We are committed to fostering a thriving, engaged, and culturally grounded Latino/e community through education, art, and leadership development.
Proudly serving the Latino/e community since 2011, building on and sustaining the transformative work of the TAG Latino Program of UMass Boston founded in 1985.
TAGa is rooted in community and committed to uplifting Latino youth, families, and leaders through intergenerational programming that blends enrichment, mentorship, career exploration, and leadership development. We activate a powerful alumni network to foster cross-generational connections and sustain our cultural legacy. From youth workshops to community-wide cultural and leadership celebrations, our programs honor Latino identity, leadership, and collective power.
The Talented and Gifted Association, Inc. (TAGa), is a MA 501(c)3 nonprofit, championing the Greater Boston Latino/e community through education, art, and culture. TAGa’s mission centers on uplifting Latinos via culturally sustaining educational and development initiatives, striving for a future where the success of the Latino community makes these efforts obsolete.
A Boston with a thriving, educated, engaged, and culturally grounded Latino community.
Our values ground our mission and guide our efforts to uplift the Latino community through education, art, and culture.
Rooted in love and accountability, we prioritize the needs, voices, and aspirations of our Latino/e community—centering collective purpose over individual agendas.
We are committed to the empowerment of the Latino/e community in Greater Boston, while standing in solidarity with other marginalized groups and freedom fighters. Our community is inclusive—rooted in shared liberation, mutual respect, and collective care.
We are building a long-term, intergenerational strategy to empower the Latino/e community as an engaged, educated, culturally and linguistically grounded collective—not a quick fix.
We believe that as members of a multiracial, multiethnic and multilingual Latino/e community, our destinies are linked. Individual success is not enough—we strive for collective power, justice and liberation.
Supporting and producing culturally and linguistically sustaining educational and community development initiatives that advance racial equity and have a proven transformative impact.
Supporting and producing culturally and linguistically sustaining educational and community development initiatives that advance racial equity and have a proven transformative impact.
Affirmed with the knowledge that a community is strengthened when it is culturally and linguistically sustained, the TAG Association is deeply committed to producing cultural and artistic events to this end.
Where would I be without TAG? And I don’t say that lightly…. As an educator, you know that learning isn’t happening if you don’t have strong relationships with children, if you don’t take the time to have cultural competency, to build confidence, and TAG did all of that for me. And also having peer models. … I can’t even quantify what my heart feels for that level of mentorship…. I am a teacher because of this program.
I think TAG did give me a sense of giving back even after the program, where I was like, hey, it’s not just for me that I’m doing this, it’s for everybody else who is going through the same thing. It gave me a sense of purpose sometimes. As much as these people are giving me I have to give back in order for me to feel fulfilled … I’m not doing this because I have to—I’m doing this because I want to. When I’m trying to either help out with a nonprofits or working with students that are coming into my job, I try to give them help. I work with all Latino restaurants in the US, so at the same time, I try to give back to my community. That’s something that personally TAG has taught me.
I put so much effort on TAG—if I put that much effort into my homework, maybe I would have had a higher GPA. So what is it about that experience that made me feel like, oh yes, I want to do this work that I’m not getting a grade for… but for some reason I feel more compelled to do that work than the actual stuff that’s gonna get me the good grade? That stuff didn’t matter to me, but the outcome from TAG and the outcome from putting together these agendas meant something. All of that is stuff that I started then, I still do now—I still create all of those agendas; I’m putting together all these meetings; I’m trying to gather people; I’m a team leader having to deal with all these different team dynamics—I’m like, dag, I’ve been doing this since high school!
How can we approach education in a way that is holistic? …If you were to design it, how would you do it? … I think I would go back to TAG and be like, let me pick up all the strengths: relationships, commitment, communication, collaboration, sense of family… If you want someone to be an educated person and learn to take risks, but then feel safe, where if you pass out, people are there to take care of you… I would literally pick up all those elements and then just have that as the pillar on which education should be.
In 2025, TAG Association President Dr. Ilyitch Nahiely Tábora conducted a mixed-methods case study on the Talented And Gifted (TAG) Latino Program at UMass Boston—a Latino-centered college access program. Alumni attributed their advancement to TAG’s use of culturally sustaining pedagogy, intergenerational mentorship, identity-affirming practices, and community-rooted networks. TAG is a blueprint for educational equity—demonstrating what’s possible when Latino communities design the solutions that serve them.
96% of Focus Group Respondents highlighted cultural pride, strengthening Latino/Hispanic heritage connections. Students celebrated identity through rich programming and embraced bilingualism as a strength.
SOURCE: Tábora, I. N. (2025). TAG, YOU’RE IT!: Catalyzing Latino Success Through a Latino-Centered College Access Program in Boston (Doctoral dissertation, University of Massachusetts Boston).
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