Café, Community & Conversation
Fillaree’s First Spanish-Language Women’s Business Panel
March always gives us a chance to celebrate the women shaping our community. This year at Fillaree, we marked Women’s History Month by hosting our first Spanish-language women’s entrepreneurship panel and networking event in partnership with El Centro Hispano.
It felt especially meaningful to do this now. At a moment when immigrants — and Spanish speakers in particular — are often treated with suspicion or hostility in our country, gathering a room full of Latina entrepreneurs to speak, share, and lead in their own language felt, joyful, powerful, and exactly right.
Hosting the event fully in Spanish was intentional.
“Emprender ya requiere valentía — hacerlo en un segundo idioma no debería ser una barrera.” Entrepreneurship already requires courage — navigating it in a second language shouldn’t be an added barrier.
The evening brought together Latina business owners from across Durham to talk openly about building companies, navigating challenges, and supporting one another as entrepreneurs. After the panel, the conversation continued during a networking hour over coffee generously provided by our friends at Little Waves Coffee Roasters. Areli Barrera Grodski, was also on the panel!!.
When women support one another — especially across languages and cultures — entire communities grow stronger.
At Fillaree, we believe leadership isn’t always about taking the microphone — sometimes it’s about creating the space where others can step forward.
Our values of transparency and community don’t stop at how we make our products. They shape how we show up in Durham. Supporting entrepreneurs, building connections, and helping create spaces where people feel they belong is part of that work.
Last Saturday we continued the celebration by welcoming these incredible entrepreneurs back into the shop, where they’ll have the opportunity to share and sell their work with our community.
Because when women support one another — especially across languages, cultures, and experiences — entire communities grow stronger.
We’re deeply grateful to El Centro Hispano, to the panelists who shared their wisdom, and to everyone who joined us for a night of conversation, courage, and connection.
And like everything we do at Fillaree, it reminded us that the strongest communities — like the most sustainable ones — are built together.
— Alyssa
Founder, Fillaree