The event “Leading with your Hispanicity” is described on the website as a part of the celebration for Hispanic heritage month. The list of speakers includes Ariana Stolarz, Isabel Sierra Gomez de Leon, Daniel Lobaton, and Rafael Esquer. Interestingly the event first began with a discussion on Cinco De Mayo. Rafael went into great detail explaining the actual history behind the holiday revealing Cinco de Mayo is actually the day Mexico went to battle the french. In the end, Mexico won which California, which was apparently going through a similar situation, had heard about and celebrated. Cinco de Mayo became a day, at least originally, of celebration associated with the idea “We are small but mighty”.
“Hey we got this” got lost in translation…and we can change [that] conversation.” – Ariana Stolarz
There was also conversation on the importance of representation, the relevance of the term “minority”, “Neutral Spanish”, and many other subjects. Overall, I really enjoyed the talk it was short and I learned a lot more than expected.
