Redefining Spaces: How Laura Delgado has navigated being the only Latina in the room

Chicago – Laura Delgado believes recruiters need to stop looking for perfect candidates if they want to bring in a broader, diverse pool of talent. The Chicago native, who currently works as an Executive Talent Acquisition Manager for Mondelēz International, feels that corporations looking to cast a wider net need to “make sure that we’re bringing someone who has potential, who’s willing to learn and who’s willing to stretch into the role as opposed to always looking for someone who is perfect”. As many companies are working to make strides on diversity and inclusion, Delgado reflects on how she can use her skills and her unique background to find talent that will create a more inclusive workplace.

Though she considers herself a proud Mexican, it’s always hard to answer the “where are you from?” question, as she doesn’t always feel that she fully belongs in either culture. “I’m very clearly not white, and it’s clear that my family is not from the US, but when I go to Mexico, I’m seen as the American relative. I didn’t have that experience of growing up there which adds another layer of complexity of being a child of immigrants. I wasn’t born in Mexico, but I speak Spanish, I listen to the music and I’m immersed in the culture”.

Delgado is first generation in her family being raised in the US, and the first one to go to college. “It has definitely been a big defining factor in my life, having to navigate that idea of not being ni de aquí ni de allá” (Not from here or from there).

Her father, Filemón Delgado, migrated from Buenavista de Cuéllar, Guerrero in the late ‘70s, as many others do, to pursue better opportunities. “I’ve asked him, ‘Why Chicago of all places?’, he always says ‘that’s where the jobs were, and that’s where we knew people from our town or family members’. Filemón earned his GED and started working in a factory that makes rubber products, and he’s been there for the last forty years.

In 1987, he got his residency through the Raegan Amnesty, and from that point, Filemón was able to go back to Mexico and visit his family, “he would go back every summer and during the holidays to see his mom”. And during one of his visits, he met Araceli, Laura’s mother. “They were in a long-distance relationship for a year or two, and eventually got married in April of 1993”. The newlyweds moved to Chicago, “my dad came first and then my mom followed him a couple of months later”. 

Laura was three years old when both his parents got their citizenship, and from there, they would go to Mexico every summer. “It was one of my favorite memories from my childhood. I never officially lived in Mexico, but in a way, I feel like I grew up there”. Delgado recognizes the privilege she had to visit her family back in Guerrero as she knows “a lot of family and friends who didn’t have that privilege because they didn’t have the residency or citizenship to travel across borders, so, I’m really thankful that going back has been part of my life”.

Despite coming from a low-income background, Laura is grateful for her childhood and remembers it fondly. “My mom was able to stay at home with my younger sister Jennifer and I, and it really helped our development”. Araceli was very active in their school and helped the girls with their homework as much as she could. “It meant less income, sacrificing that second working parent, but it was the right decision for us as a family and I’m glad I had my mom at home growing up”. When the 2008 Great Recession came and Filemón’s hours at work got cut, Araceli picked up a job to help support the family, “and they’ve both been working since then”.

Delgado went to an elementary school that was a few blocks from her house. “Approximately 85% of the students were Latinx, so it was definitely an interesting dynamic”. Laura ended up graduating as valedictorian from her eighth-grade class, and while it was a great honor for her, it was also the first time she felt underestimated for being a woman. “When the class found out that I was going to be valedictorian, there was a lot of surprise and a lot of mumblings because there was another one of my male classmates was also top in the class”. Delgado had the test scores, projects and the classwork, yet her classmates did not think she deserved it. “That was the first time I started feeling that being a Latina woman meant something else”.

For her outstanding academic achievements, her teachers recommended that Laura attended Northside College Prep in Chicago, one of the most prestigious public schools in the state. “It was selective enrollment, so I had to take a test and be admitted. I was the first in my family who had even considered schools such as this, so I didn’t really get how big of a deal it was”. Laura received encouragement from her cousins and her eighth-grade teacher, Ms. Hasan, “she was a really big advocate for me and really pushed me to be the best I could be”.

Northside College Prep was a different world from what Delgado was used to. “I was one of the top students in my elementary and middle school and now I was suddenly grouped with 200 other kids who were also the top students in their class”. Another big difference from here previous school was that there were not nearly as many Latinos, and Laura began experiencing the feeling of not belonging. “I wish I could say that I took it with a brave face, but I came home every day for the first month crying and telling my mom that I didn’t belong there”.

Eventually, Laura managed to adapt as she realized it was great learning environment, “I’m glad that I was able to have that opportunity as it really prepared me for college”. She also managed to make some great friends who at the time, were also missing that sense of belonging due to being part of a minority group. “We were able to work through that difficult environment that was not made for us, and we were able to thrive and come out even more successfully on the other end”.

When applying to college, Laura wanted to stay in the Chicago area in order to stay close to her family, “my family has always grounded me and they’re my biggest support system”. Being the first one in her family to go to college, the application process proved to be challenging as she did not have anyone who could help her navigate it. “My parents couldn’t orient me on how to get my transcripts or what schools to apply to, but they fully supported any decision that I would make”. Luckily, Delgado had some friends that went through the process a few years prior, so she relied on them with all her questions. In 2012, she got admitted to Northwestern University.

Once again, Delgado found herself in an environment that was not very diverse, but this time around, she was mentally prepared. “I had already experienced that at Northside, and while Northwestern was a big change, I was focused on doing my best to succeed and get my degree to make a better path for myself”. Laura ended up choosing to major in Economics as “I wanted to be successful, have a well-paying job to one day be able to help my parents with expenses”. She wanted to be in the business space, so she considered Economics as an all-encompassing degree that would help her achieve her goals. “It was tough as it was a very white, very male major. It was interesting sitting in those lecture halls, looking around and seeing maybe a handful of other people of color in the room”.

Laura found her Latino community in the Multicultural Center, a place where students could stop by for printing, find resources, study and even hang out together. “It was nice to start seeing that there were those spaces where you could be with people who came from similar backgrounds and experiences. Once I found them, it became easier at Northwestern”. With some of the friends she made through the MCC, she started a Mexican Folkloric dance group. “I had never danced Mexican folkloric dance before, but my friend that had the idea knew a little bit because of the things that her mom had taught her”. Delgado remembers being in the basement of one of the dorms, watching videos on YouTube and really learning the dances from scratch. “This was a way to really hold onto our roots and our ancestry in this space that was not made for us”.

While pursuing her degree, Laura was accepted into the Management Leadership for Tomorrow’s (MLT) Career Prep program, a “national nonprofit transforming leadership pipelines by equipping Black, Latinx and Native American talent to secure high-trajectory jobs”. Laura feels that being part of MLT gave her the exposure to the business world she wouldn’t have had otherwise. “It really gave me the tools to be able to have a fighting chance in this world, as it’s really tough being in the corporate world as a person of color”.

Through MLT, Delgado landed a Finance summer internship with Target. “It was a great experience. Target has a great culture and I learned a lot from my peers and mentors”. After a successful summer, Laura received a full time offer, and though she loved Target, she was not passionate about finance. “I couldn’t imagine sitting and looking at spreadsheets and numbers all day. I wanted a job where I could talk to people and work with others”. So, she made the tough decision of turning down that opportunity.

Still looking for a full-time opportunity upon graduation, Laura joined the Chicago Field Studies program at Northwestern, “where you would do an internship for ten weeks combined with a seminar class about the business world, and you got credit for taking a full course load”. With the help of her program advisor, Karen Allen, she was able to find different organizations she could apply to. “She suggested a lot of great companies that had a good track record of converting interns to full-time”. Through the CFS program, Laura interned and eventually accepted a full-time offer from Egon Zehnder, a global management consulting and executive search firm.

Her internship gave her the exposure she needed to quickly get acclimated in her full-time job, but for Laura, she felt she had to prove herself as she was the only Latina in the office. “I worked very hard, and I was lucky to work very closely with some great consultants who gave me a lot of developmental opportunities”. And though she excelled at her job, being the only Latina was very present to her. “Colleagues would ask me about weekend plans or what I did in my free time, and I always had these experiences that didn’t click with anyone else’s. I had to explain the music I listened to, the shows I watched, and my traditions”.

While at Egon, Laura had the chance to visit the company’s Miami office, where most of the consultants and researchers were Latino. “I remember thinking, ‘this feels like home!’ Everyone said ‘hi” to you with a hug and a kiss, they always ate lunch together and felt like they were a little family”. Delgado remembers feeling so welcomed and included for the three days she spent there. “It was a great experience, and it really highlighted the contrast between this office and the Chicago office where it was just me”.

Towards the end of her three-year tenure at Egon Zehnder, Laura was very skilled in the executive search area. “I was always looking into global companies and seeing what their executives looked like, learning more about their ways of working and how they became best in class”. She also had the opportunity to work closely with the company’s internship program, which helped her realize how passionate about recruiting she was. “I loved getting to know people and bringing in a wide range of candidates to be a part of the organization. I loved interviewing potential candidates, getting to know them and guiding them through the process”.

When her current boss at Mondelēz International, Julia Markell, reached out to her about considering a career in in-house recruiting, Laura was not looking for any external opportunities. “Funnily enough, I had started thinking about my next steps, and working in the internship recruiting made me realize that I wanted to be able to say, ‘I work at this company, this is what the culture is like, these are our values, and this is why you should come here and why I think you’re a great fit’”. With the interns, she was able to bring talent into her own company, but with her client work, she felt too removed. “When I was trying to get more active into interviewing and assessing candidates, I had a really hard time because I felt so disconnected from the client that we were recruiting for. I couldn’t answer questions about the structure or the team because I didn’t work for that company”.

Laura joined Mondelēz in September from 2019, where she works to recruit individuals at the vice president level and above. “I’ve definitely been able to find my voice and find the confidence to take this great opportunity to really influence the type of talent that we bring into this organization”. Taking from her own experience of being the only minority in the room for most her adult life, she wants to help Mondelēz bring in more diverse talent into the organization. “At the same time, I want to make sure that we’re bringing in talent that we can set up for success”.

For Delgado, it is crucial that companies develop strategies to create a more inclusive workspace if they want to retain diverse talent. “Recruiting is just one piece of the puzzle. Once they’re here, how are we supporting them? How are we giving them the resources and the outlets to have open discussions? We want to ensure we are bringing them into an environment where they can thrive, succeed and truly be their authentic self”.

As Mondelēz recently announced a multi-year commitment to advance racial equity through Diversity and Inclusion initiatives, Laura is hopeful that she will be able to assist in creating more spaces where minorities and people of color can thrive within the company. Still being one of the few Latinas in the room, she thinks back on her experiences at Northwestern and how she was able to create a Mexican Folkloric dance team with her peers. “Thinking back about that experience and even high school where there were only a few of us in a room, I would encourage anyone who is in the corporate world who is feeling that they don’t belong, is to find those safe spaces, and if they don’t exist, create them”.

Resources:

To learn more about Management Leadership for Tomorrow (MLT): https://mlt.org/career-prep/

To learn more about Mondelez International's D&I Commitment: https://ir.mondelezinternational.com/news-releases/news-release-details/mondelez-international-announces-multi-year-commitment-advance