NAC Blog: Who will be the first Latino President?

Last year, our CEO Gary Acosta and the NAHREP National Board of Directors set a number of audacious goals for our organization that pertain to the broader Latino community: Guide the Latino community to be among the wealthiest and most philanthropic in the nation; Build NAHREP to be the largest and most effective economic mobility organization in America; Incubate 1,000 new Hispanic millionaires and five new Hispanic billionaires; Help Latinos dominate the Fortune 500 boardrooms and C-Suites; Help elect the first Latino President of the United States of America. At the National Advocacy Committee, our work is directly tied to helping build NAHREP into the largest and most effective economic mobility organization in America. For that, we have to build strong relationships with elected officials.

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NAC Blog: The time to pass Comprehensive Immigration Reform starts now.

The U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021 was released last week by Senator Bob Menendez in the Senate and U.S. Representative Linda Sanchez in the House of Representatives. We’ve waited for this moment for a long time familia, a real shot at passing comprehensive immigration reform. If you look at every single one of our State of Hispanic Homeownership Reports, you’ll find that passing a sweeping immigration bill has been a consistent cornerstone of our policy priorities for the past decade. You may ask, what does immigration have to do with housing and advancing sustainable Hispanic homeownership? Everything.

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NAC Blog: Congress takes on housing inventory

First of all, to all of our familia in Texas going through the freezing weather and power outages, in a state with an infrastructure not built to withstand those temperatures, I hope everyone is safe and warm. I hope all of you are putting your “San Marcos cobijas” to good use, you know you have them. To all of our NAHREP Tejanos, you’ve been in my thoughts and prayers. Speaking of Texas, last week I met with all of the NAHREP government affairs directors in Texas. Coming from California with outrageous housing prices, I tend to see Texas as the state where all the Californian’s are moving to. However, based on that conversation, it is clear that housing inventory shortages are being felt universally across the nation, even in Texas.

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NAC Blog: The latest on CRA

A few weeks ago, the National Advocacy Committee Regionals met for a virtual retreat to plan out the year and dream big goals for what we can accomplish as we grow our advocacy operation. As we prepare for a year of big legislative fights, such as increasing housing inventory and passing immigration reform, we need to be prepared and ready to wield the power of our people when it counts. One of the primary ways in which we do that is through growing our National Advocacy Committee, individuals that have raised their hand to join our advocacy efforts. If you are receiving this blog post via email, you’ve likely already joined the NAC. You know the drill, you’re a rock star! If you’re reading this through social media, we invite you to join today.

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NAC Blog: Rethinking Cities After COVID-19

Aside from my work in the policy and advocacy space, I run the Hispanic Wealth Project along with HWP Chairman Jerry Ascencio. One of my favorite things about the NAHREP 10 is that no matter where we are in our financial journey, whether we just got our real estate license and are working on paying off our credit cards or we’re extremely successful business owners, there is always a place to improve. For me, I’ve been focusing on tackling NAHREP 10 Discipline #5: Invest at least 20% of your income in real estate and stocks, because they are the best and safest way to build wealth.

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NAC Blog: Immigration Bill Introduced in Congress

Let’s talk about immigration today. I am declaring it into the universe: We will pass comprehensive immigration reform by the end of the year. Who is with me here? I’ve had a front row seat to two previous attempts at passing an immigration reform bill in Washington D.C. The reason these bills haven’t passed is because immigration is HARD. Immigration is what is known in politics as a wedge issue, or issues that invoke strong responses from both sides.

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NAC Blog: A new President and a flurry of executive actions, the fate of the GSEs & NAHREP CA takes on housing inventory

Today we wake up to a new President. Yesterday we saw the first Latina Supreme Court Justice swear in the first woman of color to the office of Vice President, and J-Lo reclaimed our place in this country by singing “This Land is Our Land.” So much to unpack there. However, between last week and this week a whole lotta POLICY that applies to our mission happened so let’s get right to it.

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NAC Blog: Democracy, you ok girl?

As the daughter of immigrants, I tend to look at “Democracy” through the lens of my parents and my grandparents. I grew up hearing stories of how the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI), the party that dominated Mexico for 71 years, would go into the “ranchos,” or rural Mexico where my family comes from, and buy people off prior to elections by giving them free washing machines or refrigerators in exchange of votes.

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NAC Blog: New Year, New Stimulus

Feliz año Nuevo! I know this was a rough holiday season for many of us. For me, resolutions, reflections, and all of the usual rituals I do around the New Year were just plain weird. I’m in Southern California, what is now considered the world’s epicenter of COVID outbreaks, so my New Year’s reflection and resolution was just one word: gratitude.

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NAC Blog: In 2020, NAHREP advocacy has been hard at work

As we slowly say goodbye to 2020, it’s important to spend some time reflecting. A lot has happened and I don’t think many of us have had any opportunity to process everything we’ve been through. Personally, I’ve been go go go all year. I, like many of you, lost someone very special to me to COVID-19 this year. To be honest, I haven’t had a chance to process this loss, nor the seismic changes we’ve gone through this year. Over the break, I hope to spend some time just reflecting, making my peace with things and choosing what it is that I want to take with me into 2021. I hope all of you will join me in that. This year has definitely been one of growth and that is the greatest silver lining.

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