Chapter 5: Un Cafecito: Three Afro-Latina Leaders Speak Their Truth

Imagine looking into a fictional kitchen. In this quiet kitchen, there is a square table, four chairs, dim lights, coffee percolating on the stove. The room explodes with laughter as three women enter. They lay down their briefcases loaded with papers and work and kick off their shoes. One moves to get cups, sugar, and galletas. Un cafecito is their Friday night ritual where they talk about the week, what went right, what went wrong, and the long road ahead. For a few hours, they reach into the past and call up their ancestors to help them shoulder the weight of being an Afro-Latina leader in a world that often denies their existence. For a brief few hours they can be daughters, hermanas, and curanderas as they make sense of their work, put balm on their wounds, wonder why they do what they do, and strategize about how to do it better.