Let’s celebrate our Heritage!

You can be from LatinX, Asian, African, British English, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, French, or any other descent, let’s celebrate our Heritage!

The National Hispanic Heritage Month, the period between September 15th and October 15th in the United States, we observe the celebration of the histories, cultures, and contributions of American citizens whose ancestors came from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Central and South America.

But I am not Hispanic (by definition), so why is this month so important to me?

Since I moved to the US in 2015, I had to undergo a series of discoveries about the importance of celebrating my own heritage that was not previously part of my life. To clarify: my parents’ heritage is from one side, (maternal) from Spain and England; and from my paternal side, from Portugal and Lebanon. In Brazil, all I had ever known was that I am Brazilian, and we celebrate our own history as a mixture of cultures, histories, food, dances, traditions, and much more. I grew up learning about the Brazilian history from the time the Natives had their tribes; then when Portugal disembarked in Bahia, on April 22nd, 1500. I learned about the colonial period, the slavery of natives and slavery of Africans; the gold, the sugar, the diamonds, the coffee; the Monarchs, the Republican, the Emperor periods; the Independence from Portugal and all our Presidents. The influence of so many countries and cultures as they would arrive in Brazil in the late 1800s all the way until mid-1900s. A beautiful and diverse country, where dance, music, food, traditions, habits are so unique and varied by each city in the country, that once you are there, you don’t want to leave. A country filled with amazing, energetic, hard-working, and charismatic people. This is my country, and this is what I grew up with, learning from a diverse country.

In a similar way that in the US, in November, it’s celebrated the Native American/American Indian Heritage Month; in February, the Black History Month; in March, the Asian Pacific Heritage Month; in May, the Jewish American Heritage Month; and many others throughout other months of the year, I had not realized that every month had a specific period to observe and celebrate our own contributions, histories, and cultures.

Fun Facts I learned over the past couple of years about Hispanic Heritage Month:

1)?????The observation started in 1968 as Hispanic Heritage Week under President Lyndon Johnson.

2)?????It was expanded by President Ronald Reagan in 1988 to cover a 30-day period.

3)?????It was enacted into law on August 17, 1988.

4)?????The day of September 15 is significant because it is the anniversary of independence for Latin American countries Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua.

5)?????In addition, Mexico and Chile celebrate their independence days on September 16 and September 18, respectively.

6)?????Also, Columbus Day or Día de la Raza, which is October 12, falls within this 30-day period.

As you may have noticed, this has been a long journey of learning. Learning about other cultures, countries, contributions, histories, and most importantly, about their people. For the past 5 years, I have been working very closely with the LatinX community everywhere I go. It was like that in college, in my community, and even more, at work. At my time at Lenovo, I realized that my passion for this community has grown much more than just their facts, but to a broader level of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.

So, here goes an interesting fact about my journey: as I was applying for college, there were 2 boxes I had to fill out – Race and Ethnicity.

·??????Race (in Brazil): I am white. Race (in the US): I am white.

·??????Ethnicity (in Brazil): I am white. Ethnicity (in the US): Hispanic or Latino.

Well, this was all brand new to me! Because of my geographical region’s origin, Latin-America, I had to mark the box as Hispanic or Latino. I didn’t give much thought into it, as for me, it was just a box.

When I moved here, about 6 years ago, I was in college, and I seemed to gravitate towards a lot of LatinX students for a couple of reasons: 1) We are all international students; 2) We speak a similar language (Portuguese and Spanish are quite similar – some may disagree); 3) Food, culture and traditions are very important to our cultures; 4) Lastly, we all liked to dance. For almost two years, I felt at “home away from home” being surrounded by such amazing people, and it was unbelievable to see how we got along with each other. In 2016, together with some other students, we decided to establish the Latino Club to focus on bringing additional events, professional development opportunities, workshops, speakers, and much more to our LatinX students! Naturally, what it was just a box became less of a box, and more of a community!

Fast forward, I joined Lenovo in 2018, and there it was: a group focused on doing something similar to what I had started in University! HOLA (Hispanics and LatinX of Lenovo Association) is a group that its main mission is to “empower and advance the careers of Lenovo employees of Hispanic/LatinX descent through professional development, fostering community involvement and industry networking while promoting Lenovo brand and values”. I said to myself: that’s it! I want to be part of it! First week in the job, one of my very first emails were to the Chair of HOLA saying: “How do I sign up? I want to learn! I want to be part of it!”

On my first year as part of HOLA, I was able to develop new community partnerships and work with people from so many different backgrounds. I worked with universities, affinity groups, Employee Resource Groups (ERG’s), other companies, NGO’s. It was all so rewarding as I was always learning! Learning by helping, learning by talking, learning by listening!

Fast forward almost three years, today I am the Chair of HOLA, we have established an amazing team of almost 10 people on the Board, we have 5 Executives Sponsors/Members of our community, and a vast community of over 300+ people only in the US. We partner with over 10+ community partners including other companies’ ERG’s. We work with the Lenovo Diversity and Inclusion team on aspects like increasing diversity in hiring, recruiting, retention, rewards, mentorship, leadership exposure, visibility, project scope, career, and professional development. We work with The Lenovo Foundation on giving grants to our own community partners.

So, I come back to the initial question: Why is the Hispanic Heritage Month so important to me?

Every year (if not every day), I get to learn something new! Every Latin-American country has their own different traditions, habits, cultures, food, dances, drinks. They have different accents, different ways to talk to each other, different business conversations, different words for the same meaning. Every person has a different background, heritage, story, habit, tradition. Some moved to the US when they were little, some moved last year. Some are white, some are black, some are of Asian descent, some are American/Indian, but one thing is in common: we are all unique! We are all people above all. We all treat each other with respect! We cheer each other up, we work through the hard times and we celebrate the good times! We are a resilient, hard-working, strong, powerful, passionate! We strive to be better every day, and together, we are ONE community!

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