By Laura Arrubla, Senior Account Executive
People are usually shocked when they first hear that I was born in Colombia and immigrated to the United States. I have no discernible accent, likely because I learned to speak English in an area that heavily lacked diversity.
“The main theme of my childhood was a driving need to fit in. It was simply the easiest way to avoid drawing negative attention to myself.”
The Latinx community is scarcely represented in pop culture despite encompassing a huge part of the general populous. That was my experience in the early 2000s. This was a time before Modern Family’s Sofia Vergara made the Hispanic accent a sultry accessory, before Shakira became a world-recognized artist and before my home country was seen as anything other than the land of Pablo Escobar. Most importantly, this was a time when immigrants were generalized to be illegal immigrants.
My parents and I moved to New York when I was six years old. Leaving behind our home and our very large extended family, we arrived in a particularly frosty month of March in 2002 to a small, apple-farming town in the Hudson Valley.
After three months of living in a motel without access to school, I was finally allowed to start first grade. We had just moved into a small apartment complex in New Paltz, New York. And so I faced for the first time a reality I would come to relive often over the course of the next two decades: finding myself to be the only immigrant Hispanic person in a room.
“I felt alienated and was surrounded by people who could not understand me.”
In my experience as an immigrant, you walk a thin line between embracing the culture you’re immersed in day in and day out and holding on to the traditions that tie you to your roots. I was old enough to have vivid memories of my life in Colombia; I missed our family’s Christmas novenas, my grandmother’s laughter and long weekends spent at my family’s finca.
In the US, our lives were uprooted and incredibly different. Unfamiliar to the customs that surrounded us and lacking a connection to other parents, play-dates, sleepovers and extracurriculars in our family were non-existent and non-negotiable. The immigration process was rigorous and complex.
“We couldn’t afford to make mistakes US-born Americans made.”
According to Pew Research Center, Hispanics account for almost half of the current U.S. population. Yet their stories are largely missing from our films and TV shows. These stories are unique and filled with adversity, yet over the last two decades the narratives portrayed of not only my culture but also other Latinx cultures solely focus on drugs, poverty and crime.
As a child, Jennifer Lopez and Salma Hayek were the only Latina women I saw on the big screen. I remember Spanglish as the first movie that semi-spoke to the struggles I was living and Maid In Manhattan as the first rom-com that felt like it was truly speaking to me. In both of these films, Latinas were the help, the maids.
In the past year, the conversation around representation, not only of the Latinx community but of other races, religions and cultures have started to bubble to the surface. Earlier this year, it was reported by ESPN’s The Jump, that Beyonce, a well-known advocate of inclusivity, had walked out of a business pitch due to the lack of diversity in the room. While this story has not been confirmed, it served as a catalyst, bringing to the forefront of media attention what people of color have been asking for decades: a seat at the table and representation across all industries.
How can we expect to correctly speak to or about people of color if they aren’t present in the room? More and more in the public relations industry we are hearing from clients that diversity is a key consideration when bringing on an agency. Moreover, potential recruits are choosing where they want to work based on the representation and culture a workplace has to offer.
When taking into consideration the current social shifts, it’s important to remember that this representation of other cultures and perspectives and fluid discussion of it should be a key component in everyday life.
“Key moments, like Hispanic Heritage Month, are a great way to start the conversation, but should not be the only moments in which we stop to think about these perspectives.”
With major media institutions like The New York Times paying attention and speaking directly to these diverse groups, (they recently launched a column, El Espace, dedicated to the Latinx community), it’s important to understand not only the vastly different groups that makes up Latinx community, but the changing face of what being an American is today.
