5 Things You Didn't Know About National Latina Day

Every August 20th, my feed fills up with red hearts, "Poder Latina" graphics, and a lot of well-deserved celebration. But when I dug into where National Latina Day came from, I found a story (and some numbers) that made me want to write this post instead of just posting a graphic and moving on.

So if you're celebrating today, here's what's actually behind the day, and why it means more to me than a marketing moment.

1. It started with one woman and a Facebook page

National Latina Day wasn't created by a corporation or a government proclamation. According to Luz Media and digitalundivided, Dolores "Loli" Alvarez Castilla, a Texas-based activist, founded it in 2015 as a Facebook page meant to empower Latinas. Her words still hold up: "It is time for us to stand up and be counted for all we are and our accomplishments."

That's it. No big budget, no institutional backing. Just one Latina decided the culture deserved a day and built it from nothing. If that sounds familiar, it's because it's the same story a lot of us are living right now with our own businesses.

2. It's grown into a full-blown national movement

According to Luz Media, what started as a single post has turned into community events, celebrations, and even conferences happening in cities across the country every year on the same date: August 20th. The official color of the day is red, which is why you'll see it everywhere in today's posts.

It's a good reminder that grassroots doesn't mean small forever. It means you started somewhere real.

3. Latinas are still paid 54 cents for every dollar

Here's the part that's hard to sit with. According to the Institute for Women's Policy Research, Latinas were paid just 54 cents for every dollar earned by white, non-Hispanic men in 2024, the widest pay gap of any group in the U.S. Latina Equal Pay Day in 2025 didn't land until October 8th, meaning Latinas had to work more than nine extra months just to catch up to what men had already earned by the end of the previous year.

At the current rate of progress, IWPR projects full pay equity for Latina workers won't arrive until the year 2178. Not next decade. Not in our lifetime, or our daughters' lifetimes.

I don't share that to bring the mood down on a day meant for celebration. I share it because it's exactly why a day like this exists, and why it's not "just" a hashtag.

4. We're also the fastest-growing group of entrepreneurs in the country

Here's the flip side, and it's the part that gets me every time. Despite that wage gap, Latino- and Latina-owned businesses are growing faster than almost any other group in America. According to Stanford research cited by SSTI, Latino/a-owned businesses grew at a median rate of 25% between 2019 and 2022, compared to just 9% for white-owned businesses over the same period. Between 2007 and 2019, that same research found Latino/a-owned businesses grew 34% while white-owned businesses actually declined by 7%.

We're not waiting around for the pay gap to close. We're building our own tables.

5. But the funding gap is just as real as the pay gap

The catch: access to capital hasn't caught up to that growth. Per the same Stanford-backed research, Latino-owned businesses make up over 10% of tech founders, but as of 2021, they received less than 1% of all venture capital funding. And according to McKinsey estimates cited in that report, if Latino business owners had equal access to funding, it could generate an additional $2.3 trillion in economic benefits.

This is the number that hits closest to home for me. When I was building COVEDOZA, I didn't have a wealthy investor or a family loan to fall back on. What I had was time, persistence, and over 100 grant applications, and it worked. I strengthened my business with small business grants and built a strong foundation, all while working a full-time job and raising my daughter. Not because I had some secret advantage, but because I learned how the process works and kept going.

That's exactly why I built the Small Business Grants Planner, and it's everything I wish someone had handed me when I started. If today's stats lit even a small fire under you, this is your sign to start building the foundation for your business and get funded.

Happy National Latina Day. We're underpaid, we're underfunded, and we're still out here building anyway. That's the whole point of today.

Con amor,

Elisa,

Your Latina CEO on a Mission.