Salud is supported by Texas Mutual Workers Compensation Insurance Company.

You have to have stamina.

Latinos haven't proved themselves yet.

We're still in the middle of proving that we should be at the table, ask the questions.

And recognize that you're always a student first.

You're always.

Learning a.

Can do attitude.

You know, like they just overcome and persevere.

Hola.

Welcome to Salud.

I'm your host, Melanie Mendez Gonzalez.

On this episode, we'll spend time with three diverse Latina leaders.

One has led a dance program for decades on the West Side.

Another went from TV reporting to leading the economic development on the South Side.

And our first guest works alongside her husband, Mayor Ron Nirenberg, in leading the way to a more robust San Antonio.

Vamos most people follow a path to success.

Leaders create success as they blazed their own trail.

And that's what our next guest has done.

Please welcome Erika Prosper Nierenberg, senior director of research at H-E-B and the First Lady of San Antonio.

Welcome, Erika.

Hi.

Thank you for having me.

Erika, you grew up in a migrant working family.

Looking back, what are the lessons that you learned from that time.

You don't have appreciated at the time when you're doing the hard labor and you think this is not a life that I want.

But looking back now, I think that that was where I got a really early drive towards seeing things through.

So biggest lesson, I think, is the stamina to see things through till the end and being able to really walk through a lot of difficult times knowing that things could be worse.

Right?

And so that was one of the things that came out of that.

I think another one that I often also give the credit to for that part of my life is the idea of collaboration.

Because if you're a migrant farm worker, you end up really having to work together with other families or their family members to collectively pull money together to make your entire tribe move forward.

So I think early on I got a really good lesson how important it was to do your part, to be part of a larger effort with that experience.

Was there a pivotal moment in your life when you decided you wanted to further your education?

Throughout my life, even even since I was little.

All my family knew was that somehow education was a way out.

Early on, my family saw that I was maybe more curious than most kids.

So they really wanted to emphasize that I should go for education.

And it was just that educate, educate.

They educate them.

Right.

They didn't know what that meant, but that sort of that sort of support really helped me understand how important it was.

So that was about 14, 15 when I realized if I kept going to the fields every summer and missing out on ends of schools or start two schools, it wouldn't really help me in the long run.

And I was really entering high school close, close to it.

And so that was the year that I discovered that there was this program where in the summer the state would pay you to take voter classes.

And so looking at the finances, it was about the same as I would be earning in the fields.

So, you know, we struck a deal with my family that I would go do this in their conditioning for the summer and I would turn over my earnings if they would let me stay.

And that was really it, because once I could do that, I realized I could maneuver through and to your point, dedicate more time to studying.

So you spent hot summers in the fields in the valley, in the Rio Grande Valley?

Yeah.

And that eventually you went to get two degrees from UT-Austin.

Yes.

And onto a master's degree at the.

University of Pennsylvania.

Yes, we think about that.

What what goes through your mind when you reflect on that journey?

Just wow.

You know, just a huge wow to the idea that I wasn't really planning on any of it.

I knew I needed to be educated and I kind of, you know, looked for where I could get that education with as much financial aid as I could.

Now, I still worked while I was in undergrad, but then the idea of graduate school had never even popped into my mind until many of the professors at U.T.

just thought that at the time, the unique voice of a Latina in these programs that they had never really heard before, the stories, the background, they just felt it was it warranted me continuing to study.

Eric in your work with HIV, what is your favorite thing about what you do there?

Well, I think my favorite thing is really that I get to talk to everyday people about what things the company can do better for them.

Right.

It's a privilege to think if you think about it's a privilege to sit down with a mother and say, you know, why, why?

Why do you come to our stores?

I think it's a privilege to be able to sit down in someone's.

Home.

And talk to them about their life and their aspirations for their children and also understand what recipes they cook.

I think that humbled me.

I think it's made me a better person.

And quite frankly, I also think that it makes the company I work for more human.

So you touch the lives of a lot of people through that work, but where do you find your mentors, your people that surround you to support you?

I find a lot of my source of stability through my son.

I have to tell you, I never even realized as a grown up the habits you get into that you think are normal or like, you know, that somehow throughout your grown up life you've just instilled habits that maybe aren't being the healthiest for you.

And when you get this fresh perspective of a child, that's like, why would you do that?

Right?

It's like having a nice little, like, constant mirror.

So I find a lot of solace in his own point of view of, you know, of of just life and asking me to teach him about life.

Right.

So that's where I get one big source.

The other one is my husband, believe it or not, I know he has like the burden of the city on him, but he's a really kind man.

He's a really sweet man.

And he does a lot.

A.

Lot to make sure that I have a sort of an ability to be able to maneuver through my boundaries that I've set up.

The last is really this notion of finding your tribe.

We all we all look for them, and it takes us a long time to find him.

I didn't really find mine until my thirties, late thirties.

But when you find a group of men or women or mix.

Right, that just they don't compete with you, they just celebrate you.

They're always there to help you.

And they will accept you through your goods, you know?

And you're not so good.

It's such a relief.

You're very active on social media.

So you, in that sense, share the part of your life that you want the public to see.

But there's a lot of just being in the public eye as the first lady of San Antonio.

Mm hmm.

How does that make you feel, Erica?

It's a really cool thing to be able to exercise the ability to connect directly with little kids.

That might be looking at my social media feed and being either inspired or put to put a thought right or other Latinas or Latinos.

But it also comes with obviously unwanted feedback for every, you know, for for almost every post, there's always this one person private messaging me about how I should go back to my country or how, you know, a disgrace it gets worse during campaigns.

But I also start thinking to myself, like, you know, how different is that from when my parents are growing up being called, you know, bad words like greasers or wetbacks at the time?

It's not that different, except now it's obviously, you know, more direct.

But I also think that the public just sort of sometimes allows for people to just feel like they can directly say things to you that, quite frankly, you know, in the past they might have said it without you in the room.

The voice that you have in the public eye, does it make you want to do more like, say, serving in a public school?

You know, I get asked that a lot.

The truth is, I think that people who serve in public office have to be ready for that.

And they have to have that as a priority.

Right.

So I've looked for almost now going on 12 years of run, first four years as a councilman and now another six years as mayor, and hopefully two more years as mayor.

Right.

I've looked at him and and he has had to dedicate a significant part of his energy, his his mind, his, you know, his dreams and desires to serve publicly for the city.

Right.

My priority right now is my son.

It really is.

And as as cliche, but it really is, I, I find no bigger joy than that little sucker, you know, and and so I'm not willing to split my heart or my time with him.

My other joy is my job and the service of my, you know, to my team and others.

And I'm not willing to split that right now.

Am I going to say that later down the line when Jonah leaves to college or he's no longer needy?

You know, that might change.

That might be where I have room for it.

Also, I believe that you have to be called to it.

You touched on a part of your life that I think many women look to you for in terms of how do you, as a mom, navigate serving your community.

What is nice to have for those leaders in moms?

Well, first of all.

You should know that as a mother, you've got a skill set that is that should be paid.

And so walking into any volunteer, any board as a mom, you should already know you've got worth behind.

Right.

And skill sets.

You're able to basically be able to navigate difficult negotiations, if you think about it, especially if you have more than one child.

You're always negotiating.

You're always constantly assessing what is the profit and the loss of any activity.

Right.

These are all skills.

So I think that as a as a mother, the way I usually maneuver it or approach it is to is to understand one.

Do I really have a lot of passion around this?

Because I'm giving away time from, you know, Jonah, my son, right.

To do I feel like this this organization has enough structure.

Do they have their act together or is this one of those organizations where I'm going to have to be doing a lot of things that really they should already have?

Right.

Third, I want to make sure they're financially solvent because I don't want to end up in a situation where a committee or a board suddenly in the middle of it just goes defunct because that kind of that kind of addresses the whole board and aspect of it.

Right.

And then last but not least, I got to set my terms.

I am very honest when I come into something and says I will not be able to go to every committee meeting.

There are probably things that I will not be able to do.

If you accept that, then I'm willing to go ahead and be part of it.

If you can't, I want to make sure that this spot is open for another woman who has the time to dedicate.

When I say the phrase successful Latina leader, what are the characteristics that come to mind?

You have to have stamina.

Latinas haven't proved themselves yet.

We're still in the middle of proving that we should be at the table.

So I think I have to have the stamina.

If you're walking into a system that is pretty strong in their history of only one way of thinking, you have to have that stamina to get in there to basically, you know, be professional, do the things you need to do to get that organization move forward so they can see sometimes you're the only one there.

They have to see that this is what Latina executives, what Latinas bring to the table.

Second, I also think you have to make make sure you don't change who you are at all.

If someone approaches you about being on a board or being a volunteer or being a leader in general, if someone approaches you or you're given an opportunity, that means they already saw something in you.

Don't second guess that.

Run with it and don't change anything about you.

And then the last thing is, I think you have to make sure that you.

I hate to say this, but I think you almost have to make sure you're not going to be taking down Latinas left and right that you think are competition because you cannot do that.

You know, the site is looking for that one thing to prove that you shouldn't be there, you know, and even harsher, I think, when they look at us.

And so you can't you have to form operative relationships with people.

Where you are a big help and help in leading women to create their own tables by setting an example.

So.

Oh, thank you so much, Erica.

We appreciate your time.

We appreciate your leadership and being with this on salute.

I appreciate you having me.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Connie.

As you have grown in your communications career, have you felt that there is such a thing as a stupid question?

Absolutely not.

Especially in today's day and age, the tick tock acronyms that we're faced with, there's not a stupid question.

If the art of communication is the language of leadership, then our next guest is definitely fluent as the chief strategy officer of Brooks, Connie Gonzales sees the strategic direction of this jewel of San Antonio, South Side.

She also leads government relations, business development, marketing and public relations as well as overseas.

Brooks gives back a5a 23 nonprofit organization, and we're so happy to have her here with us today on Sell.

Welcome, Connie.

Thank you for having me.

So let's begin by you telling us a little bit about yourself.

I grew up in Chicago, the big city of Chicago, but mom moved myself and my sister down from Chicago when I was just four years old to San Antonio.

And so I grew.

Up.

With a single mother.

My upbringing here in San Antonio, we bounced around a lot.

I think I went to six different elementary schools, which is quite a bit.

And I remember asking Mom when I was getting to fifth grade and we just moved to Northside Independent School District at Carson Elementary, and we were going to have to move again.

No, ma'am, I I'm surrounded by students that have had their friends in pre-K and kindergarten.

And so she was very intentional in making sure that, yes, even though we had to pick up and move maybe a couple more times and that I was still surrounded by a lot of my same friends.

And so, yes, I went to Communication Arts High School.

I learned a lot about broadcasting.

I learned a lot about the technology editing, all of that fun stuff.

And my senior year, I was part of the video announcements that we did once a week.

I had my nice little walk through.

I put on sunglasses in the hallway and I was the anchor in high school.

And so fast forward, I went to Texas State still for mass communication.

Right before I started my career, I had another internship.

I was fortunate to have several internships.

W I k sat.

And then right when I graduated school, my sister was was about to have her wedding.

And so I postponed applying for a little bit, got another internship at Spurs, Sports and Entertainment.

Had that yearlong internship, pursued my news career in a couple of small markets good ole San Angelo West, Texas and was there for a couple of years and moved to Fayetteville, Arkansas.

Another one, Connie Gonzales, living in Arkansas.

Yeah, very different.

Family is very important to you and a priority to you as well as your connection to the people in your life is very strong.

And so let's talk about the people that in your life today.

So there's a book that I read from a local author called Cilantro Diaries, and he mentions a personal board of directors.

And so that's what I consider my family, my close friends, the people that have helped me and been with me, the people that are not going to tell me what I want to hear, the people that are going to tell me the truth and the people that make me better.

Of course, beginning with my mother and my sister.

And then in addition to the mentors I mentioned, DiLeo Gomes, our current president and CEO here at Brooks.

A couple of things that I've taken I've learned from him.

Good leaders are always recruiting.

That's something that I've learned.

And just noticing little attributes like passion, customer service, that's something that everyone really needs.

You can teach technical skills, but I don't think you can really teach passion.

And so and so that's one thing.

Another great mentor of mine growing up, Darlene Dorsey, who now is at CPS Energy.

She was one of my very first mentors.

Darlene was able to help me.

She took the time.

She was super patient with me and she made sure that as I was tagging along with her, she's like, Okay, we're going to ask the photographer to shoot a couple reels for you.

And so here I am, a college student, and she's she's criticizing or critiquing me, excuse me, and taking the time to be able to formulate my very first real my real is important.

You know that in that example, I was able to get a phone call from San Angelo, and so I was able to get my very first job because of the time that someone like Darlene took with me.

Thanks to a lot of that mentorship right then.

One of your mentors, Leo, was able to bring you back in.

You started as a one person team and now you have.

How big is your team today?

Including myself.

We're now a team of six, and I think that's the greatest compliment when you're able to add a members of your team and not only my boss, Leo Gomez, but and we answer to a board of directors.

And so for them to be able to see all that we've been able to accomplish specifically within the department that I'm fortunate to lead now, everything that we're doing, the development, adding jobs, adding amenities, adding quality developments that this south, this the southeast side has deserved for quite some time.

It's impacting in the community.

So when you hear the phrase successful Latino leaders, what are other qualities that immediately come to mind?

I think we as Latinos and we as a woman, I think, have to be really aware of our brand.

How were you presenting yourself?

Who are you when you're when you're coming into the room and also ask the questions and recognize that you're always a student first.

You're always learning, if you will.

And so be willing to ask those, quote unquote, stupid questions every so often and being able to have the confidence.

Yeah.

So you mentioned sometimes you're the youngest person in the room.

There's people watching that are younger than you, aspiring leaders.

What advice do you give them, Connie.

If you're a young leader, being willing to ask by by someone, a cup of coffee and have that sit down with them and pick their brain, learn about their path, you might want to take their path or you might learn like, oh, I was going to take that path.

But maybe not.

That's not the right one for me.

But you'll never know unless you you meet people and you ask those questions.

And as intimidating as it may be, being able to at such a young age, ask and network and pick those professionals brains, I think is the most important part.

And that is beautiful.

You're all of your answers and all the questions I asked you reflected back to a story of people that you are surrounding yourself with, and I think that it says a lot to your leadership.

So thank you for your time.

Absolutely.

And thank you.

So where do you rehearse?

We have our.

Dance studio here on campus of the cultural center, but we're extremely blessed to have our own theater.

And there's nothing like being in the theater.

It's such a magical, beautiful space.

Our next guest teaches and keeps nuestra cultura , our culture alive in people, their family, our community through dance at one of San Antonio's most iconic community centers, the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center.

Please welcome Jeanette Chavis, the director of Dance at the Guadalupe Dance Company.

Welcome, Jeanette.

Hi.

Thank you so much for having me.

So, Jeanette, you've been dancing since you were three years old.

But what led you to the Guadalupe Center?

I was dancing with the City Parks and Recreation, doing all the other kinds of dance that there is.

And then it was time for a change.

And there was this new dance company starting in town in 1981.

And some friends of mine were dancing here and said, Hey, you know, come check it out.

And I said, okay.

I didn't really do folklorico too much at that point, but I checked it out.

We were dancing.

The dance company was rehearsing at the Institute of the Musical at that time.

So I went.

I fell in love with every single thing about the Guadalupe and, you know, had some discoveries after that about my own culture and my own path and and discovering, you know, rediscovering my ancestry and my history.

I can definitely relate to discovering your heritage in your culture.

So give me an example of a moment where you realized this is exactly the path you were on.

There's several layers to that.

First, it was again that I just loved dance.

So the professionalism of the dance company, the whole there were so many dancers in the company at that point.

Being able to rehearse and perform in a huge theater.

Our first performance was at the Lila Cockrell Theater.

So that was that was a discovery artistically, right?

That was amazing.

And to be part of that was a dream come true.

But then culturally, I remember her.

We had our first director and that, and then Belinda Menchaca came in as director of the dance company in 1992.

And it wasn't until Belinda came in that I started to realize the connection with the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center, which up to that point I didn't even know existed.

And so she brought then executive director Pedro Rodriguez to speak to the dance company.

Because we were separated, right?

Because we were rehearsing at the Instituto, which was downtown.

And the other deep cultural arts center is here in the west side of San Antonio.

So not that far.

But if you don't know, you don't know.

So when he came to speak to us, he was talking about the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center and the impact and the importance for our culture.

And was like, what's good about here is Mexican-Americans in San Antonio.

And it opened up this whole new world, like there's a place for me, you know?

So that was kind of the impetus for me to discover who I am as a Mexican-American.

I've also heard the phrase You, a teacher, learns through teaching.

So what lessons have you learned through being collaborative, leading collaboratively with your team, through creating these dances.

Empowering our students to feel great about where they're at?

Is important, important in their growth, important in their training.

And, you know, that is also conveyed through our performances, you know, to audiences.

So, yeah, we always talk about giving a space to artists to really to really shine, you know, literally on stage, but also to feel fulfilled.

Jeanette What have been some of the challenges you've had as a dance instructor or director.

Being part of the one little bit cultural arts center?

Right It's a nonprofit cultural arts center.

There have been many ups and downs and not knowing sometimes where funding is going to come in, where it's going to come through.

I mean, pandemic affected the entire world.

And for nonprofit, for arts organizations, that was a huge challenge.

So knowing not knowing.

Right.

What what's in store?

Is there a tomorrow we're still going to have the doors open.

Is that going to be possible, having that community and having having each other, you know, to continue to come in and to continue to do the work, but also knowing the responsibly that we have to our community, to our dancers, to our students, especially during the pandemic, like having that regular, we had to do dance on Zoom.

Like never in my life did we ever think that that was a possibility.

How are you going to learn?

You know, but we did.

You have mentioned instructors.

She's mentioned Belinda.

You yourself are a Latina leader.

What characteristics come to mind when you think about this group, a strong Latino with.

A can do attitude, you know, like they just overcome and persevere.

They're strong.

They're courageous, they're inspiring, you know?

Is there any advice that you ever received that you did not take or lean into?

Yes.

So, you know, the normal thing for any child, right.

Family members, adults always ask, what are you going to be when you grow up?

And my answer was always, I'm going to be a dancer.

Always.

So once in a while they would say, But no, you need a real job to make money.

And I would just look at them like that was the most bizarre answer that they could give me, and I want to be a dancer.

So, yeah, follow your dream for sure.

Well, we're so glad that you did follow your dream, Jeanette, and that you continue to teach families and again, generations to come about the culture and San Antonio's West Side.

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

Thank you.

Thank you so much for having me.

Inspiring, right?

Erika Prosper Nierenberg, Connie Gonzalez and Jeanette Chavez all leading in San Antonio in their own way.

I hope you got some good advice and motivation from our guest.

Thanks for being here with us and make sure to join us next time on Salud Nos vemos