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The Sacramento Bee and Nehemiah Leaders Programs are celebrating this year’s 60 Change Makers. Join them at our gala at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 13 at the Grand Sheraton in downtown Sacramento. Buy tickets at sacramentochangemakers.com.
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Lilly Cortes-Wyatt was always fascinated with storytelling.
She grew up bilingual, speaking both English and Spanish, and spent her formative childhood years living in Mexico City and before moving to Concord, California, as a teenager.
Her love for storytelling led her to a career in broadcast journalism. She spent almost 20 years as an English and Spanish-language reporter, she said.
“I feel like I was born with the desire to help and communicate,” Cortes-Wyatt said. “To share stories and do it in both languages.”
Cortez-Wyatt is the founder of SociosPR, a women-owned public relations firm specializing in multilingual services. SociosPR is the only Latino-owned marketing agency in Northern California, she said.
“There’s a lot of people like me who think in Spanish, dream in English,” Cortes-Wyatt said. “We are fully bicultural, fully bilingual. We love living here. I wanted to have a communications firm that really connected with all audiences.”
Inspiration to create SociosPR came from a mistranslation. In 2016, she spotted a “horribly translated” bus ad. The ad was translated into Spanish for Hispanic and Latino residents.
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The mistranslation surprised her. At that moment, she knew she had to do something.
“I was like, ‘there has to be a change,’” Cortes-Wyatt said. “I need to solve that problem.”
Cortes-Wyatt has spearheaded numerous multilingual campaigns serving California residents. With the Department of Aging, she led an informational campaign about support services for seniors.
During COVID-19, as agencies needed urgent assistance providing health information to non-English-speaking communities, Cortes-Wyatt answered the call. Then, she led campaigns debunking myths about vaccines and encouraging vaccinations.
“It’s in all of us to make this world a better place,” Cortes-Wyatt said. “All of us can do our part.”
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