Stay-at-home-mom turned award-winning filmmaker turned speaker and podcaster showing up as your ‘belonging bestie’ that gives you all the bite-sized advice you need to belong anywhere you wanna be.
Denise accepts an invite to screen her film and speak at Vaynermedia. She spends one hour interviewing Gary Vee. Listen to the episode here!
2015
2014
The same week.. John Quiñones, famous for his show "What would you do?" hosts an intimate private screening for Starbucks leadership in NYC.
2018
17 years later...
See, dreams do come true! crazy, huh?
Denver, CO: Denise is happily married with 2 daughters and longs to fulfill on a promise she made to herself to make a film that she believes will 'heal a generation'. She pitches her idea to Oscar Nominated Producer Henry Ansbacher who attaches himself to Co-Produce and Co-Direct the film alongside her.
Miami, FL: Shortly after Denise breaks off her engagement, she meets up with some friends at a bar in North Miami where she is struck with the idea to make a documentary about the identity challenges of being first gen Latino.
1996
The filmmakers receive an invite to screen at the White House.
The trailer is released on FB and receives 1M combined views. Hundreds of requests flood into Denise's inbox from higher education to Fortune 500 companies asking her to screen film and share what she'd learned.
2016
RECORD SCRATCH MOMENT: While in production, Denise runs out of money and she makes the decision with her husband the #gringocowboy to sell their wedding rings so she can keep working on the film. (Watch the story on IG)
The film wins the coveted "People's Choice Award" at the Puerto Rican Heritage Film Festival.
2017
Denise's thought leadership is expands after every event. She applies and gets accepted to Stanford University's prestigious Latino Entrepreneurship Initiative to learn how to continue to grow her platform and get her message out into the world.
2020-2021
Denise takes the stage as a solo speaker in the coveted Culture Track at SXSW with her session scheduled for March 14.
An event attendee shares with Denise that after seeing being eñyeand hearing her speak, she was inspired to get a tattoo to honor her work - permanently.
Quiet on the set! This is the beautiful space where the NBC segment was captured in Miami, FL.
The Global Pandemic shuts down the world and George Floyd is brutally murdered. Both bring unprecedented attention to what really matters - Belonging. Demand for Denise's virtual keynote explodes as the loneliness epidemic continues to grow.
what a year!
After an event for Partners Healthcare in Boston (now Mass General) Denise is pulled aside by a PhD student at Harvard who urges her to regard her work on Identity & Belonging as Qualitative Research, as her findings backed up by the most cutting edge research and both Harvard and Stanford.
The writing is on the wall. Audiences are getting broader and groups outside of the Latino community begin to invite Denise to keynote and share her message. What started as a film about 1st gen Latinos has become a global movement around Belonging.
Apple Podcast North America contacts Denise to ask to feature her as one of five distinguished podcast hosts for her Self-ish Latina Podcast with listeners in 32 countries.
Denise easily earns her A-List Status on Southwest ✈️ as she traverses the continent speaking to every industry from banking to beauty, education to city municipalities, tech to the entertainment business.
2019
Denise keynotes MPI WEC in San Fransisco starting a 3000-person sing along 🎸 to Hey Jude.
2022
Denise is invited to weigh in on a segment about Latino identity, language and belonging for NBC Nightly News. Watch it here!
Denise reveals the cover of her debut book, What Will They Say?, ahead of its August 18 release. A guide to exposing the invisible cultural barriers holding Latina leaders back and rewriting the rules of belonging and power. PREORDER YOUR COPY HERE
2023
Denise was honored to receive the MPI President's Award from the Rocky Mountain Chapter for her work in Belonging.
Denise signs on to be exclusively represented by Simon and Schuster Speakers Bureau. To book Denise, contact emily.varga@simonandschuster.com
2024
Denise is thrilled to announce that she's signed a deal with Simon & Schuster who publish her upcoming Book "What Will They Say?"
2025
Denise's work is a part of the curriculum at the University of Leicester in the UK. She delightfully accepts an invitation keynote their conference continuing the universality of her message.
