4 It should be pointed out that the media have been one of the main reproducers of racism and gender discrimination in the region. This has happened since the Nineteenth Century, when the press wrote racist texts on Afro-Latino women and their descendants. Today, most newspapers and television channels still utilize discriminatory and offensive words to describe Afro-descendant women. Many people (including some Afro-Latinos) repeat those expressions used in commercials and soap-operas, without considering them, at all, deplorable. In short, the media have promoted the use of a discriminatory language against Afro-Latinas, and there is no evidence indicating that such use will be eliminated soon, thus representing a constant violation of most countries’ human rights laws. There is a need to transform the public perception of Afro-Latino women through changes in the formal education curriculum and media system, to incorporate an accurate history that includes the crucial socio-economic and cultural contribution of Afro-Latinas to the region. Yet, apart from supporting bilingual education curriculums in a few places, effective efforts are not being made by governments to change attitudes about racism and gender discrimination in Latin America. For instance, in countries like Colombia, women have the right to have quotas at the public institutions level. How many of those women who are selected to hold influential positions at public institutions are of African origin? Although Afro-Colombians comprise 30% of the total population, the answer is 0.01% or sometimes less. Legislation has not been sufficient. There is still much work to be done. The aforementioned situation has produced more racial marginalization, poverty and exclusion, weakening not only Afro-descendant women’s empowerment processes in the region but also its productive potential. Based on key recommendations from regional ethnic rights forums and good practices, the Afro-Latinos project supports the following five strategies to help overcome the current education situation of most Afro-Latinas: