By 
“If you get the woman, you get the family. If you can touch the woman and reach the woman, she will bring her family along.”
That’s how Charlotte Castillo, managing director of Poderistas, explained why the nonprofit organization invests in Latinas on a recent podcast, Behind the Work with Jessica Santana.
As a daughter of Dominican immigrants, culture wasn’t taught; it was lived and almost always had a soundtrack. Long before Charlotte discovered her purpose, she was a little girl in Brooklyn, falling asleep to the sounds of her uncles’ merengue band rehearsing in the next room. Music was her first love and the first vehicle she used to give her culture a platform.
As an undergraduate student at Wesleyan University, she launched El Ritmo Latino on her college radio station, introducing Latin music to a community largely unfamiliar with it.
“We would call record companies that represented Latin artists to get on their promotion list so we would have access to new music,” she said.
She continued her education, enrolling in a PhD program at New York University studying American Studies with a focus on Latin pop culture. But a semester and a half in, she called it quits. Not because it was too challenging or demanding, but because it wasn’t immersive enough.
“I didn’t want to be in the ivory tower studying how Latinos were impacting culture. I wanted to be part of it. In it. Making it. Weaving it. Doing the thing.”
Charlotte’s rise in media and entertainment
Her passion for music and Latin culture drove her out of the classroom and into a career with multiple record companies. But music was just the beginning. In 1996, Charlotte was hired by Christy Haubegger, founder of Latina Magazine, to join the launch team. She later became head of marketing for the magazine, the first print publication created for the bicultural Latina and a significant shift in Latin American media and entertainment.
“We felt we were building a community of Latina women around the country,” she said. “They would write us and say, ‘I love seeing ourselves and our cultura in the newsstands.’”
After eight incredible years building what felt like a family with Latina Magazine, Charlotte was ready to challenge herself and experience another angle of pop culture. She landed a role in television at ViacomCBS, now known as Paramount Global, one of the world’s largest entertainment companies.
Starting with Nickelodeon, she spent 15 years helping generate billions in revenue for some of the most popular brands in television, including SpongeBob SquarePants, Dora the Explorer, Paw Patrol, South Park and MTV. While she did what she could to integrate inclusivity into marketing and advertising campaigns that reached millions of children, she felt disconnected from the community.
Returning to Her Roots
In 2020, Charlotte was laid off from ViacomCBS, which she describes as “perfect timing,” as it was followed by a call that would reunite her with her purpose. Christy Haubegger, the same mentor who brought her to Latina Magazine, was launching what was expected to be a temporary effort to help Latinas step into their civic power and asked Charlotte to volunteer her marketing expertise.
“We were tired of waiting for people to save us,” said Charlotte. ”We wanted to advocate for ourselves.”
Poderistas was born at the height of a global pandemic and a tense election year by a coalition of 10 prominent Latina activists, executives and celebrities, including America Ferrera, Eva Longoria and Mónica Ramírez. The organization derived its name by combining “poder,” the Spanish word for power, with the suffix “ista,” which describes a person who embodies something. And that’s precisely what it means to be a Poderista: to own your power.
At the center of Poderistas’ mission is the Latina woman — the fastest-growing entrepreneur in the country, earning degrees at record rates, raising children, caring for parents and still being expected to show up for her community. Poderistas was built to pour into her and the generations she anchors.
“A lot of these women were called two weeks before the election to rally the vote, then were nowhere to be found afterward,” she said. “There wasn’t any real advocacy.”
Charlotte, who now serves as managing director, has witnessed firsthand that for many Latinas, civic participation isn’t an apathy problem; it’s a trust problem. Does their vote really matter? Which sources of information can they truly rely on? Poderistas meets them where they are by infusing civic participation into “la cultura” through lifestyle and community.
“Beyond politics, we want Latinas to have a seat at every table,” she said. “We’re filling their cup and giving them accessible information, moments of joy, celebration and motivation.”
Poderistas is one of the fastest-growing digital communities created by and for Latinas, with approximately 400,000 members nationwide. Programs like Power Circles and the Poder Council bring together members and Latina changemakers to address local and national issues, while the Power Squad trains Latinas to become civic leaders in their communities. Members also gather at annual summits to attend masterclasses, panels and workshops on lifestyle topics, including parenting, finance and leadership development.
Charlotte describes the impact as intergenerational. Many of the Poderistas Latinas act as a bridge to a system their families couldn’t fully navigate due to language barriers — a reality that reflected her own experience. That knowledge can move in both directions: a Latina mother who is informed and civically engaged can guide her children, while daughters and younger generations can help their mothers, tias and other family members navigate systems that once felt out of reach.
For Charlotte, building Poderistas was a natural extension of everything she had always been a part of. “Looking back, I’ve always been a community and brand builder,” she said. “Brands and communities are interchangeable to me. I want people to experience us consistently through the way we make them feel.”
Charlotte didn’t map her way to this work; it came naturally, and that’s what informs her advice to younger folks. “If I could go back and tell my younger self something, I would say life and career and purpose are not linear; they evolve, and you figure it out.”
“For me, personally, it goes full circle,” she said. “My journey started with helping Latinas feel seen in music and lifestyle.”
That little girl who would fall asleep to the beat of merengue never imagined she’d grow billion-dollar brands or lead a national movement. But of all her accomplishments, Charlotte is most proud of the communities she’s helped build and call home.
To learn more about Poderistas and its programs, and to support their mission to empower Latina women and families, visit poderistas.com.
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