Some of the supported by Texas Mutual.

Workers Compensation Insurance Company.

We need women to be in the in civic life because their voices are important.

Their intuition is important.

Don't be afraid to fail.

Don't be afraid to take risks.

Advice I would give is just to find your voice sooner.

It is scary.

Paula and welcome to Salute.

I'm your host, Melanie Mendez Gonzalez.

What inspires Latina leaders to be the best they can be for their community?

It starts with a deep desire.

And in the case of our three featured guest on this episode.

All have achieved leadership through striving to make things better.

All have fought for equality, inclusion and diversity.

Our first guest is an icon in the world of civil rights and the rights for Chicano farmworkers.

And believe me when I tell you, time has not slowed her down.

Barbara, in the world of Latina leaders.

Our next guest can certainly be described as a legend.

She has been leading for decades, beginning in 1955 as an activist for the Agricultural Workers Association.

She continued helping to organize farm labor alongside activist Cesar Chavez.

She has led protests, negotiated contracts and organized consumer boycotts, all with the goal to make things better for farm workers.

She led because she believed.

See CYP, whether it's an honor to welcome Dolores Huerta back to salute all other ladies.

Thank you so much for being on.

Salud with us today.

We appreciate it.

Now it's my pleasure.

So a lot to talk to you a little bit about your path to all the things that you've accomplished today.

From the beginning of working with the United Farm Workers to your own foundation today.

So, Dolores, you were a teacher before you began the United Farm Workers.

What motivated you to leave teaching to begin organizing?

Well, I was very fortunate in that I had learned how to do grassroots community organizing in a previous organization.

Both Cecil and I belong to an organization called a community service organization C as O, and that started in Los Angeles in the fifties.

And the person that organized Moses and myself and taught us how to do grassroots organizing.

And in that organization, we passed a lot of really important legislation in a couple of those bills we passed.

One of them was to the people who were legal residents of the United States.

If they had a green card that they could get public assistance.

Aide to the aged 88 to the age of eight, to the blind aged and even children.

And the other bill that we passed, it was really major because we know that right now in a lot of states to us, United States, especially like in Texas, it's very hard for people to register to vote.

Well, way back there in 1963.

Many, many years ago, we passed a law that anybody could register somebody else to vote.

You could do it.

You know, you don't have to find a deputy registrar like they do in Texas to register you to vote, that anyone could register another person to vote.

And both Cecil and I worked in that organization.

And of course, each chapter did a lot of work in their own chapter in terms of, you know, challenging the police.

You know, getting the low income housing built in the communities, etc., etc..

But that was a pretty great organization and that sort of and I both left that organization in 1962 because we a lot of the members of Cecil were farmworkers.

And the conditions of farmworkers were so brutal that we wanted to do a pilot project under CSA to organize farmworkers into a union.

But at the convention that we had that year, they voted us down.

So that's when Cecil and I left.

And Mr. Ross, who had also been a consultant of the CSO, he also left, and we started the union.

And I try to continue that today.

And as I understand it, you work with your family at the foundation, your daughters, who are also leaders in their own right.

So what is it like for you to work with them?

Have they taught you anything about leadership?

Well, yes, they have, because we know that especially in today's age, when you have to do a lot of our organizing on the Internet and, you know, so it's a it's a whole different style of organizing.

So, yes, we're always learning from each other.

What advice do you have to those in particularly Latinas who who do want to be leaders in their community?

Well, you know, like the Coretta Scott King who said we will never have peace in the world until women take power.

And we know that we as women, that we are more compassionate and we believe in cooperation, not competition.

We have so much that we can give to the world.

And it's so important, especially now during election time, because, you know, we have a lot of laws that were there in the Congress, in the U.S. Senate that never passed.

And one of those well, a couple of those laws really affected women.

We need women to be in this in civic life because their voices are important.

Their intuition is important.

So we need women to participate.

So I just want to say to all the women pick out so I take your children with you like I have in my life, taking my kids with me when I go out there and pass leaflets or we're not going door to door to get people to vote.

The last year, very passionate about your work and to many Latino leaders, you are the role model.

You are a mentor in this space.

But who do you look to around you as your mentors and role models?

Well, in terms of the women's movement, there were two women that really impacted my life and my decisions I'm speaking to now about the way that I think about these issues, a woman's reproductive rights.

And that one of them was, of course, Gloria Steinem, the great feminist leader.

And another woman named Eleanor Smeal, who is the president of the Feminists with Voting Foundation.

And with Eleanor Smeal, you know, we made a big push to get women elected to the state legislature here in California and to other state legislatures in throughout the country, because we do want to know that we have women sitting at every table.

And I like to say, if you have a meeting somewhere that's going on everywhere in the world, unless you have 50% of the people sitting at that table that are feminists, that care about women's rights, if we don't have that percentage of women there.

You know what?

They're going to make the wrong decision.

The US What advice do you give to the young Latino leaders of today?

Yeah, we need you in leadership.

In the wake of the only way that you can grow your leadership is actually by by the experience of being involved.

So we watch it all become activists because we know that we as Latinos, we can make such a difference in states like Texas.

I mean, we're almost 40% there, if not already there.

But unless we vote, then we don't have a voice and nothing changes.

And they keep continuing passing these terrible laws that like all women, but especially Latina women.

So we've got to fight for ourselves.

And I just want you to get out there and be conscious of what's going on around you and and get the a heart I say the US to go out there and do the work that needs to be done because we are fighting for ourselves at this point.

On a personal level, reflecting back on your life, how does it make you feel to know that you've had such an impact on and so many people?

Well, I feel really blessed that I have had never once a day long like I'm 92 years old now and hopefully that in my work that I was able to get that message out to many people.

But to also ask, you know, happens to become activist, I think that's the important thing that all of us be engaged and be involved.

And so I feel very blessed.

I really do.

Thank you so much, Dolores.

We appreciate you.

We feel blessed that you've been here and that you've given up your time and your expertize to engage the community at these important points in our in our country.

GALARZA Thank you very much.

She sat with.

What's the best advice you've never took.

Coming to the United States at 23 in a room full of 20 engineers, all male.

And they would say, go back to where you come from.

The best advice I never took was not going back.

If being Latina is a superpower.

Then our next guest should be flying around the world in a cape as these super Latina, because her career revolves around taking everything about our heritage and transitioning it to the workplace to grow and develop people and their careers.

Please welcome the CEO of the National Diversity Council, Angela Valenciano.

Welcome.

I'm jealous.

Thank you so much for having me.

I'm so honored and so happy to be here with you.

Angela's Tell us what it was like for you when you came from San Luis Potosi, Mexico, to the US to further your career.

It's a story that I love to share and I share it in my book, but to me it is the opportunity of a lifetime.

I speak to you as an immigrant to this country in 1983, and I am invited to do an internship with General Electric.

That was the first time I ever set foot in an organization in a company.

I spoke very little English, almost no English, very heavy accent.

So there was a lot of fear, a lot of hesitation, a lot of concern on my parents.

And you know why are you leaving?

Why are you doing this?

But I knew inside of me that my path, my purpose was this here was in this country.

How did you go from being with G.E.

in technology to a career in advocating for diversity in the workforce?

I know it's incredible.

And when I think about that, it really brings me to the understanding that we know sometimes what we want or we think that we know what we want, but not really.

There is more to what we have, the understanding of what we can do or what we are capable of doing.

G.E.

with a wonderful platform for me, I'm an engineer by trade.

So of course, my first step in corporate America would have been working for a technology organization, and then out of the blue, I am asked to do training for the organization in Latin America because I am fluent in Spanish.

And then I realized that, oh my goodness, I'm so good at speaking to people.

And I love talking to people and sharing in their experiences and learning from them and then learning from them.

So it was a very simple transition.

I would imagine that understanding people comes a lot with your heritage and helps.

What do you bring with you to the workplace or to your career from your Mexican heritage?

Everything.

The essence of who you are as a person.

As an individual.

The beauty of our culture.

The understanding of our roots.

I think about all the times that I was growing up and a little girl and walking the streets of San Luis Potosi.

There was always something new to learn in my hometown.

I learned about diversity through experiencing it firsthand and in my hometown.

So all of that is part of the lens that I bring in, the work that I do every day.

It's beautiful.

And powerful.

And under your leadership at the National Diversity Council, you began the Women's Symposium.

Why was it important to you to focus on women in leadership?

2000?

I was senior vice president for JPMorgan Chase, and I worked very closely with our women's initiative.

I knew back then and so did our founder and chairman Dennis Kennedy, who worked for H-E-B, that women were really, really underrepresented not only in C-suite roles but also compensation.

There was a huge gap.

And so one of the things that he said to me is on this as we begin this organization.

I would like to see about focusing on women and the struggles that women continue to have in the workplace.

This is 2004 when we launched the nonprofit the Women in Leadership Symposium then began.

And the idea for me was to bring senior women from different organizations to talk about their experience.

What can you share with the audience?

And as best practice that we can take back to our workplaces and learn from that?

You mentioned two groups of people, your family and your team.

So how does Alice, the Latina leader, separate herself to be analyst, the mom, the neighbor, the friend?

I think of myself as multidimensional.

I think of myself as angel, as the mother, which, you know, is my favorite title of all the titles that I hold.

The CEO President.

Board of Director.

The one title that I honor the most.

The one that speaks to my heart every day, and the one that has really propelled me to do the work that I do is Mother.

But I also see my NPC as a second family and I nurture them in that way.

So important that as a Latina leader, I'm able to bring in the skill set of vulnerability.

I love to be vulnerable with my team.

This pandemic took so much from all of us.

And to be able to open up to my team and to hear them, to understand and to support them, even if we were so far away, because they work remotely in different states.

That part of Angelus, the leader, the the supporter, the one that wants to nurture not just at home, but was critical.

Yeah.

So important with everything that's going on in people's lives.

Where did you learn how to be a servant leader and by that I really mean who have been your mentors in this journey?

The first one was my mother.

And, you know, I speak to how she was a model servant leader.

I think that her mind was always ten steps ahead of doing and creating and being.

So I model a lot of my leadership in her, but I also was very fortunate to have wonderful mentors.

And I shared with you a little earlier that one of them was General Colin Powell.

General Powell was one of the biggest supporters that we had initially when we launched the council.

And so to have his support, his leadership, his encouragement meant so much to me because you develop and you learn by seeing.

And that is why today there is such an urgency in me as a leader to continue to grow the next generation of Latino leaders and Latinos.

So what advice do you have for Latino leaders of today?

Don't be afraid.

Don't be afraid to fail.

And don't be afraid to take risk.

Don't be afraid to silence your own self as the critic inside of your head, you have to say, and I say this often when I'm fearful or where I'm hesitant about something, I say, Angelus, I'm going to fire you from my head today because you are not going to guide me in the direction that I know I don't need to go.

And so it is it's very powerful.

I really believe that it's in all of us, you know, whatever it is, that that is the guiding force in your own understanding of your humanity, to have the humility, to say that to yourself.

So when I say the super Latina, it is I have to build myself up to that.

We need to think about the impact that your stories make you not only in the show, but in your book that you've written in English and in Spanish.

How does it make you feel to know people are reading your story and will take action?

I love it.

I get goosebumps every time I receive an email or a note from someone that says Angelus, I read your book and I cried.

I cried because it resonates with my story.

And that's the beauty of that, that my story is not unique.

My story is the story of so many that have come to this country with just one thing in mind, the opportunity to be.

Well, you warm my heart with the legacy that you're leaving behind with all of the work that you continue to do.

Thank you so much for your leadership and thank you for being with us.

Thank you so much for having me.

I've enjoyed this so much and I've enjoyed you too.

Mary, that your parents are strong community leaders.

What was that like growing up?

Yeah, we were busy, but they taught us the importance of being invested and engaged in our community.

And I would just say the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

For our next guest, serving and connecting to her community is not new.

As she grew up in a family of community leaders.

What is new is how she connects with community today by closing the digital divide.

As the executive director of a digital connect.

Please help me welcome Maria other at the capitol to celebrate.

Hi Mary.

Thanks for having us in your home and your office today.

Rene with you left for college and you came back to San Antonio.

You went to work in tech and innovation.

What led you to that industry?

I remember being a part of the prep program, so the pre freshman engineering program at that time, it was for sixth, seventh and eighth graders.

And it was one of those days where you had a career day speaker and someone came to talk to us and and I remember she was telling us about all the cool things that she did for her.

Her job.

And then I remember a pair of minds asking her, How much do you get paid?

And she just kind of chuckled and she said, I'm not going to tell you.

But just know it's a lot, you know?

And so I remember thinking, Wow, she has this amazing job and she gets paid well.

And so actually, that's kind of what spurred my interest in it.

You said there was a C, but there's still not as many women in tech and innovation as there are two men.

So what was that challenges did you have coming up in your career?

Yeah, you're exactly right.

There are not enough females in tech.

And so there are a lot of challenges with that, whether it is being the minority in the room by gender or whether, you know, it's something that probably a lot of females in the workforce can relate to is you may see something and everybody's kind of shaking their head in agreement, but then maybe a guy says it.

And I was like, That's the greatest idea.

And you're like, I really just said, just so you know.

So those are frustrating experiences.

Obviously, an even more frustrating experience is when maybe females in tech aren't paid equally or fairly as compared to their male counterparts.

So there's a whole lot of work that we all still need to do to make sure not only are there no females in tech, but that they're treated equally.

And for the women today that the young leaders that are coming up, what advice do you give to them when maybe they are the only woman in the room?

For me, a big lesson that I learned is that when I really started in the tech space, you know, I was intimidated by being one of the only females in tech.

And so it took me a while to find my voice and and have that presence in the room and say, hey, no, that was my idea, you know?

And so the advice I would give is just to find your voice sooner.

It's scary, you know, and it is not easy.

But when you partner with a either a mentor or a champion, that is just so helpful and having people around you and your support system.

And you know, if I had to go do it all over again, I would have done that sooner because it made such a big difference.

Mentors do make a big difference.

Absolutely.

Who are some of your mentors or who have been some of your mentors throughout your career?

Yeah, there was a woman at Rackspace and it was actually her that kind of helped me make the light bulb glass.

We were in a meeting together and you know, it was going well and we were leaving the meeting and walking back to our desks.

And, you know, then I was just like, Oh, we should attend this, this, this and that.

And she is just like, she just stopped me in the hallway and she's like, Why didn't you?

Why didn't you see any of that in the meeting?

And, you know, made me stop and do some reflection.

And I thought, why didn't I?

You know, and and then I realized that I'm just being quiet and letting these factors intimidate me, and I shouldn't, you know?

And she was just like, what you were saying is valuable and it should have been stated.

And so she she helped me kind of come to that realization.

But I also had great male mentors, too, who helped push me in my career and said, hey, you know, there's this or one of them women advocate it.

When I found out I wasn't getting paid as equally as one of my counterpart, and he was just like, I need to know how serious you are about leaving this company.

And I said, Yeah, I'll walk out today.

And I had no plan.

I was just saying that.

But he went and champion for me with H.R.

and said, No, we need to make this right for her.

And so I think mentors and champions take many different forms.

And but it's just it's so important about finding yours and making sure that they're supporting.

You, things that your relationships with your mentors have served you well because you have started some brand new initiatives.

Marina What does that feel like to get that going and get people to have buy in in your efforts?

I will say it's definitely tricky and hard and I feel like I have to use all my skill sets.

But what I try and do is just make the mission simple, you know, and then everybody slots in with their roles and responsibilities and on how to get behind it.

So with, say, digital connects, you know, our goal is to have a fully connected city and county by 2025, 2026 at the latest.

And so then, you know, I get a team of people smarter than me and we figure out our roles and responsibilities and get it done.

Really, that is such big work.

You're connecting families to the Internet, which for a lot of people could be life changing.

How does that feel to be the executive director of that particular initiative?

I love it.

You know, it's it's hard work and it's first reading when, you know, I'll get emails from people saying I'm in zip code 72, you know, wink, wink, and I don't have Internet, you know, or, you know.

So we get those resident testimonials sent to us all the time and you realize how many people are disadvantaged and they cannot participate in today's society and economy because they don't have the Internet.

And so that definitely gives me the fire to keep going because the work is hard.

Everybody knows that we need to address the digital divide.

So getting that baseline understanding is not hard, but pushing them to action, I will say is is hard.

But was there ever a piece of advice that you got that you did not take?

It's not a piece of advice that I didn't take.

But I remember being asked in an interview, you know, it was when I was working in tech and they were like, you know, you're going to be working with a lot of male counterparts.

Are are you sure you want to do this?

You know, kind of like dissuading me from applying because I was in the interview process and I was just like, what?

You know, like, who cares?

And I'm working with male counterparts.

And so it just gave me more passion to want to do that.

Prove him wrong.

Thank you so much for being on salute with us today, Reena.

Thanks for having me.

All three featured Latino leaders have fought and continue to fight for civil rights, diversity and inclusion.

Dolores Huerta, Angela Valenciano and Marina Tabitha.

I hope their stories inspired you.

Thank you for being here with us and make sure to join us next time on Salud notes that most.