Podcast Season 2, Episode 4: A Brooklyn-Born Puerto Rican Affirms  

Season 2, Episode 4-April 6, 2022

Joel Alvarado: A Brooklyn-Born Puerto Rican Affirms

In this episode of Dialogues in Afrolatinidad, Dr. Michele Reid-Vazquez speaks with Joel Alvarado, Executive Vice President of Internal Affairs for Ohio River South, a leading governmental relations firms in the Southeast, and a doctoral student at the University of Alabama studying higher education administration, about his own journey to higher education and how to make it more equitable for students of color, especially Afro-Latino students.

He also hosts the Los Politicos Podcast

Mr. Joel Alvorado

Alvarado, Joel. “With Heritage Both Black and Latin, I Also Am American.” ajc. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, February 21, 2020. 

Alvarado, Joel, and Charles Jaret. Building Black-Brown Coalitions in the Southeast: Four African American-Latino Collaborations. Atlanta, GA: Southern Regional Council, 2009. 

Grinspan, Lautaro. “‘There’s Diversity within the Black Diaspora:’ Afro Latinos in Atlanta Speak Up.” ajc. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, October 15, 2021. 

Vera, Amir, and Alexander Pineda. “Blackness and Latinidad Are Not Mutually Exclusive. Here’s What It Means to Be Afro-Latino in America.” CNN. Cable News Network, September 26, 2021. 

Panelist. Critical Conversations: The Afro Latino Experience in our Community. 100 Black Men of Atlanta, Inc., Emerging 100 Atlanta, Hispanic Young Professional and Entrepreneurs, Sara Gonzalez Park Foundation, 2021. 

Panelist. Afro-Latino History and Telling Our Stories. AARP, 2021.  

Panelist. Anti-Racism in our Organizations and Families. How to Have Difficult Conversations. Latino Community Fund Georgia Latinx Summit, 2020. 

Panelist. Hispanic/Latino Identities and Terminology. AARP Speaker Series, 2020. 

Presenter. Brown + Black in the South. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Black History Month Event, 2020. 

Episode Resources

Crenshaw, Kimberle () “Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics,” University of Chicago Legal Forum: Vol. 1989: Iss. 1, Article 8 

Garcia, Gina Ann. Becoming Hispanic-Serving Institutions: Opportunities for Colleges and Universities. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2019. 

Gonzalez-Barrera, Ana. “Hispanics with Darker Skin Are More Likely to Experience Discrimination than Those with Lighter Skin.” Pew Research Center. Pew Research Center, September 3, 2020.

Huntington, Samuel P. The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order. New York, NY: Free, 2002. 

Jones, Jennifer A. The Browning of the New South. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press, 2019. 

Noe-Bustamante, Luis, Ana Gonzalez-Barrera, Khadijah Edwards, Lauren Mora, and Mark Hugo Lopez. “Latinos and Colorism: Majority of U.S. Hispanics Say Skin Color Impacts Opportunity and Shapes Daily Life.” Pew Research Center’s Hispanic Trends Project. Pew Research Center, January 11, 2022.