Salud is supported by Capital Group and Community First Health Plans.

Salud is a program honoring great Latinas who have done wonderful things in various industries, various careers.

And so we're going to hear from some of them here tonight.

Are we ready for SALUD?

I'm Melanie Mendez Gonzalez, host of Salud.

Here on with our live studio audience.

Over the past five years, Salud has introduced you to dozens of incredible Latina leaders from across San Antonio.

You've seen their stories of success, but the stories don't end there.

Every one of our Salud guests has had to deal with some bumps and bruises along the way.

So today we want to dive in deeper into how they reach success with stories of strength and perseverance.

With me is San Antonio broadcasting legend, Cailin arts host and producer, and our Salud co-host, Jesse.

Thank you.

Thank you.

It is truly.

I'm sure you feel the same way.

This is truly an honor, and I'm so proud to be here with all of you and these women.

Oh my goodness, these women.

When we say they're incredible, they truly have lived what we're here to hear about tonight.

Strength and perseverance.

They did not get to where they are.

Like many of you, without that level of strength and perseverance.

And I just know in my heart that once you hear their stories and hopefully by the end of our conversation, you will feel leaving, hopeful and inspired.

Thank you so much for being here.

I'm already inspired being on this stage, so let's get to it.

Our first segment is focused on success stories.

We welcome two incredible women from the world of media Award winning journalist, radio host, podcaster, and broadcasting executive blanket the column and publisher, radio host and digital influencer.

Live from the South Side April Montrose.

Ladies.

Hi.

Thank you.

We're happy to be here.

So excited that we're going to start with you.

Okay.

You are in the Texas Radio Hall of Fame.

You were on the broadcasting Board of governors, but I imagine people didn't just open those doors for you.

How did you open those doors in your career?

Well, you know, the first door opened at many years ago.

I started as a studio artist when it was in Austin, and when my father passed away, young and I came to San Antonio with my mother.

Those great people gave me the names of the people I should go speak to.

And the first door opened at Kay Buck, the country kicker, and they said, well, darling, what's your name?

And I said, Blanchet.

They said, oh, no, darling, if it doesn't fit in a belt buckle, we can't say it.

And so they gave me the nickname of beak.

But they also said, now listen, we don't have fellas on the radio here.

I only have men.

Rather we don't have women on the air.

I said, well, that's okay if I write the commercials and there's a part for a woman, can I do it?

And they went, yeah.

So I wrote myself and all the commercials.

And another station of 50,000 watt Monster Kite radio hired me, and that's how it started.

And this other very smart woman, a determined woman.

You have created really an empire.

And really, by promoting a side of town that many people well overlooked, somehow the South side was overshadowed by the North side.

And when you had that idea, this is what I want to do.

I want to promote the South Side.

What kind of reaction did you get?

Jessie.

Not a very good one.

It was my own community that didn't take it seriously.

They didn't think our stories were worth telling.

And I reached out to many community leaders at the time to give them my idea.

Just help me get in the spaces to tell these stories, to help elevate the platform that I was in the beginning stages of, and it wasn't taken seriously at all.

What did some of them tell you had the nerve to tell you?

I had one tell me the south side.

What are you going to write about?

Lowriders and more.

Oh, gee.

And this is someone that is very well known in the community.

And look at you now.

Well.

Little did they know that I was very business savvy since I was eight years old.

Tell me about that.

Because, again, how did you keep going when everybody was kind of looking at you like, yeah, right.

So I did get in some spaces.

And at the time a lot of the individuals that were inviting me, they were inviting me to tell the stories as a social media influencer.

I was creating a business and I told my mentor, I hate that they keep calling me a social media influencer, like I have an LLC.

It's a DBA.

Like I'm trying to really do something, elevate my my community, tell the stories and support my family.

And her advice was, so what?

Let them call you what they want because you're there.

So I tuned out the noise and I made a lot of friends.

And by that I highlighted my community, my business owners that you don't see on the news, that you don't read in the paper.

And before I knew what they're telling their business owner friends, their business owner friends have kids that are star athletes and it's just snowballing.

And before I know it, here we are telling these positive stories of the South Side.

And look at the south side now.

It's right.

I see you nodding your head a lot to what April saying?

Yeah, I can imagine through the journey there might have been times where you felt like maybe.

Do I belong here?

Am I on the right path?

Tell us about how you found your your way.

Well, I never really felt like it wasn't on the right path, but I know there were a lot of people that didn't think it was convenient that I was on that path.

But, you know, part of the thing that we as Latinas have to have, we can't lose our ganas, okay?

And even when hard things happen to you, believe me, I was fired when I was pregnant, and I, you know, I've had every kind of crazy thing happened to me.

But in that process.

I always remembered a little secret that my mother would say to me, it's when the darkest times come.

You keep that light going on because you're going to find another way to go.

And you'll say, why is this happening this way?

And ultimately you make a lot of friends.

Im telling you, what's so great about San Antonio?

You've got a lot of commodities.

And when I've gone through hard times, they've been the first ones to say, you're not going to quit now, are you kidding?

Get up.

There's another job over there.

Go get it.

I remember my mother saying to me, get in the car.

I saw there was a job interview at a radio station.

You're a big ham.

You're going to get that job.

And the thing of it is, is keeping going when things look the toughest.

I give a tribute to people that were here in San Antonio, Maria Espirito, all these wonderful women.

When I had hard times and I had worked at Cts-v and was going through kind of a tough period, and I had met a woman that I had worked with, a chorus brewery, okay.

Helping them with Latino audience.

Mrs.

cause had been named an ambassador of the Americas by Mr.

Reagan, by President Reagan.

She said, well, you go to Washington.

Will you go to Latin America with me and help me do the first entrepreneurial conference?

I said, okay.

And she and I became kind of friends.

And when I got to go to Marla with all these big, powerful women, I wasn't carrying her bag.

I was cheering the session in Espanol.

Okay.

Because rebuttal lingual all right.

But when I came back and thinking about this, quickly tie this up.

I'm standing in my bathroom.

I know this is an intimate thing to tell you.

All dressed with all my Mexican dresses, right?

My best is on putting my makeup on, and I'm telling a friend of mine, if I could just get a call from someone that would pay my airfare because, you know, we're all having a hard time, put me up in a hotel room and ask me to tell them about what happened in Guatemala.

I know I could make that decision five minutes later as God is my witness, Ella Mendoza, call me to go make a speech at the channel in Washington DC.

Paid my airfare.

My hotel in that audience was a friend of mine, Shirley Martinez, whose husband was the head of the transition for President Bush.

She knew I could see.

Will you ever see the inaugural?

I went to go meet a friend of mine at the census.

He said, listen, come over and meet a friend of mine.

You speak Spanish, right?

I said, yeah, he said, the woman said, Will you become the head of the Hispanic marketing for the 1990 census if you speak Spanish?

Yeah.

It's Dennis keeping going.

So having heard each of your breathtaking stories took my breath away.

Literally.

Your stories.

How are you going to try to help those who are still on that at that door, waiting to get in, that you found oftentimes shut in your face and they're outside.

Me, me?

I want to be next.

How are you trying to help them?

First of all, I don't wait for doors to open for me.

If you met my dad, you'd understand why.

He was very hard on me and would always tell us, my brothers and I. If no one is giving you an opportunity, create it and just keep working at it.

And that's what I've done.

So now I don't wait for doors to be open.

I create them and I invite people and I invite those that do the work.

I mentor a lot of business owners.

There's friends, nonprofits, there's all kinds of people that support me.

But that's why because I support them.

I'm opening doors for whatever it is I'm connecting them.

But because I see them, I see them doing the work.

They just need the exposure.

And now that I'm in the position that I'm in, I'm can do that.

And you mentioned something else.

She talked about friends.

The great thing about radio and television here back when I started.

So we had to work in the community.

Okay.

We got to know people, all kinds of people, all the city council, the head of the heart Association, the police department.

And later when I went to Washington, D.C.

it's not any different.

You make those friends friends help you with ways saying, hey, did you know there's an opportunity at such?

Have you thought about this and that?

And don't close your mind off to things that you think I don't, I don't know.

That's not what I really want to do.

Think about it, because you may do it, but while you're doing it, you're going to find another opportunity to help you to get where you're going to go in another way.

That's right.

You know, I think a lot of women don't do that because they have what we're calling us imposter syndrome.

So have you to ever felt that or if you have it.

What advice do you give to.

Well, I have a lot of I coach over 40 people for the epic times.

Everybody has imposter syndrome.

I'm not worthy.

I tell them.

You have to be like a five year old.

You have to say, okay, you know, you're legitimate.

You're right.

You're scared.

I'm going to put you over here right now.

We'll throw up later.

But when you get on that stage, just do it.

Get out there and do it, and then you can come back and throw up, but go on the stage and do it.

I mean, it's scary.

That first inaugural that I had to MC, I bought this beautiful ball ground here in San Antonio.

It was so gorgeous.

I got such good price for it and all these wonderful performers, Freddie Fender, all these great performers.

It was a Latino ball, right?

They had so many wires on there that when I walked on the stage, I tripped and I fell over like a Barbie doll with my legs sticking up in the sky.

They had to come over and turn me over.

And I finally said, because I had been in radio.

Now that I've got your attention.

It helps to have a sense of humor.

I think for me, when when you're in a situation that you can open doors for people, what's imposter syndrome?

You know what?

I have never really struggled with the traditional imposter syndrome.

I think because the way I was raised, I know I belong in that room, but if it's not meant for me, I don't need to be in it.

My issue is not imposter syndrome.

It's I am so goal oriented.

I don't like to leave projects unfinished.

So I'm just going and going and going and going that I'm like, oh my God.

I won like five awards last year.

What win?

Because I'm just so in my zone doing the next thing.

And while you're doing it, you're seeing somebody that you know that they're afraid and you can calm them down.

Don't worry about it.

Take a deep breath.

It's going to be okay.

We're going to get through this.

Because what we do with what we've learned and not being arrogant about it, but be nice about it.

You calm them down, right?

That's right.

I think you've calmed all of us down with your funny stories, and I'll remember to throw up later.

But before that, are there any questions from the audience members?

Please come on up.

David Garcia, former district clerk.

Let me ask you this.

What prompted you often beginning to get involved in the communities?

What got you started in the first place?

I think it was because of my my father.

God bless him.

My father's wisest words among many, he would say, never say never, because you never know.

And that was almost like a challenge to me because I was encountering all kinds, especially in news, especially in a very competitive business.

I thought, well, I like imposter syndrome.

I don't know if I could do this, but low and behold, I could.

And you won't know until you give it a shot.

You know, when I was a little girl, my grandmother lived in Tijuana.

Okay, we go visit my grandmother in Tijuana all the time.

I was there a little six year old kid, and I come back and seeing all these people selling the Velvet Elvises and all this kind of stuff, you know, and the US and I laugh about it.

And my mother said to me, never looked down at people who can make things from nothing.

Yes, you can make something of yourself from nothing if you try hard enough.

And then she said, you be good to the community.

You never treat anybody better or worse or not better than you.

But you're not better than they are either.

For me, it's been my family.

I come from a blue collar family.

I saw them help the schools, the churches, and nobody was sharing those stories.

Everything on the news about the South side was negative.

The second thing, when I got older, I owned a spa for 13 years.

I met a woman that I helped military veteran.

I didn't know at the time she was a publisher.

She's the one that trained me.

So because I'm in the position I'm in now, you better believe I open doors for Latinas.

Thank you.

April.

And thank you so much.

Hello.

As impressive as your backgrounds are, as ambitious as you guys are.

Tell me what you do for yourselves to prioritize your mental and physical health.

Nothing.

It's who your partner is.

I have a partner that will tell me.

That's enough.

Get off the phone.

I like to be at home and relax.

Just, you know, not be dressed up.

Be with my dog.

Not on social media.

None of it.

Just none of it.

That's what I do.

I have a little bit different one, because for me, I'm still working.

But the main thing I do every day and I know this is going to sound courting because I'm your basic Catholic.

I say the rosary every day and it calms me down, but part of that is I get to say thank you.

Thank you for all the blessings.

Thank you for my kids.

Thank you for my grandkids.

Thank you for the opportunities that are coming to my door that you want me to take on so I can make this place a better.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you so much for your question.

I had a glass ceiling.

I had a few glass walls.

And I said, you know, I just I needed to make a change.

And if I was ever going to be a CEO or president of a company, I needed to create that opportunity on my own.

I remember sitting in these huge conference rooms full of men and just not being heard.

You know, I just felt I didn't have a voice back then.

I would chime in on on whatever the discussion was, and it was almost like I was being dismissed.

I remember walking out of those conference rooms being so frustrating, because the things that I was saying made a lot of sense.

They were not taking a woman's perspective in some of the decisions that they were making.

That was the biggest challenge I to to find that voice and to use that voice.

I started my own business.

Over time, I got more bold and more brave and more fearless.

You know, I took everything I learned from my DJ years, my years in corporate America and just put it all into market vision.

I had no clue to how to start a business.

I didn't know what was allowed.

Not allow.

I didn't know the law.

The business law.

Well, I wanted to do the entire Teresa link.

That's what I wanted to bring out to the market.

But handling raw meat, specifically raw pork.

That's a very tricky, very risky.

And it requires a lot of money, which I didn't have.

I thought, this is the end of the line for me.

Is this it?

I searched programs, places where I could get all this information and I found launches, geekdom.

I started to go to those programs, so they kind of came me blueprint, you know, and how to start a business.

And then I thought, so it pork is the problem.

If Romney is a problem, just pick it up.

That day I brought the pace.

So just the starter, the natural flavor right there.

It worked.

You never know what happens when you're open for a new way for your business to operate.

I'm still learning.

It's the entrepreneurial journey.

It's like that.

So just breathe in.

Remember why you want to do this.

Why your why is very important.

As you've heard, no woman achieved success without challenges.

It takes strength and perseverance.

Our next guests have climbed some mountains to be able to see the view from the top.

We welcome a leader in education, a former teacher, principal and now the CEO of City Education Partners, Daniel Fields, and a woman whose face and voice is known to many of us.

Singer songwriter, The Princess of Music and a PhD recipient.

Thank you very much.

Doctor Patsy Torres, thank you so much for being here.

Thank you.

At first, just very briefly tell the folks what your PhD is in and you got it from.

It's an education and organizational leadership, and it's from the University of the Incarnate Word, San Antonio.

No mass, no mass.

Is that all?

Yeah.

Doctor Torres.

I mean, this is Doctor Torres, and truly.

So you've lived in two very different worlds.

I mean, music and entertainment and academia.

So tell me about.

Okay, what kind of barriers did you encounter in both fields?

Did you.

What kind?

Well, first of all, I call myself an educator because I do education and entertainment.

I had planned, since I was five years old to be a medical doctor, like my grandfather, Doctor William Torres.

I made all these plans when I was five.

I was like, I already believed in Jesus.

And I was like, Jesus is going to do everything.

And so faith has always been my foundation, always in everything I do.

So my plan was to be a doctor and then I just I started playing trumpet in high school because my sister picked up saxophone, and I wanted to get out of class so that I could go to pep rallies.

And then we made a little group, and after graduation, I was using the money from the group to pay for my college.

So it worked out perfect.

But then when the band started getting me to sing, I got discovered just very quickly and things just started happening and I'm trying to go to school and I'm doing music, and I wasn't doing good in either one.

I mean, I wasn't giving it my all, I couldn't it was too hard.

And so when I graduated my my first degree, which was in science because I was going to be pre-med, calculus and Trig, biology, zoology, inorganic chemistry, and I sat down with my grandfather and hoping that he would, you know, he he'd guide me.

I was waiting for him to say, okay, let's hit the books.

And instead he said, you have a God given gift.

You could do preventative medicine.

You could be a doctor of the soul.

Said, I think you should sing.

I couldn't believe that.

I believe sometimes God speaks through people.

I think he was speaking through my grandfather that day to guide me, and I didn't.

I never dreamed of being a singer or being in music.

I just dreamed of making a difference and being a healer like my grandfather.

And the barriers was just usually finances.

But the band made enough money that I could pay for the school.

But the University of Incarnate Word asked me if I could do promotion.

They could only pay me with semester hours.

That's how it started.

And after I made I graduated summa cum laude.

Then they offered me my Masters scholarship, and I graduated with distinction 4.0.

And my professors and the principal, the people there, they said, if you want to go for your PhD, we'll give you a scholarship.

And my professors were you can't leave this on the table.

And I said, I guess God wants me to keep doing this.

That's right.

Yeah.

But the beauty of it was when I was just about to finish my studies, one of one of my classmates said, what's it going to feel like when they call you Doctor Torres?

And I realized God made my dream come true.

There you go.

And I could be a doctor of the spirit.

Preventative medicine.

Daily doctor, is a story.

Reminds me about how we don't always become maybe what we thought we were supposed to be, or who others told us we were supposed to be.

What was the journey like for you?

I grew up in the west side of San Antonio.

I now live in the South Side, but I grew up in the west side of San Antonio, and I went to 19 schools before graduating high school.

Not because my family was in the military, but because we were extremely poor.

And so I never really received any messages of what I should and shouldn't be.

You know, like you were a kid and then all of a sudden you're in high school and life's around the corner.

By the time I entered high school, that was my 19th school and I was functionally illiterate.

I had dropped out in middle school.

I'd been in the juvenile justice system, so almost everybody I met told me that it was too late.

But I do have to say I had a classroom teacher, a main named Julie McGuire.

She is still around, you know.

She's amazing.

She's still we're still connected.

And I love getting to see her and talk to her.

She was really there for me, and she saw my potential before I could even see it for myself.

She saw through the rough exterior and the angry teenager and the attitude and the, you know, the red wing boots and the earrings and all the things to what I could be.

And she treated me like that, Dahlia, every day until I believed that for myself.

And I was able to graduate top ten in my class, go to college.

And she was really the motivator for me to go into education because I thought, wow, you know, nobody can control what happens to you in life, but there is power in the people in a school, and there's power in the relationship of a classroom teacher.

And I wanted to be that kind of person, to see yourself in other young women and other young girls at you encounter all the time.

Of course.

Yeah, all the time.

That's all the time.

Talk about that.

And how do you deal with them?

How do you try to reach them?

Oh my goodness.

Well, now I have to talk about ISIS.

So in my organization, I get the chance to engage with a lot of different schools and cast schools in San Antonio was having a gala for not a gala.

It was a play that they had put on.

And, you know, everybody came out on the stage and folks were asking questions and somebody asked the question of, you know, you went to different schools before coming to cast, cast as a choice school.

What has it been like coming to that school from all these different neighborhoods?

And ISIS got up on the stage and she said, well, you know, I went from being on top of my class at my school in the linear feeder pattern, and then I came here and I was not, and I didn't really feel like I belonged.

And so I texted Jean Russell and I said, Jean, does she have a mentor?

You know.

And when Jean asked her if she wanted a mentor, she said, what did I do wrong?

And it it was really eye opening, opening to me because I felt like, you know, maybe young women don't understand the power of a mentor.

And, you know, she thought about it over Christmas break and reconnected.

And, you know, I found out how important it was to have those relationships and to spend time, whether it's younger women in the professional field, whether it's young women.

I mean, you don't have to look very far to find somebody that you can invest your time and energy in and show them love and show them, support and encourage them, you know, and she they're everywhere, young women and young men.

I think that every young adult, every child really needs additional people outside of the folks in their home to care about them and to want to spend their time with them.

Does that ring true for you as well?

Yes.

Well, when I when I started in the music, there was only a few female singers at the time, but they didn't really help me.

So later on, when I started being the the main singer at the different concerts and started having the opening acts and, and I groups would be opening up for me, I treated them different.

I tried to help them and when girls came to me, I would advise them.

I'd bring them on stage and introduce them and give them a chance to to feel what it's like.

I could because I guess that was part of me wanting to make a difference.

And a lot of those girls that I helped are doing great right now.

You'll know who they are.

They're doing great and I'm so proud of them.

I know that they're continuing it.

They're continuing it and and paying it forward by mentoring other girls.

So the attitude is different now.

Now the girls are helping each other.

In fact, I think Latinas in general are helping each other more than they used to.

They used to think, oh, there can only be one.

There was like, we're competition.

I remember being doing an interview and they said, oh, is so-and-so your competition?

I said, she's mine to sister.

We're not boxers or fighters.

And I love that, you know.

Yeah.

And they were surprised.

They wanted to hear rare, you know, they wanted to hear some stuff.

No, these are my sisters.

They need to continue if to music is going to continue our culture, our Jara.

It's a I see music as family music because everyone can enjoy it all ages.

So for having these girls and guys like you said, I said there can continue it.

We're long gone.

Doctor Torres, I feel like what you're doing with with girls and guys and you as well, the mentorship, you're helping break down some biases and possibly some racism as showing up as Latina leaders.

But I imagine it's something that you both still face in, in your work.

Can you talk about how you overcome those?

I would say in the beginning in San Antonio, I didn't really feel anything.

I felt like my my grandfather was very positive about it.

You can do whatever you want.

Being a girl and being Latina had no difference.

Looking back, sometimes I say, oh, I was treated different, but I didn't realize it, you know?

And you just, you wonder, why did they act that way?

Or how come they passed me up?

So.

And it's still real.

I mean, I think it's very obvious nowadays that it's it's real, but we just have to demand respect.

We have to be professional.

We have to educate ourselves.

And as educators, we it is our job to elevate other people, inspire them, share our education.

That's what we bring them out of the dark, into the light.

That's what we do with our education.

I, yes, have experienced it all.

Absolutely.

The stories are there.

And, you know, I think a lot of us have in many different ways, you know, it's not just from external people.

Sometimes it's from your own family or your own group.

You know, I'll never forget, you know, sitting down with my Thea's and telling them I wanted to go to college, you know, and they were like, I said, gringa, you know, and it's like, you know, we all laughed and it was nothing, but it wasn't nothing.

You know, I've been in line before, and Latina women will speak about me in Spanish.

And I'm like, I know I don't look white.

And then I'll say something back in Spanish and they're like, oh no, she speaks Spanish.

And I'm like, well.

And so, you know, I think you just, you experience all that in the world with people for whatever reason.

And I've, I've found that the thing that I know that I can do is look inward because I too have, you know, I'm a broken human.

I'm glad that you you know, I love that you spoke about God.

And our faith is really powerful.

And I know that I have ways in which I have bias.

I now have ways in which I might tell a story, snap judgment about somebody else.

And, you know, I think it's important to do our own work.

If everybody did their own work because it exists in all of us, because we've all lived in a world of competition and othering and injustice, that we have to seek inward as well to, to make sure that we're loving those around us, whether they deserve it, of not what the Bible say.

It's easy to love someone who's lovable.

It's harder to love those who aren't.

And you know, are you doing the hard work?

I hope what isn't hard work is to ask some questions from the audience.

Hello everyone!

My question for you is we're talking about mentorship.

We're talking about overcoming obstacles.

If you could just give them one word of advice, what would that be?

I'm going to have to say have faith, be your foundation.

It's it's not about if God is on your side.

It's if you are on God's side, you know, and it's not about who who you think you should be or who they think you should be.

God has a plan for you, a destiny.

He's giving you a talent and he wants you to use it.

And if you're if you're confused, what's my talent?

It'll be something that people always say, oh, you're so good at talking, or you're so good at writing, or you're so good at this or that.

Those are those little hints here and there that that talent is there.

And as mentors, that's what we want to do.

We'll see that.

And let's let's get that little flower and get it to bloom, you know.

Yes, I know exactly what that feels.

Looking back now at being a teenager in some of the darkest times of life, they've just felt so, like you'd never get out of it, right?

It's so, so loud and so big in that moment.

And I look back now and I'm like, that was a moment, you know?

And now I'm here.

And the moments I have today, five years from now, should God give me more life, I'll be somewhere else, you know, and I think a lot about how we try so hard to get out of the uncomfortable.

But I also think there's a lot of power in learning to be stable, centered and secure in the uncomfortable, in the hard.

That's that's where the real work happens.

And so I just invite them to get comfortable with themselves, to get comfortable with their faith, to have something that centers them.

You know, it's not always about trying to get out of situations, although sometimes that's really necessary.

But those situations are always going to circle back in life.

They'll show up in different ways, and the thing that will be different is who you are at your core.

Good afternoon ladies.

My comment is about gatekeepers.

What do you say to those out there that have the gatekeeping mentality?

What would you what positive advice could we say today where they're listening about being stop being a gatekeeper.

Well, just tell them that that if they really want a legacy of what they did in their life, it's not going to matter how many awards they have, how much money they made or anything like that, it's going to be the lives they touched and the people that that they helped to continue their life.

I was thinking something similar, but but your impact in life can really have a legacy through other people and opening doors and just getting the opportunity to say just because you help someone else be great doesn't diminish your greatness.

It just adds to it, you know?

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you so much for your questions.

Thank you both so much for being with us today.

Thank you.

As a newly appointed fire chief, I cannot tell you how grateful I am for this opportunity.

My dream was to be a firefighter, and I thought it was impossible because I never saw another female firefighter.

Some of the challenges I faced early on was being the only woman in the room.

There's a belief that we aren't able to do the job it is.

Aside from being emotionally and mentally challenging, it's it's physically demanding.

And I just rose above.

I think it's very important to build up others.

And you know, when you climb the ladder, you have to pull somebody else up with you.

I served in public office in San Antonio, Texas.

I represent a district one, and actually it was the first time that we had had single member district elections all along the way.

There are obstacles.

Being the first Latina to run for mayor, people actually printed things about a woman running that they would never print a date.

Latinos were not ready to work with a Latina.

So it was hard in many ways, particularly at Latina.

We have an obligation.

Those of us who have something to share, to give to young people, to tell them what we see and the hope that they are to us.

If you got to be councilwoman, you can be mayor.

You can be the owner of your own business.

We women who are now in our 80s, late 70s and 80s, particularly as Latinas, are a generation that opened up doors for the younger women.

And that makes me very proud.

Strength and perseverance.

It's what every Latina leader has.

You've heard it here today.

Absolutely.

And all the success doesn't stop here.

Young Latinos are breaking ground, and we are proud to hold the door open for them.

Please welcome beauty entrepreneur and the co-creator of Chicago 20 minutes and a rising star and comedian.

We have the one and only Michelle Cantu.

Thank you for being here.

I'd like to start with you, Tony.

Granted, you have built a business.

I mean, it wasn't easy, as they say, and you've dedicated much of yourself and your time, and it seems to be a times all consuming.

But how is it possible for you to stop and consider your own health, your family's relationships?

Your other relationships?

How difficult is that for you to maintain those?

Yeah, I think as we know, as Latinos, I think it's kind of in our DNA that we are always wanting to help other people first.

And I think it's really important to also take time for yourself.

I think you need to have your you time or your me time.

Find something that you love and that you enjoy, that you can kind of separate yourself from your work and prioritize again yourself.

So for me, I love going to the gym.

I love exercising, so not only is that good for my physical health, but also my mental health as well because after like a six mile run, I am like energized.

I have like a free headspace, I'm more creative, and I think that's just really important to kind of, you know, to have those those times for yourself.

And as far as family, you know, my sister and I, we started the company Chicka Beauty Together in 2019.

We are constantly traveling.

I'm born and raised here in San Antonio, but we are traveling across the country overseas all the time.

And in the beginning I was I felt very guilty about being away from my kids.

But there was something that I learned and I, I now prioritize it.

So when I am home, I take time to have family time.

So on the weekends I'm with my kids, I'm with my husband and with my parents.

So I think, again, it's just it's really important that you are able to separate.

Yes, you want to be successful in your business, but you also have to have your me time and then your family time to.

And I think just overall that builds such a strong foundation.

I think it's just so important.

It's a lot healthier, I would imagine.

Oh yeah.

And I would imagine when you don't have that, you miss it and you feel it.

Yes you do.

And I'm not alone in that.

I mean, there's a lot of women that we feel the same way.

And it is good again to have that your me time and your new time too.

So I'd ask you the same question, but we all know that laughter is medicine.

So I'm really more curious about being a comedian is such a craft.

How do you continue to teach yourself, especially when you have a full time job?

You're a mom, you're alive, but your career keeps growing.

Your craft keeps getting better.

How do you how do you hate yourself on that?

Well, I think it's important to go see shows.

I think it's important to celebrate Latina artists because when I was growing up, I did not see any Latina comedians that looked like me.

I remember watching Angela Johnson in her bunkie and her nail salon, but I didn't even know Angela Johnson was a Latina.

And then from the Latina comedians that I did see, I didn't see a gordita girl.

I did not see Nazia Latina comedian who talked about being a wife or being a mother.

So a lot of times working on that craft means just living my life, telling those stories because they're not being told enough.

And it is still important to not be blocked creatively by having the distresses.

She goes to the gym.

I go to gyms, country breakfast, very different, very different.

Girl.

But it's true.

I mean, like even, you know, okay, the body will let you know, right?

That I was very sweet.

So I had the diabetes and and you know, everybody's handing out the shots the the moon.

But it wasn't working for me.

All my friends are getting off, and I'm like, why not me?

But I also wasn't sleeping.

I also would stay up late every night, stressed about I have my full time job.

I have my stand up comedy.

I have my work with the chamber.

I'm missing events.

I'm doing community work.

So no shots going to work.

If you physically won't allow yourself to heal from that stress.

You can't write jokes.

You can't create a new beauty line if you're blocked.

So it's important in anything you do.

Whether you're telling a joke on stage, whether you're creating new makeup for Latinas to enjoy, you have to release let it go and focus on you, and then that joy will come.

But how does your.

Yes.

Not only yourself, you're building a business with your comedy.

How do you continue to learn as an entrepreneur and do that?

Yeah, so I launched the corporate.

Which was I think I was tired of feeling like, oh, on when I'm doing stand up on one person, right.

It's like Beyonce and Sasha Fierce.

And so when I'm doing stand up, I have to be one person.

But then during the day, right, I was going to my fortune 100 corporate job.

And so I felt like I want to blend the worlds together.

Like most Latinas that I know, we all have 17 jobs and it's too hard to compartmentalize what you're doing.

It's so important to live your authentic self.

And what I realize is a lot of the women that I would tell jokes to would come up to me and they would say, Michelle, I really needed that laugh.

I had a really bad day at work.

Michelle, I've been at the same company for 15 years and I have not received a raise in five of those years.

Michelle I just lost my job and I don't know what I'm supposed to do next.

And I needed a laugh.

And so I realized, okay, there's a business here.

There's money and investing in your community because as Latinas get the support that they need, then they thrive.

Our community thrives.

When you start investing in Latina business owners.

Girl.

That's why I'm glowing.

I'm wearing Chica Beauty.

When you pour back into your community, it comes back to you.

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

And of course, I've been thinking about this because of course, you're in the business of beauty.

You know, making women feel beautiful and new and given, giving them a fresh outlook on themselves.

And you also, in just their mental humor and everything that helps them stay healthy.

And yet this world, you know, is hard and it can be ugly.

So how do you try to use the positive to offset the negative, especially when you're talking to something like sexism or racism that sadly persists to this day?

How do you try to counter that?

With what?

With who you are?

Yeah, I think we have made a lot of progress in that, but there is so much work to be done, and I think it's so important because there are so many barriers that I know that me and my sister are face, and we can't always see control those barriers, but we can do is open and have opportunities for the next generation.

And I think today we see it so many times that again, we're we need to be in those rooms.

We need to I think it was mentioned earlier, we need to be at those tables.

So my sister and I, we travel a lot for our business.

So actually next month we'll be going to D.C.

then we're headed to Seattle, and then we're going to be in Nashville almost all the time that we are at these conferences and events, we are the only women in the room, and we're the only Latinos on top of that.

So for me, I walk a little bit taller.

I have that confidence.

I want people to know I'm in this room, this is where I belong.

And I think that's really important.

And I kind of just want to share one story about that.

I was on a speaking panel, and after the speaking panel, a gentleman came up to me and he said, I just want to say I was so surprised.

You were so well spoken.

And I took a moment and I kind of, you know, I, you know, I accepted what he said.

But I took a Cornell class, too, because I wanted to expand my learning as well and keep growing.

And we had talked about the unconscious bias to.

So I think it was so important that I was on that stage for him to see a Latina, to see a woman in my position that is there.

And I think the next generation, they need to see more Latina comedians.

We need to see more Latina entrepreneurs, more Latina artists.

I think it's just so important that there's representation, representation.

And so I think, again, there's still much, so much more to do.

But I pride myself in like being a role model and being a mentor to young girls because we want, you know, there's our future and we want to continue making a difference.

So I think they're really passionate about that.

You know, I want to say that sexism is going to be a thing of the past very soon, but we just don't know.

And what I've always told my family and my friends is you have to treat your life like a quinceanera.

And my daughter just turned 15.

So I got to witness this firsthand.

And so if you think of yourself as, okay, who are my madrigals?

Who are the people that are going to sponsor me?

I see men in the audience.

Thank you.

Those of you who are not forced by your wives to be here, like just having that support to make sure that we are able to show up well, it is hard to go it alone, but it's better when you have people supporting you.

Tony, I don't know if you remember the first time we met, but it was at a pop up event and she was selling Chica Beauty and she was by herself and she was trying to set everything up.

And so I was like, oh, your socks are falling over.

And I was like, oh, girl, let me help you set up.

And then I was like, oh, but I want to buy this too.

Yeah, right.

Can I get commission?

Help me out.

We help you.

But it's it's the sexism piece only changes if we are there to support each other, uplift each other.

And so that men who underestimate us.

Because I've been underestimated as a comedian, I've had men tell me, oh, we got to have a girl on the lineup.

So just Booker.

We don't even care if she's funny.

And then they're then they're clutching their pearls when I'm the one that's crushing and nobody can follow me.

We all shared a lot about what has gone well for you, but we all know that there are some failures, some bumps along the road.

So you failed.

Now what?

I think failure is part of the process.

I mean, again, Melanie built and we're continuing to grow and we know we're bringing a representation.

I mean, we've been nationally spotlight, we've been on QVC, we've been on HSN.

The challenges are always going to be there.

And it's about how you how you put your self forward with it.

And I think I'm so lucky that I actually have my sister and I have support from so many amazing women here in San Antonio that we've met and like have a genuine, you know, appreciation for each other.

And I think that's just so important.

And as we continue to uplift each other and support each other, I think that is just I mean, we can just take over and do so much.

And I feel like it's there and like our motto is get it, chica.

And we really leaned into that.

So we want you to go out there.

Get it.

Chica, I really would like for you guys to share.

How do you inspire the next generation or what the next generation that's watching?

What do you want them to know?

I want them to know that it's okay to change your mind.

I want them to know it's okay to use your voice.

It's okay to do the fun thing.

I remember I got my degree in English writing and I had focus in poetry, and then I got pregnant my senior year in college, and I was like, well, I don't think poetry's going to pay the bills.

So I walked away from writing and storytelling, and I didn't come back to it until almost 20 years later.

And it's the best decision I could have ever made.

I also recently left my corporate job after over ten years and now I'm in.

Yes, you get it.

And now I'm working in the nonprofit space for House and really service supporting the San Antonio West Side community and doing fun content and making people laugh online.

So like, that's really what it is.

Girls, don't be afraid and give back.

Like like mentorship programs like Latina.

Help them, teach them, show them that it's okay and we're ready for them.

And I just want to share.

It's so important that y'all give us this opportunity in these platforms to share our story with so many of you, because you don't realize the impact you're having.

And not everyone always shares the difference you've made.

But a young girl, a lady, reached out to me, and she told me a young girl was working on her vision board, and she actually included me on her vision board and that, yeah, I was so I was so surprised and humbled by it because, you know, it's really hard doing what we do.

But because of that and because I know we're making a difference, we work so hard.

My sister and I need to be more than just beauty.

We're not just makeup.

We're more than that.

And I think the next generation, they need to see us.

Thank you.

Tony.

Absolutely.

Well, now it's your turn.

Who has questions from the audience?

Yes, ma'am.

Hello, I'm Samantha, and my question to you guys is what was your main motivation into, like, joining into this Latina community?

Regardless of the doubts of other people and their opinions, their harsh words?

I didn't have I didn't have a mentor.

I didn't have somebody growing up at at your age, right.

In high school, I wish, I wish I had somebody because what I did have a lot of were who were like, I you're, I, you're too loud.

I had so much of that.

And so many of us Latina women still have so much of that noise.

Maybe it's not from our madres, but maybe it's at work.

Or maybe it's maybe it's in the community, or maybe it's, you know, the negative noise.

And as you're growing up, that negative noise, if you don't know that there's something else out there, you may grow up thinking that's just how it is.

And so it's it's a personal duty to make sure that I can disrupt that noise, that I can help Latinas see the path forward and let them know it's you're amazing, you're wonderful, you're beautiful, you're fabulous.

You got it all, honey.

Yes, that's my job.

Yes, yes.

How much of that negativity do you.

Is it coming from social media or from people?

It's just people in general sometimes.

Like family members.

Like close family members that tell you the harsh words and it makes you like, dollop yourself and not have confidence.

Yeah.

I think it's important to who you surround yourself with.

So like your family members that do support you or your friends that are supportive and believe in the same values you have, I think that's really important that you stay connected with them.

And I guess my parents were very supportive and like very loving, and they always gave us opportunities.

So for me, I always knew I wanted to give back to our community.

I think that's kind of where I come from, from my family upbringing, and you're already surrounding yourself with the right women.

So I think you're already doing it, and that's amazing.

And I love that you came up here and asked the question that takes a lot of confidence.

That's right.

Showing up half the battle.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

You have one more question.

Hi, ladies.

I am half Mexican, half Filipino.

I had a small business set up and it was Filipino based desserts.

I took a break.

I took a long break.

I just kind of wanted to know what word you could give.

For some of us, there's a couple friends that also had a small business, and they took a break.

We couldn't balance out the full time job being a parent.

I wanted to get back out there.

What advice do y'all have?

Yeah, so I would I would rely on your network to tell your story.

Right.

Who are the people who miss you from that break?

Who are the people who are like, girl, when's your break over?

I'm ready.

I'm ready to try the delicious food.

I'm ready to wear the beautiful crop from chasing Camila.

I'm ready to wear the chica beauty.

I think it's all about Latinas amplifying each other.

So there are people that miss you, that want your break to be over.

Who are those people we ask?

A lot of times for small business owners, we have to take a break because maybe we're not getting the dollars, but we still have those supporters you can still support by liking, by commenting, by sharing, offering words of encouragement.

Also taking that time to realize like it's a break.

It's I decided it's a break.

You decided it was a break and not a I'm done with it.

That's a huge thing in of itself.

Just the fact that you said it's a break means I still love it.

It still has a place in my heart.

I'm coming back to it.

Thank you.

Michel.

Thank you.

Thank you.

But what a time we've had here today.

Sisterhood is strong.

Women supporting each other is powerful.

And Latina leaders are building our community.

I mean, just look at how far we've come in just the past few decades and think about how far we can go.

Latinas are definitely the future.

Thank you, everyone, for helping us celebrate.

Salud.

Salud.

Family.

I got my sister and my brother too Salud is supported by Capital Group and Community First Health Plans.