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Reclaiming Hispanic
Heritage Month
Let’s not forget that our
success comes from working together.
As I attended several events around D.C.
associated with Hispanic Heritage Month, I kept
thinking of how this celebration has changed and
grown in the last 32 years, when I first arrived
in the nation’s capital. It was back then when,
together with Raul Yzaguirre, Ric Bela and a
handful of other early-arrivals, I was part of
the first “Chicano consulting firm” in
Washington. We chose a name with a double
meaning: “Interstate Research Associate” for the
consulting world, with the acronym “IRA,” the
Spanish word for ire. Our mission was clear:
Open and change the system for the betterment of
the Chicano community. A large black Aztec
serpent adorned our brochure. Luis Diaz de Leon,
who today at 80 years plus is still organizing
in the barrios of Laredo, Texas, viewed the
black serpent as “la vibora negra” (the black
snake), whom everybody knows as the good snake,
one without venom. In those early days, it was
clear that as a small contingent we needed to
hang together and help each other if we were to
survive in this new jungle. |
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Raul
Izaguirre, Rick Bela, Juan Gutierrez,
Gil Florence and Tony Gutierrez fought
the early battles to open the doors of
government and corporate America. |
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In the intervening years, I have
witnessed the explosion of that once small
contingent of Chicanos, who in time became Mexican-Americans,
Latinos, and then Hispanics. I recall attending the
first ever Hispanic Caucus dinners, when a crowd of
200 to 300 attendees and one or two corporate
sponsors was eye-opening. Today, the dinner draws
well over a thousand folks and raises several
hundred thousand dollars in one night. The same can
be said of events held by the leading Hispanic
organizations such as NCLR, USHCC, and LULAC. What
is viewed as success is evident everywhere.
Another very significant and noticeable difference
is the makeup of the people in attendance. The early
arrivals, with very few exceptions, were armed with
mostly bachelor’s degrees from colleges in the
Southwest and West. One of the early arrivals and an
IRA original, Linda Marmolejo, who today is the
regional director of the Minority Business
Development Agency in San Francisco, reminded me
recently of an individual who, upon arriving in D.C.
in the late ’60s, would introduce himself thus:
“Hello. I am so and so, the first Chicano graduate
of the Harvard School of Business.” That is no
longer the case. Today, the Hispanic contingent in
the nation’s capital is fully armed with master’s
and doctorate degrees from some of the finest
universities in the country. And furthermore, the
degrees are no longer simply in the education and
social fields; many are in business and the hard
sciences. These individuals are found across the
entire spectrum, from the White House to all the
federal agencies and the halls of congress to the
media and even the “fifth branch of government,” the
lobbying sector. They are also found managing and
running their own small, medium-size and multi-million-dollar
businesses. And very significantly, the number of
Latinas, low in the earlier days, has exploded.
But, while I am delighted at the progress that we
have made, I must confess that I am also sadden by
what I perceive, right or wrong, to be somewhat of a
disconnect between the “then” and the “now”
generation. Have we become the victims of our own
success? Our children are graduating from the best
schools, applying for jobs we wouldn’t have dreamed
of for ourselves. They are buying homes, taking
vacations, building a future. These are the things
we fought and sacrificed so much to achieve, but it
should not be at the expense of our identity. So as
we celebrate our heritage this month and in the
years ahead, let us not forget who we are and where
we came from. The doors to the Ivy League, the
corridors of power and the corporate positions just
didn’t open by themselves. They were forced open by
the push of the many, working together.
Juan Gutierrez a veteran of the early battles is
president and CEO of InterAmerica and Kemron Inc. |
