Astrid Silva María Elena Salinas

2024 Author: Steven Freeman | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 08:15

María Elena Salinas conquered the love of the public through her 30-year career at Univision. After a brief professional pause, the prominent Mexican journalist returned to the small screen to join the CBS network last August.

It is thanks to her brilliant career that People en Español invited Salinas to nominate a candidate as her goddaughter to seek the popular vote of our readers and get a position among the "25 Most Powerful Women" of 2020.

Her chosen was the Mexican activist and DREAMer Astrid Silva, who was born in Mexico but has lived in Nevada since she was four, and who has become an outstanding leader for some of the nearly 800,000 DREAMers who live in the country under the protection of the DACA program and struggling to achieve permanent legal status.

Astrid is the founder of the DREAM BIG LAS VEGAS and DREAM BIG NEVADA organizations “to educate and guide other members of her community to defend and fight for their rights,” Salinas explains to People en Español about her goddaughter in this project.

"I chose Astrid Silva as my goddaughter because she is a very enterprising girl who, despite adversity, has not let herself fall," continues the ABC News collaborator. “I have admired her since I met her. She found her voice and used it, not only for herself and her family but for others in her situation. She is brave and bold, committed to her cause and above all she has a lot of empathy.”

"[Astrid] saw an opportunity to make a difference in the lives of others and took action," says the mother of two daughters. "She is not fighting only for her and other DREAMERS, but rather she started the organizations DREAM BIG LAS VEGAS and DREAM BIG NEVADA to educate and guide other members of her community to defend and fight for their rights."

ENTER HERE TO VOTE FOR ASTRID SILVA

Salinas says Astrid's strength lies in inspiring not only DREAMers like her "[but] other members of her community to use her voice as well. Don't give up. It offers them a platform to do so. She shares what she has learned and serves as a bridge between those in need and those in a position to help resolve their situation."

"[It is] a pride to see how our youth is taking charge of their own destiny and they don't wait for someone else to decide for them," says Salinas. “In highlighting Astrid's work I think I also put her as an example to follow for other young women. It is a chain that is so badly needed in our community.”

People en Español and Meredith Corporation INVITE YOU their annual edition of Powerful LIVE! The event is this March 14 at the James L. Knight Center, in Miami and there will pay tribute to the "25 Most Powerful Women" of our April edition. In addition: we invite you to Poderosas PRO, the event specially designed for professionals in various fields.