October 6, 2022
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Meet 7 Hispanic and Latino app creators breaking down barriers with technology
Founder of Encantos, BiteSight, and Yana Discusses The Unexpected Journey of Creating Apps for the App Store
A truly great app is often a reflection of the people who built it. Entrepreneurs around the world are launching apps on the App Store to provide a meaningful way to connect and empathize, make the world more inclusive and accessible, and respect rich cultures and identities. increase. The Encantos, BightSite, and Yana teams (made up of Hispanic and Latinx founders and developers) show how creativity combines with passion and skill to bring best-in-class apps to life.
For Encantos co-founders Steven Wolfe Pereira and Susie Jaramillo, diversity of expression has always been central to their work. Earlier this year, Wolfe Pereira attended the Apple Entrepreneur Camp for Hispanic and Latinx founders. The pair’s flagship app, his Encantos, offers a comprehensive children’s library featuring uplifting content and stories from creators around the world. The company’s first app, Canticos, is currently the top bilingual preschool app on the App Store, offering toddlers an interactive way to dive into their Spanish and Latin heritage.
As part of the first group of students at the Apple Developer Academy in Detroit, teammates Alejandra A. Enriquez, Juan A. Rubio, Gabe Martinez, and Joshua Gomez worked together to create an app that puts accessibility at the forefront. They all come from different backgrounds, but their passion to help others led them to start BiteSight. BiteSight is an app that enables blind people to quickly scan product ingredient labels to identify food allergens. The app also uses haptic feedback and VoiceOver to alert users to identified allergens, helping visually impaired users to become more independent in their daily lives.
Yana’s creator, Andrea Campos, started working on a chatbot-based app as a side project combining her two interests: coding and wellness. Yana is designed to address negative thoughts associated with anxiety and depression, with a focus on giving Spanish-speaking people access to mental health her tools. The inspiration came from her own childhood struggles with mental health and her desire to provide a widely accessible resource in Spanish. After being featured on the Store, it increased from 80,000 downloads to over 1 million.
Below, the founders of these app companies describe how their personal experiences fuel their passion for helping others, and how they can bring their simple ideas to millions of users around the world. I am sharing how I was able to turn it into an app that works.
Fusion of creativity and technology
Encantos CEO and co-founder Susie Jaramillo (SJ) said: Little did we know that we would use technology as a digital canvas to bring immersive storytelling experiences to millions of children. I also had no idea that the communities and cultures I took for granted would shape my career in the way they did, and be both a source of inspiration and opportunity. I am an artist and a storyteller. When the first generation iPad came out, I remember my eyes twinkling with the potential for storytelling experiences for kids. Analog media can have a very limited reach, but apps allow you to combine beautiful things, be immersive and interactive, and reach millions at once.
Encantos Chairman and Co-Founder Stephen Wolfe Pereira (SWP) said: We have always believed in the power of technology to bring stories and characters to life. Encantos was founded by his two Latino families with a focus on creating culturally authentic entertainment for children and families. Technology plays a very important role in preserving, recognizing, and celebrating the cultural contributions of Hispanic and Latinx peoples, as everything is driven by technology today.
Incorporating personal experience into app development
Yana Founder and CEO Andrea Campos (AC) said: The essence of depression is feeling alone in the world. I swear I’m the only one who felt that way when I was a teenager. When I first pitched Yana, I saw the reaction of the audience and realized I wasn’t alone. After coming out of the “mental health closet,” dozens of people I’ve known all along came forward to talk about what they’d been through. I want to empower people with emotional education through a safe, non-judgmental zone where they can change the way they feel by learning to change the way they think.
SWPs: Encantos comes from a deep personal desire to be seen. Her mother was Dominican and her father American. I grew up in a bilingual household, speaking Spanish at home after speaking English elsewhere. The only time I was exposed to Latino culture was when I visited the Dominican Republic. Growing up in such a diverse New York City, I always found it strange that I had never seen culturally authentic Latinx products, from TV shows to store merchandise. Being a parent changes you, and you reach a point in your life where you have to become the change you want to see in the world.
SJ: As a Latina mother raising young children here in the United States, I wanted to pass on my love of the language and Latin culture to my children. And at the time, with mothers like me facing this challenge, there was very little available. It made perfect sense when I came up with the idea that the world of Canticos should all come together in the form of an app. All the apps, music, and singing videos in one place, and she had one in two languages.
Join forces with like-minded innovators
Alejandra A. Enriquez (AAE), Lead iOS Developer and BiteSight Designer: Our team consists of 6 people including myself and the 5 people I have worked with for about 10 weeks are some of the most motivated, hardworking and supportive people I have met. We named our team “Powerhouse” because that’s what our mentor at the Apple Developer Academy called it. she was right. We are the powerhouse team.
Gabe Martinez (GM), iOS Developer, Lead Project Manager, and Business at BiteSight: I used to run a convenience store in Southwest Detroit, but due to the pandemic, I had to make a change. So I dove into the Apple Developer Academy. The Apple Developer Academy has empowered me to believe that I can turn my ideas into apps. I switched gears with App Academy overnight, but I feel like this is what I’ve always wanted to do. And finally it will come true. So it’s like a dream come true.
SWPs: We work with diverse creators around the world who seek to tell culturally authentic stories in Encantos to empower children.Creators are at the heart of Encantos. We hope that our success so far will inspire creators around the world to pursue their dreams.
Attending Apple’s first Entrepreneur Camp for Hispanic and Latinx founders was a dream come true. Having access to Apple engineers, UX designers, product managers, marketers and executives has been incredible. It wasn’t just him one or his two. It was a true cross-functional team meeting us every day and we all learned a lot. An amazing program that has made Encantos a better developer and a better company, whether it’s getting direct feedback on user interface improvements and learning how to tell stories the “Apple” way. was.
prioritize impact
Juan A. Rubio (JAR), iOS Developer, UX/UI Designer, and Marketing at BiteSight: I am passionate about using technology to make someone’s daily life more convenient and independent. After months of research, we found that there weren’t many studies and resources in the United States about blind people and how they buy food. This became a real concern for me. I kept asking myself, Why are there limited resources for visually impaired people with dietary restrictions?
After going through a challenge-based learning process at the Developer Academy, my team and I came up with the idea of giving someone the power to see through their phone. The ability to just search and read Live Text can be used by anyone to search for any text. We believe technology can serve as an additional safety net for people who cannot ask others for help or who cannot always rely on someone else.
Alternating current: Many people in the Latino community and beyond are not equipped with the emotional resources to deal with the struggles and daily challenges they face in life. Borrow and try to solve the problem, but in the end it will fall short. Apart from that, we are often ignored, misunderstood, insecure and judged. The Latino and Hispanic population is the largest minority group in the United States, but less than 10% of them have access to mental health services, according to data. There are many reasons for this — insurance, legal status, cultural stigma — language barriers make it difficult for some individuals to access mental health services. That’s one of the reasons why I chose
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