What the Hispanic Heritage Month now means to me
Celebrating my first Hispanic Heritage Month after I moved to the Bay Area has held an impactful meaning to me. Reading all the stories from colleagues, friends, and other Latinas/Latinos on how they have addressed diverse adversities and made an impact in their communities has brought a new sense of empowerment and proudness of how far we have gone and commitment to collaborate on closing the gaps on what is left to be done.
That’s why I felt important to celebrate the people behind my story that contributed to help me get here. Maybe someone would feel related to my story or find some inspiration on what Latinas/Latinos can achieve and continue celebrating the impact that we do not only bring to our community but to the world.
So, let’s celebrate!
Where we come from…
I grew up in Puebla, the fourth biggest city in Mexico. Surrounded by a set of mountains and being a proud producer of one of the most traditional and delicious Mexican food, the city gives you the feeling of living in a small town full of traditions and family values. It is not rare to see a complete family generation reunited on a Sunday morning to go to church and share lunch after that. In the end, the family is one of the core values of Puebla.
That’s why it was not surprising for me to grow up with stories about my family and how they fought adversities to let us live the life that we have today. My grandmother, coming from a pauper town in Tlaxcala with limited access to education dreamed of giving her family a better future. At a young age, she felt brave enough to get out of her town and build a better future for her parents, brothers, and the family she created along with my grandfather. Thanks to her hard work and sacrifice, my father was able to pursue a professional career and became the first one to obtain a Bachelor's degree.
My grandmother’s story resonated with my father and my family, and it made it possible that I didn’t find any limitations on the reach of my dreams. My parents created also an inclusive environment for my brother and I, where we always got the same benefits and got access to the same things. This helped us become the first people in our family to obtain a Master’s degree, travel around the world, and study/live abroad.
Thanks to the hard work and support of my parents, I have the opportunity to be here today. Thanks to my family, I have learned that the only limitations we have are the scope of our dreams.
Who helped us find our passion…
The day I knew I wanted a pursue a career in Engineering came close by to having to move to college. It was traditional for high schools to suggest women careers more oriented to either artistic and business areas if you showed any sign of interest in mathematics or design. I was one of the lucky ones having early access to STEM thanks to my brother. Being a Computer Systems engineer himself, he demonstrated to me that you can have both worlds in one. That you can find a career that can be a match to your passions, and that’s where I knew I wanted to be a Computer Systems Engineer.
The day I knew I wanted to be a successful woman in STEM was when I met my thesis advisor at the University, a female Mexican researcher working in the CNRS Research Centre in Grenoble, France. She showed me that you can be a successful woman in your domain and that there are no limits on where you can work. She pushed me out of my comfort zone and saw the potential I couldn’t see in myself. She helped me discover the domain in Computer Science that would constitute my happy place: data and knowledge representation. She coached me to do what I love the most, expose our pieces of work to different audiences.
Thanks to her, I had my first contact with research, publishing articles. Since then I have been able to participate in diverse conferences around the world. She has been a great example for me and is one of the Mexican women that I admire the most.
Where we accomplished our goals…
I have found mentors from all the people I met in my life. In the end, every person we interact with help us shape our mind. From family, teachers, colleagues, teammates, and bosses; I have learned from all of them and all have helped me get to the place where I am today.
With my thesis advisor’s guide, I pursued a Master's Degree and found a passion for research and presenting at conferences around the world.
With the additional drive brought up by those managers who thought I wouldn’t achieve anything outside Puebla, I moved to Guadalajara and work on these beautiful graph technologies.
With the support of my teammates and bosses at Oracle MDC, I have grown as a professional and have figured out my path as a manager.
With the guide and inspiration from the architect of my team, I found the motivation to aim for something bigger and bring quality work in my day to day.
With the support and trust of my boss at LinkedIn, I landed my dream job in the US and I am growing as a manager.
With the support of my teammates at LinkedIn, I am learning from the best and making an impact in my community.
With the support, help, and inspiration of my friends, I found joy and inspiration from their success.
The adversities that made us stronger…
Spoiler alert… it’s never an easy road.
When I walked into College, during my first class of what would be the starter as a Computer Systems Engineer, there were only three women. There were less than 10% women in my career, less than 5% obtained a degree, and a fewer subset is still working in the Computer Science fields. The reality is that we haven’t completely removed the stigmas that STEM is not gender-based and if you have the passion you can do it.
When I walked to my first day at the MDC in Mexico, I found myself as the only woman in my team. It’s a reality that I didn’t have the trust and respect from my peers since day one. But I was lucky enough to have a boss and a Technical Lead that believed in me since day one. They give me freedom and guidance to work hard and demonstrate what I was capable of.
The graph team was composed of only three Mexicans when I joined. The MDC was young and there was still some sense of uncertainty on the achievements we could do while working on the core pieces of the database. When I left my team, there were more than 12 Mexican engineers building the next generation of Graph Technologies. I hope I contributed to open the path to my fellow women and Mexican peers and teammates. When I left, I saw a more diverse environment in the center, however, the distribution still shows there is quite some work left to do.
When I joined LinkedIn, I was happy to see a more diverse group for the Data Infra team. While it is still not an equally distributed environment, it has demonstrated to me that equity can be an achievable goal. I am grateful to be surrounded by many talented women and men, all coming from different countries and sharing different cultures and personalities.
Gaining the trust and respect from peers will always require time and hard work. But the reality is that this process becomes easier if all the gender, nationality, and cultural bias are removed from the picture.
So, has it been a difficult road so far? Yes, it has.
Has it been rewarding? It definitely has, every day.
Who we are…
The master piece.
All the good and the bad moments shape who we are. From our roots to all the people we came across on, we have a daily impact on each other.
I am currently a manager on the Graph Infra team at LinkedIn. I manage a team of talented, multicultural engineers. I am an amateur painter and designer on my spare time, finding beauty everywhere I go. I am globe throtter.
I am where I am because of myself. Because I know I can achieve anything I want. Because I have the strength of going through adversities. Because I believe in myself.
Celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month now means to me celebrating all the people and experiences that highlight the awesomeness of being Latinos/Latinas.
There is still a long path to go, but now more than ever I am proud of where I come from.
Special thanks to Genoveva-Vargas Solar, Jose Luis Zechinelli-Martini, Jayanta Banerjee, Zhe Wu, Steve Serra, and Bogdan Arsintescu. Thank you for believing in me and helping me grow as a professional and human being.