Being a Latina in Nebraska: The Movement Is Here
Latina Professionals Launch Fiesta, August 2026
Yesterday was National Latina Day. And I've been thinking about what that means when you're a Latina in Nebraska.
Not in Miami. Not in Los Angeles. Not in a city where our presence is expected, celebrated, and woven into the cultural fabric of everyday life.
In Nebraska.
Where you learn quickly that you will often be the only one in the room. Where you code-switch before you even know what code-switching means. Where you carry your culture quietly at first — until one day you realize that your culture is not something to quiet down. It is your greatest asset. And Nebraska? Nebraska is better because we are here.
The numbers are starting to reflect what our community has always known. Nebraska's Latino population has grown over 300% since 1990. Latinos represent 19% of the U.S. workforce. Our purchasing power has reached $3.4 trillion nationally and that power is being felt right here in Omaha, in South Omaha, in the zip codes and corridors and communities that our gente has been building for decades.
Latinas, specifically, are the fastest-growing group of entrepreneurs in the United States. Let that land for a moment. Not despite everything we carry, because of it. Our resilience, our creativity, our ability to build community out of nothing — that is not a soft skill. That is a superpower.
And right now, in Omaha, Nebraska, something is happening.
This week, we watched the Latina Professionals® Chapter of Nebraska launch — and sell out. In a matter of days. Because the hunger for a space like this, for a room built specifically for Latina professionals in this state, has always been there. We just needed someone to open the door.
Latina Professionals of Nebraska Launch Party
On August 29, the Latino Summit takes place at the Central Library in Omaha — a gathering of leaders, thinkers, and changemakers focused on the data and the direction of Nebraska's Latino community. Mark Hugo Lopez of the Pew Research Center will be in the room, bringing the statistics that tell our story at a national level and applying them right here, to us, to Nebraska.
And on September 3, the Adelante Soirée brings the entire community together for a night that is equal parts celebration and statement. A night that says — we are here, we have built something real, and we are not done.
Third annual Adelante Gala
These are not coincidences. This is a movement.
To be a Latina in Nebraska right now is to be at the beginning of something.
We are the women who sit at tables that weren't set for us — and then go back to set a seat for the next one. We are the ones who turned sacrifice into legacy, who made our familias proud in two countries, who showed up even when showing up was the hardest thing we'd ever done.
And we are done being invisible about it.
Nebraska is watching what its Latina community is building. The leaders, the organizations, the events, the professional networks — all of it is evidence of a community that has stopped waiting for permission and started creating its own spaces.
This is the moment. Somos Latinas. Somos Nebraska. And we are just getting started.
If you are a Latina professional in Nebraska — I see you. Get in the room. Find your voz. Take the risk. The movement needs you in it, hoy.
¡Adelante chicas!
Itzel Lopez
LEDC CEO
