Natalia Kohn Rivera - Hermanas: deepening our identity and growing our influence

Hermanas emerged from a series of divine appointments, personal invitations, and mutual longing for a discipleship resource for emerging Latina leaders. In December 2015, Natalia Kohn began to dream with Orlando Crespo about a resource for Latino/as that focused on developing Latina voices. More than ten years had passed since the publication of Orlandos seminal book Being Latino in Christ, and several leaders working with Latino young adults continually asked for resources and support in their leadership development curriculum, classes, and conferences. Natalia asked a few of her friends if they would be interested in writing a book to address the paucity in resources for Christian Latina leaders. Noemi Vega and Kristy Robinson accepted the invitation, excited to coauthor a book where multiple voices would be shown.

Our goal is that Hermanas will serve as a discipleship and leadership development resource for Latina women who desire to grow in their ethnic identity, leadership, and relationship with God. Hermanas is also for men and women who seek to walk alongside and empower emerging Latina leaders. The biblical women we encounter serve as mentors for our leadership journeys. We hope that you feel welcomed into their life with God wherever you find yourself on your own journey toward Jesus and toward understanding and embracing your own ethnic identity. It may help you to know that all three of us, at some point in our ethnic identity development, have felt and fought the lie of not being Latina enough. If you find yourself in a similar place, our prayer is that you would grow into the beautiful wonder and uniqueness that your heritage brings.

May you experience these twelve stories from the Bible, and our collective stories interwoven throughout, as helpful wisdom from fellow hermanas. In Hermanas you have access to twelve narratives that will empower and develop you for kingdom growth. Hermanas is the title we wanted for this book because it is a narrative of ancient and living sisters interconnected across time and place. We hope you read with eyes to see these women and our stories as precious sisters walking alongside your own journeyfor such a time as this. The Lord has given us these biblical heroines to spur us on. The Lord has also given us one another to activate the treasures within each of us.

As you read our stories, you will notice our different writing styles and personalities shine through. Some of us choose to use Spanglish in certain places. At times we dig deeply into the biblical context and at other times we dig deeply into learning from our experiences. We intentionally wanted to write each chapter with our separate voices so that we may show that leadership is multifaceted and that every person will lead with their own voice and personality. We hope this purposeful decision welcomes more of us mujeres to the leadership table. Since each of us has written four chapters, we would like to introduce ourselves to you in our own voice. Thank you for joining our table.