Google Creative Campus


I was one of 40 participants of the 2020 Google Creative Campus. As part of our 8-week course, we split up into teams to solve a pitch on racial equity around the world. My team was mainly comprised on individuals from Latin America, so we decided to focus our solution on the region.

How might Google advocate racial equity in Latin America?


Many Latin Americans struggle to define their racial identity due to long histories of interracial relations, colonization, and cultural exchange.


Each country has its own unique characteristics, racial makeup, and vernacular.


Create a space to facilitate open discussion about racial equity on the national front.

Google Creative Campus Pitch
Jul - Aug 2020 (6 weeks)
Figma, Google Slides
Nicole Rachid, Arianna Montoya, Siladityaa Sharma, Carolina Plaza
Strategist, UX/UI Designer
Strategy, Comms, Marketing, UX/UI


Latin America is a very diverse region with roughly 55% of Latin Americans claim mixed race heritage. Because of this, many find it hard to identify with a side in the debate on racial equity. How might Google help advance racial equity in this region?


Each country in Latin America carries its own unique definitions, nuances, and cultural customs. Young people are hungry and eager to enact change regarding racial equality in their countries but often lack the knowledge of how racism has been treated in their respective homes.


Demographic: Young people, ages 18-35
Primary countries: 
Brazil, Colombia, Mexico
Technology, social justice, education


Create a space where people can educate themselves on the history and legacy of racial equity in their respective countries.

see solution
Young adults, ages 18-35, income $45K+
United States
Travel, photography, creative fields, influencer marketing

Hack the narrative.

Latin America is incredibly diverse.

In Latin America, despite the majority population consisting of mulatos/criollos/mestizos (terms for mixed ethnicities), people continue to be discriminated against very frequently because of the color of their skin. Many of these issues stem from histories of colonialism, discrimination, eugenic systems, and colorism. For people of mixed race, it can be incredibly difficult to define one's heritage and race. Our team conducted a survey of ~100 individuals in Brazil, Ecuador, and Costa Rica (where our team members are from) and found that: 

  • About 47% in Brazil declare themselves pardos, while 10% declare themselves black.
  • In Costa Rica, 65% of people who identify as white don’t feel connected with their race

But many LATAM countries don't recognize racism as a problem.

For a long time, racist connotation has been embedded into the fabric of society and into daily vernacular. Below are some of the common words our team found in spoken Spanish and Portuguese across the region.

Prieto (Spanish)
Indio (Spanish)
Cholo (Spanish)
Pardos (Portuguese)
Mestizo (Spanish)
Mulato (Spanish/Portuguese)
Villeros (Spanish)

Help young people of mixed-race background understand their heritage, so they can be more AWARE, and become a FORCE FOR CHANGE.

Introducing Google Raices

A curated platform dedicated to facilitating conversations and discussions around education on heritage, culture, and racial equity in Latin America. Raices translates to roots in Spanish (Raízes in Portuguese).

Integrated into Google's product portfolio

Each Raices page is tailored to the country you’re located in and brings together Google’s top products like Google Arts and Culture and Google Translate to elevate diverse resources and perspectives on racial equity, local culture, and heritage, including verified content contributions marked here by the green box and Raices tag. Our goal is to add richer context in order to hack the narrative, search algorithms and the nuances behind mixed-race identity and racial equity within the context of these individual countries. 

Mockup of Brazil Raizes page

An important facet for us as we were building this was the fundamental understanding that every country in Latin America has its own unique racial makeup, history, subcultures and art that arise from those subcultures. Shown above is the Raices home page for Brazil, populated with resources highlighting Brazilian voices, articles and artists such as Portinari.

We also considered an integration with Google Translate that would register common terms related to race and mark any that were negative/outdated in red.

Mockup image of Raizes results after searching the word "cholo"

With Raices, if you want to learn more about the context behind some questionable terms like cholo, when you search it, you’ll be able to see a red alert tag letting you know this word has a derogatory definition, along more resources and link that will take you to your country’s Raices page. We also thought the images page in particular could be a place where Google can help combat visual stereotypes that are associated with some of these definitions, instead providing options, tied again to the Raices framework.

Brazil to Colombia to Mexico (and beyond)

We picked Brazil as our pilot country since it's the largest country in Latin America with a strong Google brand presence. Our main target countries for Spanish pilot were Colombia and Mexico.

Mockup of Mexico Raices page

Like the Brazilian page shown above, here we have the Raices page for Mexico, highlighting Mexican voices as well as stories from Arts and Culture featuring icons like Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera. The Google Translate feature also notes terms that are specific to the Mexican vernacular.

Promotion and communication

To promote the program, we laid out three core channels to target our marketing:

  • Television Broadcast Advertising: 30 second spots
  • Social Media: Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter
  • Localized YouTube advertisement & influencer marketing: recruit local personalities as ambassadors

Google Arts and Culture

Google Arts and Culture was a product we recognized as having huge reach and potential. We imagined Google Raices acting as a singular tag to help launch and distinguish new story series and curated article lists that speak directly to race, culture, and heritage in these individual countries.

Clip of mockup of Brazil article headline for Google Arts and Culture

We also explored  current collaborations and creative programs through the Google Arts and Culture platform, including the Art Zoom series (shown below: GAC's existing J.Balvin episode). By hosting special Raices x Art Zoom episodes, we could highlight artists from BIPOC or marginalized backgrounds to provide a perspective on their country’s art history that hasn’t been done before. 

We explored other features of Arts and Culture, such as the Experiments section, creating fun interactions like a Cultural Crossword puzzle to learn about new artists.

Image of Google Art Zoom feat. J. Balvin
Image of Google Experiment Crossword puzzle
Understanding market health and industry trends
During the initial stage of research, I delved deep into industry reports by The Business of Fashion, McKinsey & Co., and conducted several in-depth interviews with production coordinators, stylists, and other industry experts to understand the scope of the situation.
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Broadening my horizons, even virtually.

Our cohort of 40 was supposed to go to the Cannes Lions Festival in June 2020, which was cancelled because of COVID-19. As a replacement for the festival experience, Google Creative Campus hosted an 8-week session on racial equity where we all got to discuss what race meant in our respective countries.

Nicole Rachid (Brazil): video editing, animation, and Portuguese translation
Arianna Montoya (Costa Rica), Carolina Plaza (Ecuador): Spanish translation and local research
Siladityaa Sharma (India/USA): UX/UI partnership

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