On Thursday, April 10th, The Margaret W. Wong Endowed Forum on Foreign Born Individuals of Distinction took place at the City Club of Cleveland.
The forum was titled “The True Contributions of Latinos to the U.S. Economy, Business, and Entertainment” and the wonderful speaker was Ms. Ana Valdez, the President and CEO of The Latino Donor Collaborative (LDC) which is “a 501 (c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to reshaping the perception of Latinos as part of the American social mainstream.”
(see https://latinodonorcollaborative.org/)
Indeed, as we read in the City Club program notes, “ten years ago, leaders at the LDC began to recognize the emergence of a new mainstream economy powered by U.S. Latino consumers, entrepreneurs, and workers-which was making an outsized contribution to the nation’s economic growth. Yet the positive growth they were seeing in the data was not reflected in a larger, inaccurate narrative about Latino contributions. Instead the perpetuation of harmful stereotypes often manifested into harmful laws and policies negatively impacting Latino businesses and communities. Together with the Latino Data Think Tank, LDC began to ask, ‘what if American Latinos were all recognized as valued, patriotic Americans in all facets of American life?’”
Certainly, Ms. Valdez was outstandingly qualified to address these issues. As we read in her biography, Ms. Valdez is “an American marketing, research, and political expert and thought leader with 30 years of experience in business, media, and the corporate world. Born and raised in Mexico City, she has studied and worked in Mexico, Europe, and the United States.”
(see https://latinodonorcollaborative.org/leaders/ana-valdez/)
Moreover, we also read that she considers it her purpose “to close the gap between who Latinos in the United States really are and what people perceive us to be.”
Before the forum began, we got to chat with Ms. Valdez and found her to be a very committed and upbeat person. We also learned that she has been a United States citizen for almost 30 years after immigrating to United States and living here as a resident for a while.
During her presentation, Ms. Valdez reviewed very reputable statistics, gathered and analyzed by the LDC, that convincingly demonstrated how our Hispanic community, both in Ohio and in the United States, is an ever-increasing positive and powerful force in such areas as labor, entrepreneurship, arts, and education.
Nevertheless, as we know, media portrayals and inflammatory political rhetoric have dampened what should be widespread enthusiastic acceptance of not only Hispanics but people of other ethnic groups.
Therefore, as Ms. Valdez eloquently stated, it is very important that we all do what we can to counter these negative stereotypes because they contribute to the impediment of all persons to realize their potential.
For instance, when asked by a young Latina entrepreneur about how she can contribute to the advancement of our society as well as her business, Ms. Valdez advised her to “have a voice” and use these statistics to demonstrate to her growing clientele how they will benefit “by doing business with me.”
