Latinx Heritage Month

When I was growing up, the "American dream" for my parents was owning a house in a peaceful neighborhood with a great school district and owning their own business. When I was in college, my father bought an ice cream shop and my entrepreneurial journey began. My parents came from Mexico, and I grew up in the South West Side of Chicago, a Mexican neighborhood called La Villita (Little Village). The neighborhood businesses, from pan dulce bakeries to wedding dress shops to jewelers, were all Mexican-owned. Those business owners were role models for me; their stores have been there for over 50 years and continue to contribute to the U.S. economy in great numbers. 

Today, my team of mostly Mexican-American women is working from all over the U.S., providing a digital marketing service to a diverse group of business owners across the country. In our local community, I am still one of a handful of Latinx business owners. Most of us have gone back to our communities or have found new ones where we can support their businesses and share our experiences with them. We are proud of our heritage and our business success and look forward to continuing to grow in this space.

For those who would love to learn more about the Latinx experience here in this country, I highly recommend these books: I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika Sanchez (we went to the same high school!!); Esperanza Rising, a young adult novel by Pam Muñoz Ryan; The Book of Unknown Americans by Cristina Henriquez; and American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins.