To Gina Zapanta, her Latina identity is “just a bullet point.”
Zapanta graduated from the University of Southern California in 2003 with a B.A. in Psychology and International Relations, and in 2007 with her J.D. from Loyola Law School. Since then, she’s established herself as a lawyer, business owner, philanthropist, mother of four, wife and more.
Zapanta’s most recent passion project went viral on Instagram when she and her husband, Mike Alder, booked 131 hotel rooms for 436 adults, residents and pets displaced by the Los Angeles wildfires. It began with just 10 rooms booked by Zapanta and Alder at the hotel they voluntarily evacuated to from their home in Sherman Oaks.
“We posted the video after we booked all the rooms…and I just said, ‘if anybody needs help…if anyone needs a place to stay, I know it’s scary, but just reach out,’” Zapanta said. “‘We’re here, not strings attached at all.’”
The video garnered 800,000 views within an hour, according to Zapanta.
Making it all happen, Zapanta said, was not difficult. She attributes this to the built-in community resource department at her law firm, ZapantaAlder Law, where they had been hosting food drives and student events even before the wildfires. In addition to the hotel rooms, they have given over $31,000 to families who’ve lost their homes in the Altadena area after receiving a surplus of donations from people who had caught wind of the initiative, and they hosted a two-day free marketplace for victims.
“I was sitting there, I remember in the middle of it, I’m like … ‘I have no idea what the hell I’m doing, what am I getting myself into?’” Zapanta said. “But you can’t listen to that.”
The next phase of Zapanta’s efforts to give back to the L.A. community has been giving tickets to Lakers and Kings games to LAFD firefighters and their families. She said a group had just gone on Feb. 8.
To understand Zapanta’s drive, it is important to consider her ties to East L.A., where she and her parents were born and raised. She said she sees and understands the community’s needs because “those are my roots, that’s where my family is.”
Her parents are from the Terrace City, Boyle Heights area, and raised her in Whittier — where she attended private schools throughout her adolescence. Zapanta was already used to being a minority navigating academic spaces by the time she enrolled in USC — an experience she compared to living a double life.
According to Zapanta, her story is different from that of many other Latinos in higher education. While not a first-generation student herself, Zapanta is the product of a first-generation education. Her father, Richard Zapanta, attended USC.
“I remember one time I was in a class and of course, I was the only Latina…and somebody said, ‘Oh, are you here on scholarships?’” Zapanta said. “And I said, ‘Well, no, I’m not here on a scholarship, but my family does have a scholarship in our name for Latino students.’ So that was a fun moment for me.”
However, while Zapanta is proud to be Latina, she said to define her solely by that aspect of her identity would be to do her a disservice.
“I don’t care if they’re thinking I’m the only Latina in the room, and that should not be the first thing I’m thinking about — to succeed, the first thing I’m thinking about is, ‘What is the best strategy to accomplish my goal?’” Zapanta said. “I think it becomes limiting. ‘How is it to be a Latina lawyer?’ I don’t know about that, but I could tell you what it’s like to be a lawyer.”
Zapanta attributes much of her success to her mindset, one she said is based on abundance rather than scarcity. She emphasized the importance of “changing the narrative,” of not limiting oneself to the expectations placed by one’s ethnic identity and society’s weaponization of it.
“I just see the disconnect and I see how stereotypes and narratives within our own community as well as from the outside, maybe create glass ceilings for ourselves,” Zapanta said. “It certainly feeds and drives me again, wanting to be front and center and out there, showing everyone what’s possible — because representation matters.”
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Zapanta made yet another one of her brainchildren a reality. She began hosting Zoom meetings to forge a community amid uncertainty. The meetings were originally free and weekly, and attendance varied from one person to dozens. She moved to a monthly format once some normalcy was regained, and her platform, Empowered with Gina, was born.
“I found a way to create these communities and this platform of mindset influencing for women across the world who can all have the same conversations no matter their background, industry, age — it does not matter,” Zapanta said. “Students, stay-at-home moms, CEOs have all sat in the same table and have all connected on similar topics.”
Zapanta has since monetized Empowered with Gina. It currently operates on a membership basis, for which people sign up monthly for access to exclusive content and events. Zapanta also hosts women’s retreats — some at her and her husband’s ranch in Louisiana, some in Italy and one in Mexico City for Día de los Muertos in the fall — for her members. The latter is her way of showing people she’s Latina rather than telling them.
From the professional to personal, the philanthropic to entrepreneurial, it’s difficult to fathom that Zapanta’s days aren’t any longer than anyone else’s. But the greatest equalizer, she said, is that everyone has the same 24 hours. How does she manage hers? Through delegation.
“There is no glory in the grind. Don’t tell me about hustle culture, don’t tell me about trying to exhaust yourself and work your a** off,” Zapanta said. “Yes, work hard and work smart — but there’s no value at all in overwhelming yourself and falling apart and failing at it all.”
Zapanta is acutely aware of the notion that time is precious. She said she is intentional with what she chooses to spend it on — the things that speak to her, like her work. Her work, she said, is like one of her children, and she tells her actual children that she hopes they one day grow to love their work as well.
“My purpose in life is to serve and advocate for people. It’s just a part of the thread of my family and our culture and it’s just a beautiful thing — again, to be in a position of privilege and responsibility, to be able to help people who look like me,” Zapanta said.