5 key learnings from Somos Heritage Month

The Somos Miro ERG had ambitious plans for this year’s Hispanic Heritage Month — and it’s no overestimation to say they totally knocked it out of the park. Read on to hear some of the key takeaways from this month of celebration and community.

1. “As you climb, help others rise”

“I left Brazil 6 years ago and it is wonderful to learn about new cultures and visit new places,” says Paula Vitti, Miro’s Accounts Payable Controller. “But the “Saudades” always hit, and communities like SOMOS are what help me with it. It gives comfort having around people with whom we can relate to. Saying it short the answer is in the question itself already, it really feels like a “Community” and that is exactly what I was looking for.”

Sporting the theme “Unidos” (“united” in English), this year’s Somos Heritage Month at Miro centered strongly on community and relationship-building. The company-wide Somos Heritage Month Miro board featured a call-to-action to donate to 4 organizations, with Miro promising to match donations 100% up to $2k per employee per fiscal year. All month, donations poured into UnidosUS, the largest national Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization in the United States; Black Jaguar Foundation, an eco-initiative focused on planting native trees on a massive scale to help realize the Araguaia Biodiversity Corridor in Brazil; GreenLatinos, a community of Latino/a/x leaders fighting for environmental and social justice; and Laboratoria, a Peruvian-based organization dedicated to transforming the lives of thousands of women in Latin America through careers in technology.

Tricia Montalvo Timm, Board Member of Investor General Counsel and author, and Tammy Ramos, JD, Senior Executive Consultant, said it best in a moderated conversation that kicked off the month of festivities: “As you climb, help others rise.” A global community — and a company — only succeed when everyone succeeds.

2. “Real relationships free us”

As one Mironeer in a Somos Heritage Month workshop so astutely put it, “Real relationships are the way we free ourselves.” Through connecting authentically and supporting one another in acknowledging our privileges, oppressions, and experiences, we can co-create a better future — not just for work, but also for our communities and our selves.

In that spirit, Somos Miro offered ample opportunities for Mironeers to come closer together, even from different time zones and countries. Hub-centered activities took place throughout the month, both virtually and in-person. For the US hubs, a Zoom cooking class facilitated by Leslie Loredo and her mom brought the art of chilaquiles into Mironeer kitchens; in Amsterdam, Mironeers mastered salsa dancing with the help of salsa experts Bailemos Amsterdam. A community dinner in the LA and Austin hubs rounded out the month with cheer, good food, and celebrating the strengthening of relationships that flourished under Somos’ expert organizing.

3. “Our uniqueness matters”

“Somos Miro is so important to me because I left Latin America already 12 years ago,” says Agustin Arroyo, Miro’s International Payroll Lead. “Since then it was sometimes difficult to fully adapt to foreign cultures and I only started feeling at home when I moved to Amsterdam 10 years ago. Even then after many years working in the Netherlands, I never felt I needed to reconnect with my culture until I started at Miro and my manager mentioned Somos Miro. Right away it felt like that was the missing piece I did not even know was missing and it became very clear to me how important it is for companies to foster diversity and an inclusive workplace.”

When a company spans across the globe, with 12 different hubs in 8 different countries across multiple time zones, connecting with one another authentically can present its fair share of challenges. This Hispanic Heritage Month, the Somos ERG did a beautiful job of creating opportunities for Somos Mironeers to share more about who they really are, beyond work.

Via company-wide Slack channels, Somos members wrote “Get to know us” posts that included answers to questions their coworkers might not know otherwise. Whether interviewees grew up in East LA, Venezuela, Brazil, El Salvador, Mexico, or Colombia, family and community played a big role in each answer. In his post, Gabriel Huerta wrote, “I wish more people were empathetic to the experiences our immigrant families experience and especially the experiences of the women who helped raise us in the LatinX/Hispanic communities. Shout out to all the madres, comadres and tías out there holding it down every day!”

Another popular theme was the importance of representation. As Veronica Murillo said in her own post, “I look around and it’s not lost on me that I am often the only woman in a room and/or the only person of color in a room. I really hope to help change that.”

The impact of these posts resonated throughout the month. In threads attached to each post, fellow Latino/e Mironeers living in Europe expressed homesickness and connected with fellow self-identified community members. Meanwhile, others joined Somos Miro for the first time and left their first meetings “feeling really happy because it showed me that we have a Latino community in Miro.” The Spotlight series helped drive home the point that being supported in bringing your authentic, true self to work builds a stronger community and a better place to work.

4. “Successful DEI work is about action”

Part of Hispanic Heritage Month’s speaker series included a workshop on allyship in the workplace, facilitated by Somos and led by mike knox, founder of Mattering Lab. During this hour-long virtual workshop, both Latino/x and non-Latino/x Mironeers were asked to reflect on privilege as they dove into questioning the nature of privilege, what it means to have privileges, and their “why’s” for engaging in diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) work.

“Successful DEI work is not about aspirations,” mike emphasized during the workshop. “It is about action, and what we do, and do not, tolerate.” These kinds of ongoing conversations aren’t just timely, but crucial, in revolutionizing the ways in which we work, live, and engage with one another as a global community, both at Miro and beyond.

5. “Embrace the power of you”

In the facilitated conversation between Tricia Montalvo Timm and Tammy Ramos, JD, Tricia introduced her forthcoming book, Embrace the Power of You: Owning Your Identity at Work with statistics that surprised attendees. Data shows that Latinas hold less than 1% of Corporate Boards and Executive roles; that Latinas only earn 57 cents to every $1 earned by white men; and only 1% of all elected and appointed officials in the U.S. are Latino.

At the same time, however, Latinos, for example, are the fastest growing demographic in the workforce, and that Latino purchasing power is increasing from $1.9 trillion to $2.5 trillion by 2024. By 2060, Latinas will represent 1 in 3 women in the United States.

“Latinos don’t know their own power,” concluded Tricia, a sentiment that was echoed by Somos Mironeers and allies throughout the month of festivities.

Let’s leave the last word to one such Somos Mironeer, Diana Corredor, who shared her experience as part of the Slack Spotlight series: “I now live 8,839 km away from my birthplace; there are countless things that I miss about my country, but what I miss the most will forever be the deep, warm, and passionate sense of community our heritage has. And that’s precisely what I have found here! The Somos ERG has been a very welcoming space, a place where I can find people who, like me, have made the brave choice to explore somewhere new without losing what makes us who we are. I have found inspirational Latinos that understand the struggles we’ve faced and are ready to uplift and support each other. Not only that but the impact of creating and supporting a community of Latin professionals in the digital space is of immense value for our community, our business, and DEI as a whole.”