Networking and Advocacy within the LatinX and Hispanic Community

Julie: 00:00:00

Each year.

Julie: 00:00:01

September 15th through October 15th is designated as national,

Julie: 00:00:06

Hispanic, and Latin X heritage month.

Julie: 00:00:09

This month, long gum servants recognizes and celebrates the histories, cultures,

Julie: 00:00:13

and contributions of the Hispanic and Latin X Americans past and present.

Julie: 00:00:18

It was during this month that a listener of the podcast, Becky reached out to

Julie: 00:00:22

me to ask if I would cover the topic of networking specifically within

Julie: 00:00:26

the Latin X and Hispanic community.

Julie: 00:00:29

Welcome to episode one 18 of this shit works a podcast dedicated to

Julie: 00:00:33

all things, networking, relationship building and business development.

Julie: 00:00:36

I'm your host, Julie Brown professional speaker.

Julie: 00:00:40

Author.

Julie: 00:00:40

And networking coach.

Julie: 00:00:42

And today I am discussing networking and advocacy within the Latin

Julie: 00:00:46

X and Hispanic communities.

Julie: 00:01:11

I was nervous to cover this topic.

Julie: 00:01:14

A hundred percent transparency.

Julie: 00:01:15

I had been asked to cover this topic once before.

Julie: 00:01:18

But that was back when I had first started the podcast.

Julie: 00:01:21

Ah, at that time, I wasn't prepared to create an episode around the subject.

Julie: 00:01:26

When Becky reached out to me, I asked her if she would help me, if

Julie: 00:01:29

she would guide me in my research.

Julie: 00:01:32

She provided me with articles and studies.

Julie: 00:01:34

And we ended up talking for about an hour about her experience being

Julie: 00:01:38

a Latina in corporate America.

Julie: 00:01:40

Now.

Julie: 00:01:41

The amount of research.

Julie: 00:01:42

And the time I spent talking with Becky didn't make me an expert, but it did

Julie: 00:01:46

offer me information and insights that I am now comfortable sharing with you.

Julie: 00:01:51

As I continue to learn more about this subject.

Julie: 00:01:55

She mentioned that when considering the Latin X struggles in business, we

Julie: 00:01:59

need to think about the stereotypes.

Julie: 00:02:01

People's concepts of Latinas and Latinos in the United States.

Julie: 00:02:06

Predominantly that they all come from the same background.

Julie: 00:02:10

She went on to tell me that every country has its own culture in distinction.

Julie: 00:02:14

There are approximately 62 million people of Latin X or Hispanic origin in America.

Julie: 00:02:20

And yet we put all these people.

Julie: 00:02:22

With complex identities under a single umbrella.

Julie: 00:02:26

This has its roots in the census taking almost a hundred years ago.

Julie: 00:02:30

The pew research center reports that in the 1930s, Latinos living in the United

Julie: 00:02:35

States, regardless of their place of birth or family of origin were noted as Mexican.

Julie: 00:02:40

By door to door, us census bureau counters.

Julie: 00:02:44

It wasn't until 1970 that the agency began asking Latinos living in the United

Julie: 00:02:49

States to self identify as either Mexican.

Julie: 00:02:52

Puerto Rican.

Julie: 00:02:53

Cuban central or south American other Spanish or no, none of these.

Julie: 00:03:01

As of 2020, the Hispanic and Latin X population in the United

Julie: 00:03:05

States is almost 20% of the population of the entire country.

Julie: 00:03:10

And yet.

Julie: 00:03:11

Uh, Latino corporate directors association, recent study shows 65%

Julie: 00:03:16

of 2022 fortune 100 companies lack a single Latin X director on their board.

Julie: 00:03:23

And just a fraction of the small number of these board seats are held by Latinas.

Julie: 00:03:29

This might help explain why in America today, Hispanic women must work 22 months

Julie: 00:03:35

to equal the 12 month salary of white men.

Julie: 00:03:38

A recent Forbes article highlighted the fact that despite making

Julie: 00:03:41

up 17% of the us workforce.

Julie: 00:03:44

Uh, Hispanic Americans currently hold just 4% of executive roles in 6.5% of

Julie: 00:03:50

stem related roles in the United States.

Julie: 00:03:54

This might help explain why.

Julie: 00:03:56

According to McKinsey, 50% of black and Latino scientists are routinely mistaken

Julie: 00:04:02

for janitorial or administrative staff.

Julie: 00:04:05

We can do better than this.

Julie: 00:04:06

Uh, we know that when we see people that look like us in positions of power and

Julie: 00:04:11

authority, we begin to believe that we can also inhabit those high profile positions.

Julie: 00:04:17

We not only need comfortable and welcoming networking opportunities for

Julie: 00:04:21

the Latin X and Hispanic community, but we also need mentors and advocates

Julie: 00:04:25

for the Latin X and Hispanic community.

Julie: 00:04:29

I want to share an excerpt from my conversation with

Julie: 00:04:31

Becky in regards to this topic.

Becky: 00:04:34

when I was looking at my goals for 2022.

Becky: 00:04:37

There were two things that were really, resonating constantly.

Becky: 00:04:40

I wanna do things that were centered around women issues.

Becky: 00:04:45

And then the other one was about background of being Hispanic.

Becky: 00:04:48

And, luckily enough I think I've been able to accomplish both

Becky: 00:04:52

and so one of the avenues that I got to work on the women's

Becky: 00:04:56

part was through provisors.

Becky: 00:04:58

So now I'm part the executive committee of the Women's Affinity

Becky: 00:05:01

Group for the DC chapter.

Becky: 00:05:02

And it's been really an amazing experience because now I get to connect with so

Becky: 00:05:07

many different women and it's to learn from their experiences and to help and

Becky: 00:05:11

lift each other up has been amazing.

Becky: 00:05:13

But when I still look around, I am the only Latina in my group.

Becky: 00:05:18

That's the one thing that really has struck me the most, and as I

Becky: 00:05:23

have reflected on my past and my journey, I have had many mentors.

Becky: 00:05:28

None of them have been Hispanic females, and they have only been . Either

Becky: 00:05:33

white females or, people that are not really representing me necessarily.

Becky: 00:05:38

But then they have been great mentors.

Becky: 00:05:39

And one of the conversations that I was having earlier with somebody else

Becky: 00:05:42

was about the big difference between having a mentor and having an advocate.

Becky: 00:05:47

And it really didn't hit me until I had that conversation of the big difference

Becky: 00:05:53

so you could have tons of mentors and which are really important to have in

Becky: 00:05:57

your life and in your professional career.

Becky: 00:06:00

But the advocate is just as important as the mentor , I had

Becky: 00:06:04

many mentors that have helped me.

Becky: 00:06:07

Polish myself professionally, and become a better person,

Becky: 00:06:10

a better version of myself.

Becky: 00:06:12

But the advocate is the one person that will go out of their way, even

Becky: 00:06:16

when you're not there to say, you need to give her a chance or you need

Becky: 00:06:20

to give this person an opportunity.

Becky: 00:06:22

And that's where I feel that perhaps that's missing.

Becky: 00:06:25

And that's one of the things that I want at least to see if there's

Becky: 00:06:29

an opportunity to bring that to, to a podcast, because I think.

Becky: 00:06:34

Latinas are underrepresented in so many different ways,

Julie: 00:06:39

The definition of an advocate is a person who

Julie: 00:06:41

publicly supports or recommends.

Julie: 00:06:44

It doesn't matter who you are, or what background you come from?

Julie: 00:06:47

We all have the ability to be advocates and we all have the ability to create

Julie: 00:06:51

networking events that are open and welcoming to the Latin X and Hispanic

Julie: 00:06:56

A recent article in WGBH highlighted how isolating being in an immigrant

Julie: 00:07:00

can be even, and especially if you are in a professional work setting,

Julie: 00:07:05

the article highlighted Mexican immigrant named Carl Palmer, who said,

Julie: 00:07:08

I don't have any school buddies here.

Julie: 00:07:10

I don't have any kids that I went to primary school with.

Julie: 00:07:14

I don't know their parents.

Julie: 00:07:16

I don't have these networks where people can just trust me.

Julie: 00:07:22

I asked Becky about her experience, moving to the United States from

Julie: 00:07:25

Puerto Rico in her twenties.

Becky: 00:07:28

in these days, because you have so many different types of backgrounds,

Becky: 00:07:32

you have Latinos that have been born and raised in the states that really don't

Becky: 00:07:37

even feel like they're fully Latinos.

Becky: 00:07:39

They feel like more American than then they feel Latinos

Becky: 00:07:41

because they've grown up here.

Becky: 00:07:43

They, established roots here.

Becky: 00:07:45

So they feel more American than they do.

Becky: 00:07:48

So in my case it's a bit different because I was born and

Becky: 00:07:50

raised, in a Hispanic country.

Becky: 00:07:53

So now I've been planted here and I consider the US my home, but I

Becky: 00:07:57

still have a lot of things that really define me because of where I grew up.

Julie: 00:08:02

Becky went on to discuss how varied Hispanic culture is, but also

Julie: 00:08:06

how it serves as a thread to connect with others within the community.

Becky: 00:08:11

There are a lot of misconceptions, about what Latinos

Becky: 00:08:15

are, about how we do things.

Becky: 00:08:16

There are so many different misconceptions about Latinos in general

Becky: 00:08:20

just to begin with, because there are tons of countries with different

Becky: 00:08:25

cultures, different backgrounds.

Becky: 00:08:27

And so there are many misconceptions depending on where you grew up,

Becky: 00:08:32

what your background is, and.

Becky: 00:08:35

It's funny that the one thing that at least within Hispanics, we have learned

Becky: 00:08:40

to come together is just the fact that we feel like, we're one bubble.

Becky: 00:08:43

So we find each other just to connect because we feel like at least there's

Becky: 00:08:47

somebody that understands me, even though we are different in so many different

Becky: 00:08:53

levels, so it's interesting to see that even within the Latino community,

Becky: 00:08:57

there's so many things that make us different, but still finer way to connect.

Becky: 00:09:02

And if that, if we can do that within, the Hispanic community,

Becky: 00:09:04

why not do it in general?

Julie: 00:09:07

So why not do it in general?

Julie: 00:09:10

Well, That's where we come in.

Julie: 00:09:12

By providing and creating welcoming events by mentoring and advocating by

Julie: 00:09:17

looking at the makeup of our boards and committees and asking ourselves

Julie: 00:09:20

if there is Hispanic representation.

Julie: 00:09:23

By encouraging people to network with diverse groups of people to

Julie: 00:09:27

understand that meeting somewhere where they are at, maybe admitting

Julie: 00:09:30

that you have a lot to learn.

Julie: 00:09:32

I don't know all the answers and I'm just beginning to learn about this subject, but

Julie: 00:09:36

as Becky reminded me, I have the platform.

Julie: 00:09:38

So I also have the responsibility to shine a light on things

Julie: 00:09:42

that need to be discussed.

Julie: 00:09:45

I want to thank Becky for reaching out to me, for helping

Julie: 00:09:47

me learn for sharing her story.

Julie: 00:09:50

And happy to report that Becky has been asked to join a board in DC.

Julie: 00:09:55

She's literally becoming the change that she wants to He or she discusses how

Julie: 00:10:00

she went from looking for representation to becoming the representation.

Becky: 00:10:05

And what's interesting is my conversation with this person, when she

Becky: 00:10:09

brought it up, I was telling her how, when I was looking at for compositions,

Becky: 00:10:14

I always try to look for the person that would be able to represent me.

Becky: 00:10:18

And her reply back just hit me.

Becky: 00:10:20

It hit me like a brick wall.

Becky: 00:10:22

She said, Why not

Becky: 00:10:23

and I, I had never thought about it, honestly.

Becky: 00:10:26

It was just one of those moments where I'm just like, speechless.

Becky: 00:10:29

And I went gaga

Julie: 00:10:31

Again, I could not have created this episode without guidance

Julie: 00:10:34

from Becky and I want to thank her.

Julie: 00:10:36

I asked Becky if she would share her favorite cocktail with

Julie: 00:10:39

us for the drink of the week.

Julie: 00:10:41

As I mentioned, Becky's from Puerto Rico, which is also where Don Q rum is produced.

Julie: 00:10:46

And is her favorite?

Julie: 00:10:48

So she shared a drink with us called Passy Madras.

Julie: 00:10:53

Here's what you're going to need one and a half ounces of Don Q Passy on rum.

Julie: 00:10:58

So this is a passion fruit from.

Julie: 00:11:00

One and a half ounces of orange juice, four ounces of cranberry juice

Julie: 00:11:04

and one orange slice for garnish.

Julie: 00:11:06

What you're going to do is you're going to mix all ingredients and serve on ice and

Julie: 00:11:10

then garnish with that slice of orange.

Julie: 00:11:13

That's all for this week.

Julie: 00:11:15

I'm so glad that you were here.

Julie: 00:11:17

And I'm so glad that I have listeners like Becky.

Julie: 00:11:19

To remind me that I have a platform and who pushed me to cover topics

Julie: 00:11:23

that I might otherwise have missed.

Julie: 00:11:26

If you like what you heard today, please leave a review

Julie: 00:11:28

and subscribe to the podcast.

Julie: 00:11:30

Also, please remember to share the podcast to help it reach a larger audience.

Julie: 00:11:34

And until next week.