Flavorful Communities

No matter how much of a loner you might think you are, you’re probably part of a community. I daresay that others might feel that you belong to their community, even when you don’t feel the same. Sometimes it’s just a matter of recognizing our own attributes and the common places that we might have with others.

One of the members of my LinkedIn network reminded me that we had actually established a community in this network, and that it was up to us to nurture it. This person is none other than Adriana Dawson, whom I had the privilege of interviewing in InnoLatino Podcast. Adriana is a Community Engagement Director for Verizon, and few are the occasions on which I see someone who fits and excels so well in her professional role. Embedded below is our podcast interview and further down is going to give you a taste of our wonderful conversation.

InnoLatino (I): Could you tell us a bit about your Latin roots, please?

Adriana Lawson (AL): ?So, my family is from Medellin Colombia. My grandfather arrived in the states in the early sixties. He was a textile mill worker, in Colombia and, when a number of textile mill owners, from Rhode Island, which is where I live now, decided to go on a business trade mission to Colombia, to take a look at the new equipment that they wanted to purchase and invest in for their textile mills here in Rhode Island. They happen to visit the factory that my grandfather worked in and he was a supervisor. He was a foreman and a mechanic. So, he worked on the machines. Well, the owners of the Rhode Island textile mills decided to invest in that equipment. To outfit their factories here in Rhode Island.

And along with that, they said,” And you, sir, we need someone who knows how to work these machines, we need someone who understands how to fix them when they break. So, we'd like for you to come and work for us on a work visa.” And that's what happened. My grandfather came on a work visa. They absolutely loved him.

I: I can tell that?this story has made it to the next generation, therefore, you have a particular appreciation for the legacy that your parents are giving you. Is that accurate?

A: Oh, that's super accurate. And I think, you know, growing up, right, it was a very formative experience for me, as more Colombians and Latinos began to arrive in the little state of Rhode Island, but we were one of the first families. So, I was activated as a navigator very early on to support other families, because many of them didn't speak English, so they would get mail that they would need translated. They would need help with other translation services. So, here's little Adriana, eight, nine, ten years old, you know, and I would support not only my family, but other young people like myself, would often get activated as navigators and translators in our community.

It was very formative for me, and it's been woven into my DNA to be really anchored and centered and community and social impact.

I: A lot of first-generation kids are fulfilling that role of interpreter. Has that experience helped you navigate between two cultures and turned you into a connector, a bridge between cultures as well?

Absolutely. I consider that experience at such a young age, a blessing, because to your point, it allowed me without knowing that there was such a term or such a thing, it allowed me to activate, and understand. What it meant to be bicultural, that I was able to easily navigate in both worlds and engage in cultural translation as well as linguistic translation.

I'd often get asked from my parents or my family, ‘Well, why do they do that? Our family doesn't do that. The American customers, why do they do it like that?’ ‘Well, mami and papi, let me explain to you why they do it like that.’

So, I believe that that cultural fluency and that ability to interpret in both directions has been extremely helpful, not only as a youth, but certainly as an adult and definitely within my career, it has been an incredible advantage. And I believe a superpower for me to be able to engage that cultural fluency and that cultural intelligence, to support lots of different efforts.

I: How did this ability of navigating through cultures, connecting people, uh, connecting cultures help in your professional career?

A: I've always been anchored in community and in people, oftentimes when people ask me how to Deanna, what do you do? Well, I'm in the business of people. I've had the distinct pleasure and honor of contributing across six different sectors. But in each one, the constant, the thread in each sector has been my connection to community and to people. So, whether it was around economic justice and small business or higher education or state government, or in banking, it was always with the lens to support my employer.

Better understand how to do business with flavorful communities. What does their narrative look like? How do we have driven new business in markets that they historically have not been in but doing it in a way that honors the cultural and historical context and the story of those communities?

And so, I've thankfully had the ability to leverage my formative experience as a young person in my family story and my Lyft experience in a way that has become a competency for me in my career. And it's really helped me add value to my existing body of work and my career portfolio, because it's not something that you would normally see in a job.

You need to be proficient in cultural fluency. It's just something that you kind of have. And when you have that ability along with strong business acumen and you're strategic, and you understand how to navigate and navigate and collaborate across verticals or across business units, that's just something that you naturally introduced to your strategy.

Thanks for reading. Why don't you tell us about your own community and what you love about it?