Today we’d like to introduce you to Everardo.GF.
Hi Everardo.GF, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I spent over a decade working in the corporate world, taking on roles ranging from engineering in aerospace to data analysis in the sporting goods industry. Outside of work, I picked up a camera a few years ago and became more involved in Portland’s creative scene — attending entrepreneurial pitch events, fashion shows, nightlife events, and other community gatherings.
Through those experiences, I met more and more Latino creatives and noticed there wasn’t really a consistent space bringing us together across different creative disciplines.
After attending a workshop at New Wave Studio — a Latino-owned photo studio in Portland — I approached them with an idea: what if we hosted an open studio night specifically for Latino creatives? They loved the idea, so I reached out to the photographers, models, makeup artists, designers, DJs, and other creatives I had connected with over the previous few months and invited them to come together at the studio.
That was the beginning of Creativos Unidos.
From there, I kept creating events centered around giving our community more opportunities to connect, collaborate, find support, and feel a sense of belonging. Over time, some of those gatherings grew into recurring programs, including Sembrando Raíces, our monthly coworking and workshop program.
Looking back, I’ve realized that Creativos Unidos has become a place where nearly every part of my professional life has converged. My background in engineering and data taught me to think in systems, solve problems, and build processes, while years of managing projects and working with different teams taught me how to turn ideas into something people can actually execute together.
Other skills I’ve had to learn along the way. Photography started as something I picked up in my free time, but eventually became my entry point into Portland’s creative community. As Creativos Unidos grew, I learned more about storytelling, content creation, marketing, and whatever else the work required of me.
What started as a simple idea to bring people into the same room has grown into an organization focused on building stronger connections and infrastructure for Latino creatives. In a way, building Creativos Unidos has brought together the skills I spent years developing with the ones I’ve had to develop because I decided to build it — while continuing to learn from the community what it can and should become.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Continuing to build infrastructure and bring people together with little more than our community’s proverbial blood, sweat, and tears has been one of our biggest challenges.
We’ve proven that we can do a lot without permission if we’re willing to put in the work. But that isn’t necessarily sustainable — and the people doing that work deserve to be paid for their time, creativity, and effort.
So one of our biggest challenges has been finding funding and resources that come without strings attached. We’re not interested in taking money that requires us to compromise our values, give up our autonomy, or change our voice to make ourselves more palatable.
As we’ve grown, we’ve also had to think about how we build an organization that doesn’t depend on any one person constantly giving more of themselves to keep it alive. How do we create the infrastructure to support the work while still preserving the trust, relationships, and community that made the work possible in the first place?
Those challenges haven’t gone away, but they’ve strengthened our understanding of our mission and goals: to create an organization that supports its people without asking them to sell out — without asking them to hide who they are or quiet their voice.
We’ve been impressed with Creativos Unidos, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Creativos Unidos brings Latino creatives together to find community, collaboration, opportunity, and a sense of belonging.
We do that through gatherings and programs ranging from coworking and workshops to open studios, cultural events, and conversations around issues affecting our creative community. Sembrando Raíces, for example, is our monthly coworking and workshop program where people can share skills, work alongside one another, and build relationships around the projects they care about.
Over time, what started with a single open studio night has grown into different programs, events, collaborations, and partnerships, but we try not to measure our success simply by how many people we can get into a room. Sometimes the most meaningful outcome is that two people meet, share an idea, start working together, or simply find a community they want to come back to.
An important part of our work is recognizing that there is no single Latino experience. Latinidad gives us a common identity shaped by shared histories and struggles, but it can also flatten the enormous diversity of our cultures, customs, experiences, and perspectives. We try to keep that tension front and center in our programming so that belonging doesn’t require anyone to minimize where they come from or who they are.
As we’ve grown, we’ve also started asking what happens beyond bringing people into the same room. We’re building infrastructure that allows members of our community to facilitate workshops, lead programs, collaborate on projects, and develop their own leadership skills.
Seeing people who first came through our doors as attendees begin sharing their skills, leading programs, and shaping what Creativos Unidos becomes is one of the things I’m most proud of.
That same thinking led us to create Creativos Unidos Studio, our creative production and consulting arm. The goal is to generate revenue through work our collective already has the skills to fulfill, create paid opportunities for creatives in our community, and use that revenue to help sustain our community-focused work.
Ultimately, we’re trying to build an ecosystem where Latino creatives can belong, learn, create, lead, collaborate, and earn under the same roof — without asking them to flatten their identity or compromise their voice in order to participate.
Since then, our work has expanded beyond our own programming through collaborations with arts institutions, creative collectives, coffee shops, entrepreneurship organizations, and nonprofits — supporting everything from community gatherings to scholarship campaigns and documentary production.
What do you like best about our city? What do you like least?
I came from LA, hopped around a few other cities, and eventually found my home and mission in Portland — for now. What’s interesting is that the sense of belonging I’ve found here wasn’t a given. It had to be found and created intentionally.
I love the feeling of accomplishment when someone tells me they’ve found a sense of belonging through the work I started. At the same time, the need for spaces like ours exists partly because this city has a long history of making people feel like outsiders.
I’ve also come to love the ways people here celebrate different identities, cultures, and ways of being. Portland can sometimes embrace those ideas more performatively than materially, but I’ve watched BIPOC and queer and trans communities create spaces that genuinely embody them in ways I haven’t experienced in the other cities where I’ve lived.
I still wish we could find more ways to come together across those different communities. But I’ve met so many incredible artists, organizers, and community builders here who are already doing the work to create that future.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.creativos-unidos.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/creativosunidospdx
- Other: https://www.instagram.com/everardo.gf/
