Charlotte Castillo was seven years old when she became the Chief Translator for her Dominican immigrant family in New York City. She didn't know it then, but she was already doing the work — figuring things out beyond her years, building courage in real time, and learning how to move between worlds. Twenty years later, she's still translating. Just on a much bigger stage.This week, Charlotte joins us on Behind The Work.Charlotte is the Managing Director of Poderistas — one of the fastest-growing and most influential digital communities celebrating Latina culture in the United States. Before that, she spent over 14 years as an award-winning senior executive at ViacomCBS, and before that, she was the founding Head of Marketing at Latina Magazine — the first print publication ever created for the bicultural Latina. She is a first-generation college graduate from Wesleyan University, the proud daughter of Dominican immigrants, a New Yorker to her core, and a mother of a 16-year-old son.In this conversation, we start at the beginning — what it was like to grow up as the daughter of Dominican immigrants in New York, and how that environment shaped her sense of identity, resourcefulness, and ambition. We talk about what it meant to be part of Latina Magazine from the very start, and what drew her deeper into media and marketing for a community that had long been underserved and misunderstood.We get into the pivot — what made her walk away from a long, successful corporate career, how she found Poderistas as a volunteer after being laid off during the pandemic, and what it felt like to step into something so mission-driven after 14 years inside one of the most powerful media companies in the world. We talk about why Poderistas works — why leading with culture, beauty, health, and entertainment creates the trust that makes civic engagement possible — and what she has learned about what actually moves people from awareness to action. We get into the danger of treating Latinas as a monolith, what it really looks like to correct that in media and politics, and what Latina power means not as a slogan, but as a real, lived practice in everyday life.This episode is for you if:- You've spent years building someone else's vision and you're starting to feel the pull toward something that actually reflects your values.- You're navigating the transition from a corporate career to mission-driven work and want to hear from someone who made that shift and found her footing.- You care about civic engagement but feel like traditional outreach has never spoken to you — and you want to understand a different approach.- You're a Latina who is tired of being treated as a monolith and wants to see what it looks like when an organization actually gets the complexity of our community.- You work in media, marketing, or philanthropy and want a sharper lens on how to reach communities with authenticity rather than assumption.- You want to understand what it looks like to build power through culture — and why that approach is more durable than anything built on messaging alone.Connect with Jessica:- Subscribe to the Behind The Work newsletter — link in bio- Follow Jessica on Instagram: http://instagram.com/@jessicasantana- Follow Behind The Work on Instagram: http://instagram.com/@behindtheworkshow- Follow Jessica on TikTok: http://tiktok.com/@jessworldwide- Follow Behind The Work on TikTok: http://tiktok.com/@behindtheworkAbout Behind The Work:Behind The Work is the show for the ambitious person looking to level up their lives, their career, and their businesses. Hosted by Jessica Santana, Behind The Work goes deep with the executives, founders, and leaders who are building from a place of power. Each episode pulls back the curtain on the real work — the strategy, the setbacks, the pivots, and the purpose — behind the people, companies, and organizations shaping what's next.