The question about finding allies wasn’t lost on the four panelists representing various Latin American countries during a Hispanic Heritage Month event last Friday night at a certain mega mall in Bergen County.
“This is the perfect example, right here: We are in the American Dream Mall,” Capt. Lori Perez of the New York City Police Department, said. “Think about that: The American Dream is what brought us here. Now, we are in the American Dream mall celebrating Hispanic heritage.
“Who would have thought such a thing would (be possible) even a few years ago?”
The second annual event brought food, music and culture to the mall – and a conversation led by Carlos Medina, the CEO of the Statewide Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. It included Lilia Rios, co-founder of La Providencia, a company dedicated to the preservation of the Mexican culture and its traditions since 2005, Franklin Rosario, the general manager of the Yard House restaurant location at the mall – and a personal chef for Cardi B, and Perez, who also is the head of the Bronx office of the National Latino Peace Officer Association.
It was an honest discussion on how Hispanic heritage can play – and is playing – an influential and impactful role in New Jersey and across the country. And how Hispanics should celebrate the fact that they not only stand on their own but are an essential and intricate part of society in the U.S. and, more importantly, the economy.
Medina quoted from a recent study that showed the Hispanic GDP in the United States is more than $3.5 trillion – and that if Hispanics in the U.S. were a sovereign entity, it would be fifth-largest country economically in the world.
In New Jersey alone, the GDP is $100 billion annually.
“We keep this country moving, don’t forget that,” Rios told the enthusiastic crowd of 100 or so that had gathered around the state – plus dozens more listening from the concourses.
“There’s a misconception that we’re stealing jobs. We’re not.
“What we are doing is educating ourselves and we’re educating the second and third generation to become better than us the first generation.”
That education comes with a commitment to culture – a culture that helps bring together the approximately two dozen countries that make of the Hispanic community worldwide.
Keeping that culture alive is key, all the panelists said.
Perez said she takes it to her police work – and that her common life experience with so many that she serves helps her do her job better.
Rosario said he leads by example – showing the more than 100 people he oversees that a Dominican can be in charge of a major establishment.
Rosario also said keeping the culture alive falls on everyone – and proudly told the audience how he sees Cardi B keep it alive by ensuring that her children are bilingual.
Rios does it through her work, too. In fact, it’s the essence of her work. She moved the U.S. two decades ago to start La Providencia, which now sells authentic Mexican goods in approximately two dozen states.
The goal, she said, was to keep the spirit and culture of Mexico alive in those who came here – and more, for those who were born here.
“What we’ve been doing for 20 years is bringing items (to the U.S.) that allow us to continue celebrating Mexican traditions,” she said. “When we do that, we make sure that the second and third generation of Latinos born in the U.S. can still take pride in being Mexican Americans – and that they feel pride and learn to love and respect a country that many of them have never been to.
“We take pride in saying that we honor both countries and we represent the best of both worlds.”
The panelists said so much of that work already is being done. Latin food, music and entertainment have become staples of this country.
The convergence of cultures, however, is far from complete. There needs to be a push to bring more equity in the workplace, they said.
Medina pointed out that Hispanics make up nearly a quarter of the population in New Jersey but have far less representation than that in the top levels of business, government and the entertainment world.
“We have to be a number that matches our number of the population,” he said. “We bring value, economically and cultural significance.
“Diversity should be celebrated. We should not be told that we’re a drag on the economy when we’re the opposite, we’re the ones pushing this economy forward.”
Which all goes back to allies. The panelists said the Hispanic community needs to do more to interact with the mainstream community.
More importantly, it needs to do more to come together. Only by uniting all of the Hispanic community can they take full advantage of their impact, they said.
“It’s really important to acknowledge that right now, we’re not just Mexicans and Dominicans and Puerto Ricans,” Rios said. “We’re one big community that is making a loud noise out there.”
A community that’s finding out how much power it does have, she said.
A community that needs to do more to lift each other, Perez said. It starts, she said, at events such as the one at American Dream last Friday night, where the Hispanic community can amplify its voices, she said.
It continues in day-to-day life.
“Each one needs to turn around and give a hand up to that next person,” she said.
“Somebody had to crawl for us to walk, and we need to do the same thing for the next generation.”
