Claudia Forestieri has been a long-time member of NALIP. She began her journey with a Miami-based documentary, Girls Gone Bad.

Forestieri grew up considering herself a “bad latina.” Raised in Miami, she did not relate to the party scene and instead found herself immersed in books. Her parents were born in the Dominican Republic, but she was born in Puerto Rico. In Miami, she was exposed to many cultures. She noticed that those who held positions of power were not people of color. After this realization, she made sure she was writing stories that addresses this issue. “Growing up, I took my [Latina background] for granted.

Growing up, I wanted to be American, then I got to college, got in touch with my community, and there I got to be more Latina,” Forestieri recalls. #WeAreInclusion for her is a call out to people outside of the Latino community to work with Latinos. “Put our shows on television!” she exclaims.

Forestieri believes in a bright future for Latinos in Hollywood, such as African Americans have been able to pull their community and present stories that can relate with people outside of their community, “Latinos will have the gems that can prove [to be] artistic and crowd pleasers.”