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Natalia Aponte Reyes

Natalia Aponte is a community-driven storyteller with over 15 years of professional experience in Boston, dedicated to amplifying the voices and realities of immigrant and working-class communities. Originally from Colombia, she came to the United States with the goal of growing professionally while staying deeply connected to her roots and sense of social responsibility.

Natalia holds a Master’s degree in Digital Media from North Eastern University as well as a bachelor’s degree in Social Communication and Journalism from Colombia. Her background spans journalism, visual storytelling, and video production, tools she uses to inform, educate, and empower communities through accessible and culturally grounded narratives.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Natalia worked as a reporter covering the crisis across Massachusetts, witnessing firsthand the disproportionate impact on immigrant communities. Through that work, she also observed the critical role La Colaborativa played in responding to the moment, an experience that deeply shaped her path and strengthened her commitment to community-centered work.

She currently serves as Manager of Marketing & Communications at La Colaborativa, where she brings together her professional training and her passion for independent video production to help tell the organization’s story with dignity, honesty, and care. For Natalia, storytelling is more than a profession, it is a way to build trust, visibility, and collective power.

Representing La Colaborativa is both an honor and a responsibility, and she remains committed to using her skills to continue serving and uplifting the community she calls home.

Land Acknowledgment

At La Colaborativa, we believe that building a more just, equitable, and healthy future begins with recognizing the histories of the land and the communities that came before us, while confronting the systemic inequities that continue to shape our society today.

We acknowledge that La Colaborativa is located in Winnisimmet, now known as Chelsea, Massachusetts, on the ancestral and unceded homeland of the Massachusett People, whose deep connections to this land, culture, and community endure today.

We honor the Indigenous peoples who have stewarded this land for generations and recognize the lasting consequences of colonization, forced displacement, dispossession, and systemic injustice. These histories are not simply part of the past. Their legacies continue to influence access to land, housing, healthcare, education, economic opportunity, and the resources that allow individuals, families, and communities to thrive.

At La Colaborativa, we understand that health equity cannot be achieved without addressing the social determinants of health, the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work, and age.

Structural racism, poverty, housing instability, food insecurity, and barriers to education, employment, and healthcare disproportionately affect immigrant, Indigenous, and historically marginalized communities, perpetuating cycles of inequality across generations.

This understanding is at the heart of La Colaborativa's holistic, community-driven model. Our work recognizes that the challenges facing our communities are deeply interconnected and cannot be addressed in isolation. By integrating housing stability, food access, healthcare, workforce development, education, economic mobility, and community advocacy, we work to address the root causes of inequity, strengthen community resilience, and create pathways toward lasting social and economic opportunity.

Rooted in our mission of Levantando al Pueblo, we believe that meaningful change begins by centering the voices, experiences, cultural identities, and leadership of the communities most affected by systemic injustice. Just as we honor the resilience and enduring presence of Indigenous peoples, we recognize the strength of immigrant families and historically marginalized communities who continue to shape our collective future.

For us, a land acknowledgment is more than a statement of respect. It is a reminder of our responsibility to turn recognition into meaningful action, challenge the systems that perpetuate inequality, and advance a model of community well-being grounded in dignity, belonging, self-determination, and justice.

We offer this acknowledgment with respect and gratitude to the Massachusett People, their ancestors, elders, and present-day communities, and with a continued commitment to learning, solidarity, and building a future where every community has the resources, opportunities, and power to thrive.