Building Tomorrow’s Southeast: Joel Alvarado’s Leadership Through Cultural Understanding

As part of our "Intersections of Resilience" series, we honor the transformative leadership of Afro-Latine voices within our comunidad during Black History Month. These stories illuminate how their lived experiences and visionary work are reshaping philanthropy's future.

In celebration of Black History Month, we're spotlight the transformative work of Joel Alvarado, whose leadership at the intersection of Black and Latine communities is reshaping conversations about equity in the American Southeast. As Vice President for Strategy and Engagement at the Partnership for Southern Equity and recent alumnus of HIP’s Líderes cohort 9, Joel champions a vision where cultural identity becomes a source of collective power. His work in Atlanta—a city where historically Black-white binary narratives are being transformed by growing Latine presence and influence—demonstrates how naming our full identities can be the start of a powerful conversation.

Latine Roots in the US South

Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, Joel made his way to Atlanta in the 1990s to attend the prestigious Morehouse College – the only private liberal arts HBCU for men. Since then, Atlanta has changed dramatically, largely because of the growing Latine presence that took root after the 1996 Olympics, when many Mexican immigrants who helped build the city's infrastructure decided to make Georgia their home. As border policies tightened, more families chose to establish permanent roots throughout the Southeast, gradually transforming Atlanta's cultural, economic, and political landscape. Not to mention the growing Puerto Rican population, largely due to the military installations across the state. 

This growth allowed Latines to establish deeper roots in the region. By the early 2000s, Joel had worked for DeKalb County and MALDEF and witnessed how tensions grew between political leaders across the Southeast and the emerging Latine community. As Latines began opening businesses and purchasing homes, a distinct cultural identity began taking shape in the Southeast. The community started building institutions to amplify their collective voice. Despite pushback from established power structures, more and more Latine families recognized the unique opportunities the Southeast offered compared to traditional cities across the Northeast. 

"When I first moved to Atlanta, it was hard to explain what it meant to be Latino. And very hard to explain what it meant to be Black and Latino," Joel shares. "It was very bifurcated. Right? It's very binary. Either you're Black, or you're white." But he's witnessed profound transformation: "Fast forward to 2025, it's a much different environment. We are more organized. We have more political representation. Our institutions are becoming stronger."

Building a Multiethnic Comunidad

Today's Southeast reflects this evolution, with Venezuelan, Peruvian, and Salvadoran communities adding to the region's voice. For Joel, this diversity represents more than demographic change—it's about building collective power with intention and purpose. "We are starting to realize the importance of really coming together and leveraging our collective power to achieve outcomes that would benefit our community," he explains. "Not despite anybody else, but recognizing we also have a right to enjoy the American dream."

What particularly energizes Joel is seeing younger generations step into their power. "There are more young people who are actively engaged in politics and advocacy, who want to be seen and heard, and want to be a part of leadership, and have a passion for service," he shares. This marks a profound shift from his early career when, as he recalls, "I was like a brown spot in a sea of other colors. I was the only one all the time." But being first was never his end goal. "I don't want to be a gatekeeper," he emphasizes. "I want other people like me to be in that space."

For Joel, the power of connection and authentic community spaces gives way to the next generation, especially as a Latino nonprofit leader in the Southeast. "I think the greatest value of HIP’s Líderes fellowship program is the people you meet and the friends you establish," he reflects. "You're not alone in the struggle... We all felt we could be very authentic. We felt honest and thought there was good intention in the space."

This emphasis on genuine connection takes on special significance in regions with fewer established networks. Unlike traditional Latine hubs like New York, LA, or Chicago, leading in the Southeast requires creativity and resilience. Yet Joel sees this as an opportunity: "I can stay here firm in the South, but I can also pull on people I know from different parts of the US who could provide expertise, knowledge, wisdom, and other resources so I could be better at my job here."

The Power of Naming Our Histories

"It's important to understand there is language and theory, and ideas speak to our intersectionality, where I now don't have to choose between being Latino and being Black. I can be both," Joel reflects. This understanding shapes not just his identity but his approach to leadership and community building, especially as he works to challenge how anti-Blackness and Eurocentric narratives have often pushed African heritage to the margins of Latine histories.

Joel's commitment to uncovering and sharing these histories runs deep. Drawing insights from works like "Afro-Latin American Studies: An Introduction," and “Puerto Rico: A National History” he illuminates how many Spanish-speaking countries "would make you believe any people of African descent never existed within their countries. They have this European worldview, this white worldview, and they try to present themselves as a white nation by suppressing the identities and cultural contributions, historical contributions of African people."

This erasure becomes even more striking when we examine the historical timeline. "African people were transported to the Western Hemisphere and the Spanish colonies much earlier than when they arrived in French and English colonies," Joel explains, challenging common misconceptions about the African diaspora across the Americas. The legacy of slavery itself followed different trajectories across the hemisphere – while the United States abolished slavery in 1865, Puerto Rico's abolition didn't come until 1873, revealing the often overlooked markers in our shared histories.

The conversation around these histories demands us to reexamine how we relate to each other in our communities. "We have to talk about the challenges we face because Latinos think race is a social construct mostly connected to just the United States," Joel emphasizes. "We don't acknowledge the anti-blackness, racism, and white supremacy that exists within Latin America. And how it perpetuates itself today." This clear-eyed assessment of our communities' relationship with race and identity opens crucial pathways for honest dialogue and transformative change.

A Call to Transform Philanthropy

This pursuit of historical truth isn't just academic—it's revolutionary. By understanding where we come from and naming the forces that have shaped our communities, we gain the power to shape where we're going. 

And in philanthropy – this knowledge or lack thereof can translate into how resources are redistributed or not. "If you're having a conversation about Latinos and no Latinos are representing the Southeast, then how are you having conversations about Latinos?" he challenged. "Just because you have somebody from New York or Texas, doesn't mean they represent the interest of all Latinos throughout the United States."

At the local and national levels, there is still a need to amplify a diversity of Latine voices. What becomes most important ultimately is to be intentional about including people directly from the communities and as Joel put it, “use their collective power to influence outcomes that would be of benefit to the communities they're part of.”

Joel challenges the philanthropic sector to think bigger and bolder. "Equity means all people have a fair chance to enjoy the benefits of what philanthropy offers," he states. "I think it's wholly unfair that conservative donors are willing to invest in nonprofits for 10, 20 years.” Yet there is this idea that philanthropy can grant “$100,000, and demand organizations to address systemic oppression in a year, and somehow be able to change what it took 400 years to create. That's not realistic, and it's not fair, and you're positioning us to be defeated constantly.” 

His vision for philanthropy emerges from his wisdom and hope for our collective future. "We must be more willing to trust those on the ground and invest in them," Joel emphasized. He sees today's challenges as catalysts for transformative change, "Maybe we've been a little too complacent... Maybe it's time for us to really double down. Like, are we serious about this work?” For Joel, this moment demands more than incremental progress – it is a call to reimage what's possible when we trust in community power and invest with conviction.

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Read the first article in this series, featuring Radhy Miranda, here.