This profile is part of our Culture Shifters series, which highlights people who are changing the way we think about the world around us. Read about film archivist Maya Cade , internet stars Keyon Elkins and Drew Afualo , rapper Latash , filmmaker Alika Tengan , and actors Rhoyle Ivy King and Nicco Annan .

Music historian Katelina Eccleston has always loved reggaeton.

I have home videos [of me] dancing to El General at 3 years old in a puffy yellow dress and black shoes, Eccleston said, referring to the legendary Panamanian reggaeton artist. I was born into listening to reggae en espaol and reggaeton by El General.

Raised by Panamanian parents in Boston, Eccleston is a proud Black Latina. That pride in her heritage and love for reggaeton inspired Eccleston to give Afro-Latinas the spotlight they deserve.

The historian and artist is the founder of Reggaeton Con La Gata , the first femme brand and platform dedicated to the intersectional analysis and history of reggaeton. In addition to its biweekly newsletter, the brands official Twitter account @ReggaetonXGata spotlights Black Latinas in Reggaeton such as La Zista, Glory La Gata Gangster, Amara La Negra, and more through curated playlists , roundups of music industry news and conversations between Eccleston, artists and music experts.

Created in Ecclestons college dorm room, Reggaeton Con La Gata has been featured in Harpers Bazaar, Remezcla, NPR and other outlets. Shes given guest lectures at Harvard University and produced the Spotify podcast Loud: the History of Reggaeton. Eccleston is a lead researcher on MTV and Paramounts forthcoming show De La Calle. The docuseries is hosted by Nick Barili and explores the evolution of Urbano music and cultures that ignited the musical revolution of Hip Hop, Reggaeton, Bachata, Latin trap, Cumbia, and other sounds, according to Deadline .

Eccelstons musical acumen and upbringing is shaped by a fusion of cultures. She spent her Sundays in an African American Baptist church, where she learned how to play the piano. She attended West Indian Carnival and Dominican parties where the sound of bachata beats reverberated through the walls.

I feel like throughout all of that, one thing that has always mattered to me was the music, Eccleston said. At age 11 or 12, she remembers making the conscious decision to choose reggaeton. However, listening to the genre was initially off-limits for Eccleston, whose mother categorized reggaeton in the same box as painting her nails and other grown folk activities.

I remember going to a quinces and dancing reggaeton with a family friend, and my moms like, You dont dance reggaeton because thats for older people, she said. When a religious mother tells you you cant have something, you just want it all the more.

What was once off-limits to Eccleston has catalyzed her legacy.

My obsession with music has always been infectious in my social situations, Eccleston said.

But that pride in her heritage has at times been complicated by anti-Blackness within her communities. The 27-year-old comunicadora social recalled pressures as a kid from people outside of her family to conform to Latinidad a term that loosely translates to Latino-ness and the attributes of a shared Latino identity because she is darker-skinned. She said that, fortunately, her immediate family has always been very pro-Black and has raised her to disregard comments such as pelo malo, made in reference to kinky or coily Black hair.

To paint a very specific picture, said Eccleston, recounting her childhood, in the third grade, my own peers would ask me, Are you sitting at the Black table or the Spanish table? Its funny because at the Spanish table, theyre all Black Latinos. I would consciously choose not to sit at either, so I was so alone.

Growing up in very segregated Boston, which has a prominent Dominican population, Eccleston and her cousins were often the only Panamanians in social settings.

For her, home was not only a safe haven, but a venue to share music. In the days of Limewire and iPods, crowds of classmates would show up on Ecclestons doorstep, demanding that she host the next party.

But when her father died by suicide when she was 12, her energy shifted.

I was the most depressed teenager, Eccleston said. I had the emo haircut. You could not get me to stop wearing skulls, studded belts, Jordans. Around 18, I was like, You know what? Im alive. Hes not. I have to live my life. I dont want to be sad anymore. I made the conscious decision to forgive him, forgive myself for wasting my own time, being sad and being mean to myself.

With a new lease on life, she sought to expand her horizons and pursued college in the Big Apple. In 2012, she started at the Pratt Institute, but the joys of freshman year were curtailed by a traumatic sexual assault. Music is what saved her, she said.

Im a moody listener. Ill go from Flyleaf and Three Days Grace to the nastiest reggaeton and back to Jay-Z, then back to the nastiest reggaeton, laughed Eccleston. I feel like its the sexiest genre thats out there. Theres a lot of intelligence that comes from it when you take apart all of the misogyny the intention behind it and its process. I have a profound respect for it.

In 2016, she transferred to Marymount Manhattan College to study communication and media arts, with the goal of becoming the next Ilia Calderon, a well-known Colombian journalist. Then it dawned on her: Eccleston didnt want the pressure of being the next anything.