Meet Our Moderator:
Barbara Cerda, Co-Founder of La Revo Books
Barbara is passionate about uplifting Milwaukee through various community centered projects. She is a daughter to Milwaukee’s Southside and of an immigrant parent, is a dedicated leader that believes positive community change happens through authentic relationships and grassroots based action alongside the most affected. She is the Founder of Barby The Book Fairy, a program that focuses on providing empowering and culturally relevant literature to families in Milwaukee. She is also the Co-Founder of La Revo Books, a bookstore specializing in Latinx literature and libros en Español.
Meet Our panelists:
Nataly Andrade, Co-founder of Mercadera Market
Nataly's vision for Mercadera Market was to create an organization that empowers small Latina business owners with a virtual and in-person marketplace. Nataly is also the outreach coordinator for Hispanics for School Choice, a non-profit organization that promotes educational freedom in the state of Wisconsin. Her expertise and passion lies is providing one on one support to the hispanic community. She has a BA in Criminology, but has dedicated most of her work career helping others. Mercadera now has over 2k Latina members and provides a safe space to educate, support and promote small businesses.
Galy Montes, Co-Founder of Mercadera & Owner of Palereria Yayo
Galy as a recognized as one of Wisconsin's 46 most influential Latino Leaders and has 11 years of experience in tax services, and the co-founder of Mercadera. Galy is also owner of Palereria Yayo in the heart of Milwaukee’s south side. As co-founder of Mercadera, Montes' vision was to create a marketplace for Latina women entrepreneurs to sell their wares. What started as a Facebook group of makers supporting each other has become a series of pop-up markets, offering as many as 50 vendors space to be seen and find customers.
Rozalia Singh, Artist and Educator
Rozalia Singh is an Afro Latina born and raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She has a Bachelor's Degree of Fine Arts in Visual Communications. Her talents include working as a professional muralist, caricaturist, painter, graphic designer and teaching art in her community and schools. Rozalia’s goal is to promote diversity and cultural awareness which is expressed in her artwork. Her art reflects her life experiences as a woman of color, a mother and a community advocate. Rozalia’s mural work has been featured in multiple printed and online newspaper articles, in TMJ4, Channel 58 and Milwaukee Lifestyle Magazine.
Janeth & Lizeth Zorrilla, Owners of La Finca
Sisters Janeth and Lizeth Zorrilla opened their St. Francis-based cafe and eatery, La Finca, in October 2017. They were inspired to open the business after visiting their extended family’s 900-acre coffee farm in Mexico, called Finca La Constancia. Today they continue to operate La Finca Coffee House and host a number of mercadito style craft fairs to support local makers.