I could tell you about the potential of the LatinX community based on personal experience and obvious bias, but you don’t have to take it from me. Indeed, actual studies confirm: the future is Latina.
Over the summer, I attended #WeAllGrow, a professional summit for Latina changemakers – creatives, creators, and entrepreneurs from all over the United States and Latin America. Over the course of four days, 500 women gained expertise, resources, and an amazing network. But the magic of the event was in the sisterhood, designed to inspire and empower high-potential Latinas.
Really, it was the first time I had been part of a group of people I had so much in common with. Hispanic women with a plan. But as we learned in a presentation by Stacie M. de Armas, Nielsen’s VP of Strategic Initiatives & Consumer Engagement, our particular demographic is experiencing explosive growth and increasing influence.
Latina 2.0 – we can do it all
According to The Nielsen Company’s 2017 report, Latina 2.0: Fiscally Conscious, Culturally Influential & Familia Forward, there are 28 million Hispanic females living in the U.S. (17% of the total U.S. female population and 9% of the total U.S. population), three quarters of whom are U.S.-born. As a demographic, we are younger, increasingly educated, ambicultural, and largely bilingual.
de Armas emphasized that Latinas care about a wide range of personal and professional interests: family education, career, community. “Other people can’t buy that and you can’t learn that – it’s who you are,” she said, suggesting that we leverage our innate inclination to treating business partners like family.
“Latina identity is multidimensional and dynamic, reflecting a merging and meshing of cultural traditions and modern trends,” according to Latina 2.0. “This innate duality of Latinas, along with their ability to navigate, lead and influence both their root culture and the mainstream, represents an exploding opportunity, as they are natural brand ambassadors.”
We’re educated and ambitious
Fifty-two percent of Latina women agree that their goal is to make it to the top of their profession (Latina 2.0). Can we pause for a moment and acknowledge that, not only do we want to be great, but we want to be at the top? This ambition, driven into us by our tireless and disciplined enfadoso Latino father figures (I’m editorializing a bit), increasing educational attainment, and a surge in Latinas entering the workforce, are causing us to postpone marriage to build careers, increase our annual income, and venture out into entrepreneurialism.
According to the report, Hispanic female majority-owned firms grew 87%, during the last five-year period tracked by the U.S. Census, compared to 27% growth for all female majority-owned firms. All of this is leading to a two-fold growth in Hispanic buying power in the last 20 years, with my home state of Arizona, accounting for 17% of Hispanic buying power, according to the Selig Center for Economic Growth at The University of Georgia (2016).
“Press on in the fullness of the Latino experience,” de Armas concluded, encouraging us to share our culture with the rest of the world. We have strengths that facilitate our success in business, and we have the smarts, the humanity, the determination, and the cash money to back us up.
El chiste: we have to show up
So we’re more educated, we’re motivated and ambitious, we are great at building rapport, and we have the attention of media, politicians, and major brands. The key now is to elevate each other.
One way to begin is to put our money where our mouths are. The cast of the critically-acclaimed Starz series Vida told the #WeAllGrow attendees that we have the obligation to support each other, the way the Asian American community supported Crazy Rich Asians. “Every view is a vote,” they emphasized.
Every dollar is a vote. Make an effort to seek out and support Latino-owned businesses and endeavors. There’s a tendency to feel competitive or envious when one of our own “makes it.” I’ve seen friends make jokes at others’ expense or try and bring them down when things are going well in fears of being left behind, but if our community is ever going to realize our potential, we have to lift each other up.
While we’re supporting each other, perhaps we can also extend a hand to other communities whose success was not a birthright: LGBTQ, other ethnic minorities, other religions. Prosperity is not a pie – something that gets sliced up and doled out, but rather it and grows and multiplies.
As the face of success becomes less homogenous, what does the role look like for us? How can we support each other? How can we be the change we want to see?
Now that we’re on the same page about the future, check out the last post on Latino History.
