That disconnect is at the heart of the Hispanic Marketing Council’s webinar, “Unstoppable Influence: How Latina Creators and Leaders Are Rewriting Business, Media, and Culture,” now available on demand. Moderated by Karina Cerda of Entravision, the conversation brought together five leaders whose careers span insurance, sports, politics, and digital media. Together, they offer a clear message to CMOs and marketing leaders: if Latinas are not central to your strategy, you are leaving growth—and credibility—on the table.

The numbers say it all:

• There are 34 million Latinas in the United States.
• One in five women is Latina, and among younger cohorts, that climbs to one in four.
• Latinas contribute $2.8 trillion to the marketplace and serve as sole or joint decision‑makers in most of their households. They are building multi‑generational wealth, starting businesses at high rates, and often juggling multiple income streams.

But perhaps the most important framing is not about scale; it is about discernment. A clear majority of Latinas report that they regularly spot stereotypes in advertising, and roughly half say they disengage from brands when they feel misrepresented.

The message for marketers is direct: Latinas are not passive recipients of messaging. They are active evaluators of your brand’s values, and they vote with their wallets.

From there, the panel humanizes these numbers. Leadership and empowerment expert Adriana Gallardo traces her path from an undocumented teenager working at Burger King to the head of a multi‑office insurance empire and a new media platform, Raina Radio. Her first office was literally a storage closet rented for $100 a month. She describes being bullied, dismissed, and even kicked out of DMVs while handing out flyers—only to later negotiate an exclusive deal that placed her brand on DMV screens across California.

For marketers, Adriana’s story is more than an inspiring anecdote. It is a case study in how Latina entrepreneurs build brands from the margins, often without institutional support—and why their insight into customer trust, risk, and resilience is invaluable. She is explicit that her accent, her family story, and her failures are not liabilities to be hidden, but assets that differentiate her in a crowded category.

In sports, that same dynamic plays out at scale. Karina Martinez, co-founder and CEO of DRAFTED, notes that Latina sports fans have long been the backbone of fandom in many households, yet they rarely see themselves reflected in coverage or campaigns. DRAFTED exists to change that, not by redefining sports, but by widening the lens: family rituals, food, music, and pride sit alongside goals and stats.

For marketers, this is a blueprint: When you recognize Latinas as core sports consumers—not an afterthought—you unlock new storytelling, new products, and deeper engagement.

Gloria Molina, senior director, marketing & paid media for Major League Soccer reinforces the point from the league and property side. Her work on the “Somos Locales” campaign for the Mexican National Team in the U.S. is a powerful example of getting it right. Rather than treating the team as a visiting attraction, the campaign recognizes it as a home team for millions of U.S. fans. That shift—from foreign to familiar, from “them” to “us”—is precisely the kind of reframing brands must embrace if they want authenticity with Latino audiences. It is not a translation exercise; it is a positioning decision.

That idea—context over translation—runs strongly through Entravision Journalist Stephanie Ochoa’s perspective as a White House correspondent. She moved from Mexico just six years ago without speaking English; today, she covers the highest levels of U.S. politics, one of very few Latinas in that space. Stephanie draws a sharp distinction between simply turning policy headlines into Spanish and truly explaining what those policies mean for Latino households in Nevada, Texas, or California. Her standard—“I do not translate news; I contextualize it”—should resonate with any CMO. In multicultural marketing, language is table stakes. Context is where you either earn trust or squander attention.

On the creator side, Tani Estefi, founder & digital content creator, All Things Latina / Latina Approved, illustrates how that trust is built in practice. Through All Things Latina and Latina Approved, she speaks to an audience that sees her less as an influencer and more as a trusted friend. For her community, a recommendation is meaningful precisely because it is selective. She is blunt: if a brand relationship does not make sense for Latinas as she knows them, she will not push it. For marketing executives used to equating influence with raw reach, her success is a reminder that trust is the true performance metric in the creator economy, especially with Latino audiences.

Taken together, these voices are not asking brands for inclusion as a favor. They are offering a strategic reality check. Latinas are building companies, driving fandoms, shaping political narratives, and architecting digital communities. They are already rewriting business, media, and culture. The question for marketing leaders is whether your brand will recognize and partner with that influence—or continue to treat it as peripheral.

The webinar closes not with abstractions, but with practical advice for entrepreneurs, creators, and the marketers who want to reach them: lean into authenticity, partner with Latina talent early and meaningfully, and design campaigns that reflect Latina realities.