BIENVENIDO

Saludos! Happy Friday and welcome to Comprende, edition 064.

From Miami to Medellín, from big tech offices to luxury brand boutiques, Lucia Diaz has carried the weight of her family’s dreams while carving out her own. Once a corporate art director, she’s now an illustrator, business owner, author, and mentor making sure others in her community see their potential reflected.

Today we’re telling the story of how a Colombian-American artist and founder transformed a corporate setback into creative freedom, building a life where art and impact move together.

So, depending on where you are in the world, grab your cafecito or cervecita and dive in. If you enjoy today’s edition, please forward it to your gente or share it online. Let’s keep growing this comunidad together. ☕️

comprende 065: Sketching a New Path: Sandra Lucia Diaz and the Art of Becoming

There’s something poetic about Sandra Lucia Diaz sketching portraits at three in the morning. Her fingers cramped from a day of corporate presentations, but her heart full despite the exhaustion. Those late-night drawing sessions in her Seattle apartment weren’t just creative outlets; they were lifelines, connecting her to the person she was meant to become.

Today, she’s the CEO of art & illustration agency LUCIA DIAZ whose work has captured the essence of Dior clients and whose grant workshops have helped Latino and Latina businesses secure more than $275,000 in funding. But her path to creative freedom was neither linear nor easy.

Born in Miami to Colombian immigrants from Medellín, Lucia carries her grandmother’s name with intention. “She didn’t have the opportunity to pursue her dreams,” Lucia explains, her voice soft with reverence. “She raised eleven children instead. But I think about her potential constantly, and my mother’s too.” That generational weight, the dreams deferred and dreams realized, shapes everything Lucia creates.

Her corporate ascent looked like the American Dream achieved. As Art Director for Prime Video Mexico at Amazon, she led a $2.1 million launch that succeeded precisely because she understood something her colleagues didn’t: localization isn’t just translation. “People in Argentina, Puerto Rico, and Colombia don’t say the same things,” she recalls. “But getting buy-in for proper representation was always a struggle.”

Then the pandemic changed everything. One day she was preparing to launch Prime Video Brazil; the next, she was among the first wave of Amazon layoffs. “It gutted me,” she admits. “I thought that was my identity. I went to a very dark place and questioned my worth entirely.”

However, loosing that corporate identity became her creative liberation. The illustration work she’d been doing in stolen 3 AM moments suddenly became her focus–and her mission. As an entrepreneur, she could be unapologetically herself, speak out about causes important to her and her community, and do what she loved most: create.

The transition wasn’t just professional, it was deeply personal. Moving from Miami’s Latino bubble to Seattle’s tech scene had already made her feel like “the other.” The layoff crystallized something she had been avoiding: she was trying to live someone else’s version of success rather than her own.

So she started showing up differently. Literally. With her mother’s voice echoing in her head, “mija, dejale la tarjeta de negocio y diles que usted puede dibujar y que puede pintar”. (Leave them your business card and tell them you can draw and that you can paint.) Lucia began walking into Bal Harbour’s luxury stores with business cards and a simple proposition: let me illustrate your customers’ experience.

The rejections stung, but persistence paid off. Soon, she was sketching Tiffany & Co. customers during holiday promotions and capturing Dior clients in real-time brand activations.

Her approach is refreshingly direct: solve a problem first, then sell your service. “How can we bring more customers to the store?” she’d ask managers. “What if I created custom illustrations for your Mother’s Day campaign?” It worked. The luxury brands that once seemed untouchable became repeat clients, including CHANEL, GUESS, Saks Fifth Avenue, CAROLINA HERRERA, ESTĒE LAUDER, amongst others.

But Lucia’s work extends far beyond corporate contracts. She’s a published author, having illustrated ¡Viva Latina!: Wisdom from Remarkable Women to Inspire and Empower by Sandra Velasquez, founder of Nopalera (previously covered on comprende edition 013, formerly Minority Majority). It’s a book celebrating Latina leaders, born from the frustration with history books that erased her community’s contributions. “When I was a kid, I never saw Latinas in history books,” she remembers. “I was that kid asking, ‘What about our community? Didn’t we do anything?’”

The book represents something deeper than professional achievement, it’s cultural preservation and celebration. Every portrait she illustrates, every story she helps tell, is an act of resistance against erasure and shining a much needed light on our community.

Lucia is a founder who embodies a mission to follow; her business model reflects her values. Revenue from high-end brand activations funds her passion projects and allows her to offer grant workshops for free. She’s helped dozens of Latino & Latina business owners navigate funding opportunities because she understands the systemic barriers we face. “Less than 1.5% get VC funding according to a Stanford report,” she notes. “It’s ridiculous—but not surprising.”

What strikes you most about Lucia is her generosity of spirit. When she can’t take on a brand activation, she refers other Latino or Latina illustrators. When competitors ask about her process, she shares freely. “There’s enough for everyone,” she says simply. “We don’t have to fight for breadcrumbs.”

That abundance mindset served her well when an off-hand comment at a conference led to an American Express commercial. She had simply shared her genuine enthusiasm for their Business Blueprint platform with an executive. That authentic moment of connection–being herself, not performing a role, opened doors she never imagined.

Today, Colombia remains her true north. “Being there is like being at home,” she says, her voice brightening. “It’s my Disney World, my Paris.” Her plan to retire there early by 45 isn’t just a personal goal, it’s a closing of the circle, bringing the resources and skills she’s developed back to a country and people whose same roots shaped her.

Lucia Diaz’s journey is more than professional reinvention; it’s the continuation of her grandmother’s deferred dreams. In sketching, mentoring, and building, she’s reclaiming what was once denied to the women before her and ensuring the next generation sees possibility where she once saw absence–providing a reminder that legacy is built one small act of courage at a time.

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