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Axios Latino is the newsletter that summarizes the key news for Latino communities in the hemisphere every Tuesday and Thursday.
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1. The topic to highlight: The concern of Latinas in venture capital
After a few years in which Latinos and Latinas have made their way into the world of venture capital (VC), there is now fear that economic uncertainty will undo progress in diversifying who decides how funds are awarded .
Big Picture
: Venture capital has long been dominated by non-Hispanic white men, who generally back those who look like them, Noramay Cadena, managing partner at Supply Chain Capital, tells Axios Latino.
That means projects or ideas from other groups, including Latino and black men but especially women, often don't get the same funding or attention.
“Money and great ideas are being left on the table because there aren't enough of us,” Sarah Kunst, CEO of Cleo Capital, says of Black, Latino, Asian or Indigenous people in the venture capital space.
[Read more about Silicon Valley Latina investors]
The timid advances
in recent years in favor of Latino investors not only mean capital for an underrepresented sector: there are studies that show that demographically diverse venture capital firms do better.
"The way I look at investing is going to be very different than the way most investors who are older white males with a certain network look at it... where they might say, 'oh, this is just a stock market. niche," says Samara Mejia Hernandez, founding partner of venture capital firm Chingona Ventures.
Yes, but
: Much of the money made available to Black, Latina or Asian women in recent years has come from corporate and bank diversity initiatives, says MarĂa Salamanca, a partner at Ulu Ventures, one of the largest Latina-led companies .
With concerns about inflation, when companies have cut back for fear of a slowdown, and coupled with recent bank collapses, those diversification funds could be withdrawn.
"Will those who have supported demographically diverse founders of companies and entrepreneurs continue to support... or will we be the first to have their support withdrawn? It is a latent concern," says Salamanca.
2. The final of the World Baseball Classic will be played without Latino teams
The United States and Japan will meet in the final of the World Baseball Classic in Miami on Tuesday after defeating Cuba and Mexico in the semifinals, respectively.
General panorama
: Another of the eight teams from Latin America and the Caribbean were eliminated at the beginning of the tournament.
And some Latino players ended up with injuries that will likely affect them on their major league teams when the season officially begins on March 30.
Illustration: AĂŻda Amer/Axios
The Dominican Republic was one of the favorite teams, but was eliminated by Puerto Rico in the round of 16.
While celebrating that victory, Puerto Rican pitcher Edwin DĂaz, who plays with the New York Mets, was injured;
it is estimated that he will be out for the remainder of the Major League season.
Puerto Rico later lost to Mexico in the quarterfinals.
José Altuve, a Venezuelan star for the Houston Astros, broke his right thumb in his country's loss to the United States.
The Astros said he will need to have surgery.
In his own words
: Injuries to MLB players have raised questions about whether playing in the international tournament is worth the risk.
El Clásico coincided with spring training, when players develop strength and stamina.
David
Papi
Ortiz, the newly named Dominican to the Hall of Fame, told the media that the classic should be played in June or July.
3. They report that the police in Uvalde did not act in time due to fears of the murderer's AR-15 rifle
They report that the police did not confront the Uvalde attacker for fear of the rifle he was carrying
March 20, 202300:30
A new investigation into last year's Uvalde, Texas, elementary school shooting reveals that it took police more than an hour to get close to the shooter in part because they felt he was too dangerous because he had a semi-automatic rifle known as an AR-15.
Big Picture
: Uvalde parents and authorities have criticized the police response to the shooting, which resulted in the deaths of 19 children and two teachers on May 24, 2022.
More details
: The Texas Tribune's investigation is based on body camera footage, emergency communications and interviews with investigators that are not yet public.
He found that some officers were also armed with AR-15s, but decided to wait until a Border Patrol SWAT team arrived, which was at a base more than 60 miles away.
AR-15 bullets can go through body armor.
An investigation
by a
Texas House committee released in July concluded that the killer fired more than 100 rounds in less than three minutes and most of the victims likely died immediately.
But the decision to wait to confront the gunman could have delayed care for survivors, including three people who were alive when the shooting ended but later died, according to the Texas Tribune.
4. In her words: Michelle Garza Cervera
This interview is part of our series on Latinas influencing their industries and communities, in observance of Women's History Month in the United States.
Today, Mexican Michelle Garza Cervera, who
directed Huesera: The Bone Woman,
a Tribeca award-winning film, is a New York Times Critics' Pick and is available on video in the US and in theaters in Mexico.
Garza Cervera was also named this month as one of the Momentum Fellows of the Sundance Institute, a year-long program with mentoring and financial support.
[Read our full interview with Garza Cervera on how powerful Latin American terror is]
What motivates me
: Dedicate my life to get into that tunnel of collective creation, looking for a group of collaborators who respect each other and show that films can be made independently and freely.
Also that from our privileges as filmmakers we push for the film industry to diversify.
Photo courtesy of Michelle Garza Cervera.
Box illustration by Natalie Peeples/Axios
Horror movies also move me because, in a cinematographic way, I think it gives you both sound and visual tools to investigate and inspect a very complex emotion, especially discomfort with the world and challenging the system or the status
quo
.
I like the idea of ​​making films that divide but remove you.
How is my day
: I wake up early and the first thing I do is write three pages, of a script or of any subject or of my life.
Right now we are very deep in the writing process of the new project.
So from there I focus on that and have many meetings.
I'm kind of between writing and reading and Zoom.
And I always try to read at least one chapter of a book, be it essay or fiction, a day.
It is important to say that the life of a film director, especially in the distribution stage like now with
Huesera
, becomes a vertiginous tunnel of a thousand different things, crazy.
But I always try to respect my exercise time in the afternoon and I try and watch movies in theaters.
My goal is
: Support Latin American cinema so that it can remain authorial and that it be done without marketing and sales schemes according to algorithms.
Especially in these countries where the opportunities are fewer and fewer, so you have to fight for it.
It's also exciting that several [female filmmakers] are coming, because I know many directors younger than me who also do genre film stuff and you have to support them.
5. Summary of key news in Latin America and the Caribbean
1.
A legislative commission in Ecuador
approved this Monday to advance a political trial of the president, Guillermo Lasso, for corruption.
Illustration: Natalie Peeples/Axios
Lasso has denied the allegations and his government affirms that the request for the trial has no foundation.
The trial is now pending a debate in the Constitutional Court.
2.
Cuban opposition groups and associations
said this week that they have been threatened by the authorities due to a campaign that promotes abstaining from the next elections.
This Sunday there will be a parliamentary vote in Cuba, where there is only one political party.
6.🎙️ The cholita DJ
A Bolivian who lives in Virginia and does construction work by day has built a following with her
hobby
job by night: a radio show promoting indigenous pride.
Details
: MarĂa Luz Coca Luján began using the nickname K'ancha (light in Quechua) last year for TikTok videos and live broadcasts on that social network and on Facebook.
This Bolivian immigrant did not let herself be defeated and overcomes herself with construction and social networks
March 8, 202302:07
She now also hosts Tu cholita K'ancha en vivo
online
, which celebrates indigenous roots and has thousands of listeners.
K'ancha shares Andean music events, highlights Bolivian businesses, and shares stories about young people who maintain the customs of their native country.
She hosts the radio program dressed as a cholita—traditional dress for women in the Andes with a skirt and bowler hat—and speaks both Spanish and Quechua.
In his own words
: "I love talking about the customs and cultures of my country a lot, speaking in Quechua," he tells Telemundo News.
"When this thing on the radio started, I found meaning in my life," she adds.
Thanks for reading us!
We return on Thursday.
Do you want to read any of the previous editions?
Forgotten Latinas: Few Historic Monuments and Sites Honor Women
This Latino launched his film studio to finance the projects that Hollywood ignores: "I got tired of waiting"