Hey, I’m Latina! Will You Pay Attention To Me Next Week?

Let’s peel back the layers of Hispanic Heritage Month—the good, the bad, the ugly, the laughs, the side eyes and the worry—and ask: what does culture have to do with it??

Hot (and informed) takes from a multicultural marketing expert.?

Here’s something you may have never thought about: when I lived in Colombia, I was Sylvia Marcela. When I moved to Nashville, I was Hispanic.?

This simple but powerful illustration demonstrates how I’m looked at by different people—and it’s had real-world effects on my day-to-day life since I was 29 years old and stepped foot on Tennessee soil for the first time.?

I never viewed myself as Hispanic because we didn’t use that term outside of the U.S.?

Cue years of self-discovery, a love for getting to deeply know people, helping others understand each other across worlds of differences, starting my first company Hispanic Marketing Group and even being CEO and multicultural marketing expert of my current company Culture Shift Team—can you tell this exploration and questioning of identity shaped the trajectory of my life?

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: we are spiritual beings having a human experience.?

Every single individual on Earth has had a different set of life experiences, regardless if they share pieces of their identity with others, like their upbringing, culture, language, ancestors, or even going to the same college, even years apart.?

You can be proud of a part of your identity and celebrate it and still focus on it just being a part of your identity.?

It’s part of my identity that I am Colombian, it’s part of my identity that I am a woman, it’s part of my identity that I am an entrepreneur, a? film fanatic, a single mother, and on and on we go with all the pieces of me I identify with.?

I’m sure by now you’ve heard how damaging and positive Hispanic Heritage Month can be in the U.S. (yes, both!). I’ll touch on this, but I want to give you other perspectives that play into the complex identity of being categorized as ‘Hispanic.’?

Below we’ll go over the five top insights for you to read, mull over and question about celebrating, acknowledging or not even caring about the last month—especially if you’re not “Hispanic.”

As always, you can read the juicy details in the full blog here.?

??? Insight #1: We have to get rid of our own biases and our own ideas of what “Latinidad” needs to look like and centralize the idea that we are all humans who walk our own paths—and that, naturally, looks different for everyone.?

??? Insight #2: I’m all of a sudden no longer only Colombiana, I’m now expected to know the culture, the background, the food, the celebrations and the reasons why people do and do not do certain things in the 33 separate countries of Latin America—and sometimes maybe even Spain. Isn’t that insane?

??? Insight #3: All of these celebrations are beautiful for their intentionality and certainly allow people from groups to come out, come together, be visible and be able to share their cause and their stories. But the part that worries me is this: Is that the only time of the year you will see me and acknowledge who I am?

??? Insight #4: Just because you do something and call it Hispanic marketing doesn’t mean you’re hitting the nail on the head. You’d be wasting time, money and energy punching the wall, opening holes everywhere and not getting to where you want to go. instead of profiting from a place of valuable data-driven authenticity.?

??? Insight #5: There’s a lot of work that has to be done in our mindset in order to get to a place where we acknowledge and celebrate who we are by our accomplishments or our characters. Most of all as humans we all want to be visible, we want to be acknowledged that we exist, and we want to exist in the way we want to, knowing that our existence matters.?

Allowing people to be who they are and realizing everyone has a path, a purpose and a reason is central to then celebrating and acknowledging each other year-round and not only during a designated time for a designated box (that’s put onto you, mostly).?

I’d love to hear your thoughts and personal experiences of how this month affected you in the comments!?

If you’re looking to tease out those nuances externally and internally within your company, let my team and I at Culture Shift Team work together with you to smash it out of the park! DM us or chat with us here.?