Every Hispanic Heritage Month, we are given an opportunity to look back.
We celebrate the pioneers who came before us, the traditions they preserved, the institutions they built, and the sacrifices they made so generations that followed could have opportunities they did not.
That history matters. We should know it. We should celebrate it. And we should make certain it is never forgotten.
But as guest editor of this year’s Motif Hispanic Heritage Month issue, I wanted to ask a different question:
What comes next?
Celebrating how far we have come should also challenge us to ask how much farther we can go.
That question is particularly meaningful to me this year. While I was invited to guest edit this special issue, I was launching VISIONARIOS-Rhode Island, a publication created to tell the stories of Latino professionals, entrepreneurs, artists, educators, and community leaders who are helping shape Rhode Island’s future.
Those two experiences have reinforced something I strongly believe:
Our heritage has given us a foundation. It cannot become our finish line.
Why This Matters to Me
My own journey toward that belief began long before VISIONARIOS.
I grew up in Queens, New York, a bicultural kid trying to understand where I fit within two worlds. Eventually, I built a career in advertising and media, helping major brands reach Latino consumers.
Corporate America was beginning to recognize our growing importance. Companies were studying us, segmenting us, targeting us, and investing marketing dollars to reach us.
But too often, people were deciding how to communicate to Latinos without really listening to Latinos.
Then, in 1995, Selena Quintanilla-Pérez died.
Her death affected me in a way I never expected. I watched what happened when PEOPLE Weekly published two different covers — one featuring the cast of “Friends,” the other Selena. The Selena edition sold out, while the other cover underperformed.
For me, the message went far beyond magazine sales.
Here was a young Mexican American woman from a working-class family who connected with millions of people because they saw something of themselves in her. She had not abandoned her culture to succeed. She carried it with her.
Selena helped me understand the power of representation differently. I no longer wanted simply to help other people figure out how to market to Latinos. I wanted to participate in creating and shaping our stories.
That realization changed the direction of my professional life and, decades later, became part of the inspiration for VISIONARIOS-Rhode Island.
Selena also taught me something that feels especially relevant this Hispanic Heritage Month:
The people who inspire us should not become monuments we simply admire. Their examples should propel us forward.
A Father’s Example. A Son’s Own Path.
That brings me to the story at the heart of this issue: artist Nilton Cárdenas and his father, the late Jorge F. Cárdenas.
For me, this story is also personal.
I first met Jorge in 2018 at a RI Foundation Together Rhode Island luncheon in South Providence. A friendship developed, and I came to know a man whose commitment to education, community, and helping others was not simply something listed on a résumé. It was how he lived.
Jorge came to RI from Peru in 1993 after a career in industrial and labor relations. Here, he devoted decades to strengthening connections among schools, families, and communities. In 1999, he co-founded Rhode Island’s Back-to-School Celebration.
What began at one location serving approximately four hundred children grew into events across several RI communities and provided more than 16,000 backpacks filled with school supplies.
That is legacy measured not merely in awards or titles, but in people reached and opportunities created.
Knowing Jorge makes it especially meaningful for me to now tell part of his story through the life and work of his son.
Nilton spent more than two decades collaborating with his father and absorbed those lessons about solidarity, education, service, and responsibility. But what I find most compelling is that Nilton did not try to become Jorge Cárdenas.
As Nilton puts it: “I am not trying to reproduce someone else’s path. I am building my own path through art.”
Through The Artist in You, he brings visual art into schools, community organizations, healthcare facilities, and senior centers. Through Little Masterpieces, he creates opportunities for emerging and established RI artists to gain visibility and reach new audiences.
His father’s values became his foundation. Nilton built something different upon them (see story on facing page).
Legacy is not simply what one generation leaves behind. Legacy is what the next generation chooses to do with it.
It is also why Nilton’s story will appear in the October issue of VISIONARIOS-Rhode Island. His journey belongs naturally in both publications because it connects where we have been with where we can go.
The Future Is Already Being Created
You will find that same spirit throughout this issue.
Jesus Andujar carries Caribbean rhythms into RI classrooms and communities. Elvys Ruiz takes that idea a step further, using theatre not only to create and perform, but to build community. Through the Village Theatre, he has created a space for cultural exchange while giving young Latino artists the confidence to create, lead, and build institutions of their own. Lydia Pérez preserves Puerto Rico’s centuries-old Bomba traditions by teaching apprentices who can carry them forward. Rene Gomez creates public art while helping other artists gain professional experience. Niko Tolentino shares his creative process so others can learn from it. Alfonso Acevedo has spent decades combining journalism, art, and education to build confidence in others. From founding a Spanish-language newspaper to providing free arts instruction to children and families, his work demonstrates how creativity can serve a larger purpose.
Contributor Jennifer Ugarte came to RI from Guatemala with an education in marketing and photography, and discovered that bilingualism could be more than part of her cultural identity — it could also be a professional asset. She now uses photography to document culture, activism, heritage, and community life.
And then there is Magda León.
After she initially pursued social work, the artist within her reemerged. At 39, she pursued a bachelor’s degree in printmaking. At 46, an MFA.
Her message is beautifully direct:
“It’s never too late.”
Today, Magda uses art to explore identity, immigration, and ancestry while creating spaces where people can reconnect with their roots and one another.
Her advice captures the spirit of this issue: If you cannot find a place for yourself, have the courage to create it — and open the path for the people who come after you.
Beyond the Arts
That message extends far beyond artists.
RI’s Latino future will also be shaped by students, entrepreneurs, professionals, educators, healthcare leaders, and executives.
Cultural pride is essential. But pride alone is not progress.
Our next chapter also requires personal and professional development — education, mentorship, entrepreneurship, collaboration, and the confidence to enter spaces where Latinos have historically been underrepresented.
Development has no expiration date. Neither does our capacity to contribute.
Heritage Requires Vision
That, to me, is where heritage and vision intersect.
We honor those who came before us not simply by remembering what they accomplished, but by building upon what they gave.
So, as you read this Hispanic Heritage Month issue of Motif, celebrate these remarkable artists. Appreciate the cultures and traditions that shaped them. But then look forward.
Look at what they are creating now and the people and communities they are affecting.
And ask yourself the same question I asked at the beginning:
What comes next?
Hispanic Heritage Month should not only celebrate what Latinos have accomplished.
It should inspire us to envision what we can accomplish next.
Our heritage tells us where we came from. Our vision will determine where we go next. •
Jon A. Andrade is the Founding Publisher of VISIONARIOS-Rhode Island. https://visionariosri.com/