Natalia Perez

Co-Director

Natalia has been involved in the frontline delivery of services at Latin Elephant for the last 5 years including as a Migrant and Ethnic Business Project Officer and  the last 2 years as Co -Director. Natalia has over eighteen years’ experience in the voluntary sector involved in the operational and strategic development of large and small frontline organisations including Latin American and other Migrant and Ethnic led initiatives. Natalia has also been part of an infrastructure organisations providing capacity building and training in different aspects of running and resourcing services as well as quality assurance.

Santiago Peluffo Soneyra

Freelance Special Advisor 

Latin American bilingual writer and community organiser.
Santiago has been researching, supporting and advocating for the rights of racialised communities in South London since 2017. He is passionate about equality, migration and identities. A journalist and published author, Santiago holds a BA in Journalism and a MA in Political Communication. Also speaks Portuguese and Italian. Chevening scholar.

Sarah Goldzweig

Research and Policy Officer

Sarah (she/her) is originally from Los Angeles, California, where she was involved in community activism and organising projects on issues of climate justice, housing justice and reimagining community safety. She moved to London in 2020 to complete an MRes Interdisciplinary Urban Design; her dissertation discusses how the post-WWII development of Downtown Los Angeles can be understood as racialised and settler-colonial ‘spatio-legal violence’. In addition to Latin Elephant, she works for another London-based charity that brings together tenants’ groups around strategic social housing issues. 

Alejandra Alvarez Afanador

Community Organiser – Migrant and Racialised Businesses Officer

Patria Roman

Chair of Trustees

Patria is Founding Chair of Latin Elephant. She is the author of The making of Latin London: Music, place & identity and director and co-author of the report The Case for London’s Latin Quarter: Retention, growth, sustainability. Patria specialises in migrant and ethnic economies, urban regeneration and urban communication. Senior Lecturer, Innovations in Research (Culture, Media & Creative Industries), King’s College London.

Katie Wright

Trustee

Katie is a Reader in International Development at the University of East London. She is the author of International Migration, Development and Human Wellbeing (Palgrave, 2012) which draws on empirical research with London and Madrid-based Peruvian migrants and their relatives in Peru. Her latest research explores the intergenerational transmission of human wellbeing amongst Latin American migrant mothers and their daughters in London.

Jerry Flynn

Trustee

Jerry is a live-long resident of Southwark and a former teacher. He lived with his family for many years on the now demolished Heygate estate, at the Elephant and Castle. Jerry is part of the 35% Campaign, which campaigns for more affordable and social rented housing from new developments in Southwark. The 35% Campaign’s work has involved it in the battle to save the Elephant and Castle shopping centre and against the demolition of the nearby Aylesbury estate. Through this work, and other local campaigns, Jerry has gained first-hand experience of how the planning system works, from the point of view of the communities that face displacement as a result of urban regeneration. He hopes that he can bring the benefit of this knowledge to the work of Latin Elephant, and help redress the imbalances of power between those who make decisions and those who are subject to them.

Catalina Ortiz

Trustee

Dr Catalina Ortiz is an Associate Professor at the Development Planning Unit. Catalina is committed to a negotiated co-production of urban space grounded on ethics of care and engaged scholarship. Using decolonial and critical urban theory through knowledge co-production methodologies, Catalina engages with critical urban pedagogies, planning for equality, and southern urbanisms in Latin America and Southeast Asia. Catalina’s latest work can be found in the pages of Planning Theory and the International Journal of Urban and Regional Research.

Elina Oliva

Elina is a King’s College London English Literature graduate specialised in communications and PR. She is passionate about Latinx representation in the arts and specifically theatre industry.

Nicolás Rosal

Nicolas Rosal is an Analytics Engineer with over three years of experience helping organisations make data-driven decisions by leveraging their data. He specialises in building scalable, user-friendly analytics systems that deliver meaningful impact, with a focus on the EdTech and HealthTech sectors. Passionate about using data for good, Nicolas is proud to support Latin Elephant in its mission.

Gonzalo Fuentes Pinto

Gonzalo completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts at the University of Málaga (Spain) and a master’s degree in Research in Art and Creation from the Complutense University of Madrid. After finishing his studies, he focused on his artistic practice, carrying out different projects and obtaining several artistic residencies and grants. Currently, he combines his front-of-house work at various art organisations with his involvement in Latin Elephant and his volunteer role as a radio producer at RTM.FM. He is also a co-founder of a creative studio in his local area, Thamesmead, where he is commissioning a new piece of public art for Cygnet Square in Southmere.

Akemi Higa Flores

Born in Lima, Peru. Since 2017 she has worked in the areas of architectural and graphic design, teaching, museography and research on infrastructure and urban planning in the global south. She has worked in the public and private sector in projects with surrounding education, culture, and heritage. She moved to London in 2021 to study the MSc of Building and Urban Design in Development at UCL, graduating in 2022.