.

He was Chi-Chi Rodriguez from Puerto Rican, the Latino, and he loved to talk.

He actually was one of the, I think, one of the biggest players who help the sports of golf to be beyond people who liked golf.

You understand?

He brought people from all over.

We need to understand that you don't need to change.

If you are authentic, if you love what you do, people will see beyond everything.

They're gonna see you essence, who you are.

He gave so much.

He was such a generous person.

Even with me, with us, with my co-producer and I, we went to his house and at the time that we went to his house, his wife was very sick, and he opened his heart, and he was there and he was like, he was open.

It was generous to be giving his time to us.

So that was what I really, I always going to treasure that.

- So I heard you're also working on a memoir.

Tell me about it, and isn't it wonderful that people could know your journey so they could have a role model, make sure they do the right thing, any missteps you might have made, they'll learn without having that extra pain?

So tell me about the project and what inspired you to get working on that.

- Well, I always wanted to write a book.

I thought about, why not write a book about my journey exactly as an immigrant?

That little girl that used to look at the starts and dream big, and I came from a very humble background, came here, went to college, and end up at HBO and making films.

So it's about my struggle as an immigrant learning English.

I came here in the eighties.

It was very, very cold coming from the Caribbean, and then I had like, you know, it's very funny and very musical.

I love music as a Dominican.

So it's just my story that I hope it will inspire people that when you dream about something, when you really want something, as Paolo Coello says, "The universe will come conspire to make sure "that you get it."

- I love it, I love it.

What advice would you give young people looking to get into film, television?

It's a very difficult industry, especially for Latinas.

- Well, I think the main thing is if you really wanna do it, you just have to work hard.

You have to work hard.

You have to look for opportunities.

You cannot be afraid of going out there.

It is difficult and media, right now, is in crisis, I believe.

It's changing.

It's not like in crisis.

I think it's changing.

It's just changing.

So there are a lot of ways now that you can actually make stories.

So don't be afraid.

Just take your phone, and do something, put it on YouTube or put it on whatever you think, and as long as you don't lose yourself trying to please the audience, I think there always gonna be people that they're gonna like what you do.

So just stay on course.

Don't lose hope and work hard.

- I love it.

Marisol, thank you so much for telling important stories that we all want to hear (upbeat Latin music) and the community needs to hear.

So really from the bottom of my heart, thank you.

- Thank you.

- Thanks for having joined us as we honored leadership and elevated representation showing that Latino stories aren't just ours.

They're part of a larger truth that benefits everyone.

Catch full episodes anytime at pbs.org and subscribe to our YouTube channel for more behind the scenes content.

Until next time, novemos.

- [Promoter] Funding for this episode of Que Pasa New Jersey with Carlos Medina has been provided by Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey, the New Jersey Economic Development Authority, the Engineer's Labor Employer Cooperative 825, Hackensack Meridian Health, PSE&G, NJM Insurance Group, PNC, Bank of America.

(upbeat Latin music) Thanks to the statewide Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of New Jersey.

Find out more about our familia at shccnj.org.

This has been a production of the Modesto Educational Foundation.