In episode 22 of the Equality Talks podcast, host Elisa Parker introduces us to Cristina Escobar, co-founder of LatinaMedia.Co and member of ERA Coalition Forward's Communications, Public Education and Civic Engagement Working Group. Escobar introduces the third rail of the Hollywood ecosystem, the critic, the reviewer. She challenges us to not only look at who is telling the story but who is critiquing it. Who is shaping and determining what is artistically valuable. In her work of amplifying Latina voices, Escobar emphasizes that Latino political and economical power is one of the strongest influences in our country yet often underrepresented on the screen. Escobar believes that culture precedes politics. So, if you want to change the world, you have to change how people think about the world first. Through decades of crafting stories to create positive social impact, she shares how to create an effective campaign and reminds us that not only does everyone deserve a chance to tell their story, they need a chance to examine it as well. Hosted by nationally acclaimed radio host and Equal Voices/ERA Coalition, Elisa Parker, Equality Talks bridges the intersections of equality, justice, and social activism to unify as a collective and change the status quo. Equality Talks focuses on the key facets of equality across all communities, including everything from gender, racial, economic and reproductive justice, to labor, immigrant, and LGBTQ+ rights. For more information on Equality Talks go to www.ERACoaltion.org and www.EqualVoice.org. Moving from silos to solidarity. The ERA Coalition was founded in 2014 to bring concerted, organized action to the effort to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment. The ERA Coalition has a sister organization, the Fund for Women’s Equality, which promotes public education and outreach on the need for constitutional equality. Composed of more than 300 organizations across the country representing millions of people, the Coalition is a movement of movements focused on overall equality in the United States. While the effort to amend the constitution to include sex equality began nearly a century ago, our renewed efforts are centered on women of color (African American, Asian American/Pacific Islander, Latina, and Native American), gender-nonconforming and transgender women and girls, and nonbinary people – those who are most impacted by systemic inequities. www.eracoalition.org | www.fundforwomensequality.org About Cristina: A writer, speaker, and critic, Cristina Escobar works at the intersection of race, gender, and pop culture. She has worked for feminist causes for over a decade, helping like-minded individuals and organizations tell their stories in ways that break through the clutter. As such, she’s the proud co-founder and editor-in-chief of LatinaMedia.Co, an indie publication platforming Latina and queer Latinx perspectives in media. In addition, she has an accomplished career as an entertainment journalist with bylines in the A.V. Club, Glamour, NPR, Refinery29, Remezcla, Roger Ebert, TODAY, Vulture, and more. A TEDx speaker, Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, and member of the Critics Choice Association and the Latino Entertainment Journalists Association, she lives in Santa Fe with her husband, two kids, and rescue dog. https://latinamedia.co @latinamediaco @cescobarandrade
