By Matt Nelson & Elisa Batista
¡Presente! Latinx Power
Remaking Democracy
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¡Presente! Latinx Power is a grassroots, movement-building labor of love. It’s an invitation to learn together, share ideas, and leverage our communities’ collective power and brilliance. Co-authors Matt Nelson and Elisa Batista highlight more than 40 top Latinx leaders from artistic, entrepreneurial, labor, political, and pop culture spaces, who through creative grassroots and mass-scale organizing, are shifting the media narrative, shaping U.S. culture, and wielding incredible influence in this current political epoch.
Meet the Authors
Matt Nelson
The Colombian-born, Midwestern-raised Executive Director of Presente.org
Before his work at Presente.org, Matt was the Organizing Director at ColorOfChange.org and co-founded several worker-owned cooperatives in multiple midwestern cities. He is a seasoned campaign strategist who has won dozens of local and national campaigns and a skilled community organizer who has trained thousands of activists. He was recently featured in the first major book on the Ferguson Uprising, entitled, “Ferguson is America: Roots of Rebellion”, FergusonAmerica.com. He also contributed to the book, “Welcome to the Revolution: Universalizing Resistance for Social Justice and Democracy in Perilous Times“.
Elisa Batista
Mother, journalist, and community organizer who is a Contract Writer with Presente.org.
She also serves on the Berkeley, California Children Youth and Recreation Commission, advising the city on policies, programs, planning efforts, activities and funding associated with recreation, youth and families. She has spent most of her career as a campaign director for MomsRising.org, a grassroots organization advocating for policies related to family economic security, and child health and well-being. She helped spearhead the organization’s immigration campaign and launch MamásConPoder.org, a community of civically engaged Spanish-speaking and bilingual mothers. She is also a bilingual, award-winning writer. She is the co-founder of a popular parenting community, MotherTalkers, which was named a “favorite mom blog” by Ms. Magazine, and recognized with an award by Latinos in Tech Innovation and Social Media (LATISM). In addition, her writing has appeared at the Huffington Post, Daily Kos, FOX News, La Opinión, and Wired News. Batista lives with her family in Berkeley, California.