Chime Celebrates: Latinx Heritage Month

In celebration of Latinx Heritage Month, we wanted to get to know a few Latinx Chimers better and share their heritage, traditions, and, of course — their favorite Latinx foods! Read on to hear their stories.

Buenos días, un gusto conocerte! (Hi, nice to meet you!) 👋

Janice Vela is a Chime Law Enforcement and Government Response Specialist. She joined the Chime team in Chicago in 2020 after seeing our partnership with the Dallas Mavericks — she’s a huge fan! Both of her parents are from Mexico, and she was born and raised in Texas.

Alex Diaz is a Senior Compliance Associate for our Enterprise Risk Management Team. He’s been a Chimer for over 2 years and has seen the Compliance team grow from 2 members to over 30! Originally from a suburb of Los Angeles, Alex’s parents were both born in Cuba and moved to the U.S. as kids.

Nat Marte is a Program Manager on our Credit Product Team, where she manages the go-to-market launches for all of Chime’s credit products. She joined Chime 6 months ago. Both of her parents are from the Dominican Republic, and she was born in the U.S. and raised in Massachusetts.

What our Latinx heritage means to us

Heritage can mean a lot of different things to a lot of people. “To me, something that always distinguished my experience — and is a big part of my Latinx heritage — is the Spanish language,” explains Alex. He learned Spanish before English and relied on it to communicate with much of his extended family. For Janice, Spanish helps her connect with coworkers and fellow members of Chimigos, the Chimer Resource Group for the Latinx community. “For those of us who speak Spanish, it’s a shared thread that connects us,” she says. Language is also a part of Nat’s heritage — in the town where she grew up, the convenience store clerks, or ‘bodegueros,’ as she knows them, only spoke Spanish: “Much of our community spoke in Spanish and it really created a connection to the Dominican Republic from afar,” she says.

“Part of why I retained my grasp on Spanish so well had a lot to do with how close I was with my grandparents,” says Alex. Closeness to family and spending time with extended relatives are a big part of Latinx culture and heritage: “For me, the presence of our extended families is something I share with many fellow Latinxers,” Alex says. “We have close relationships across generations and it helps keep our culture rich.” Janice stayed close to her family through regular visits to Mexico — something she misses a lot nowadays. “Going to see my family almost every other weekend as a kid helped me really understand my heritage and get to know my roots,” she says.

For Nat, closeness to family continues today — even though she lives in Seattle and her parents are in Massachusetts. “I talk to my folks every day,” she says. “I love laughing with them and hearing the mundane details of their routines. A big part of our family is how loud we are, how fast we speak, and how we cut off the second half of every word — I get to keep in touch with that part of my heritage by connecting with my parents daily.”

Besides language and family, music is another huge part of Latinx heritage for Nat. “My mom would clean our house every Sunday with a playlist of bachata, salsa, and merengue music blasting,” says Nat. “Those songs are quintessentially part of our culture and remind me of our heritage and, of course, watching my mom dance around the house.”

Last but not least: food! It’s of the most enjoyed and celebrated parts of Latinx heritage by all, and Alex, Janice, and Nat agree that food is part of their Latinx foundations. “I keep my pantry stocked with what’s needed to make my favorite Cuban dishes,” says Alex. That includes cooking wine, good olive oils, onions, garlic, peppers, oregano, and cumin — the bases of many Cuban meals. Nat also keeps ingredients at the ready and often receives sachets of seasoning in the mail from her mom. “When my parents came to visit me in Seattle, I mentioned that I hadn’t been able to find plantains anywhere,” Nat says. “Within a few minutes in Whole Foods, my dad returned with a whole bunch of them — we joke that he’s able to sniff them out anywhere! At least now I can make traditional fried plantains whenever I want to.”

Their favorite dishes

Nat: Pernil, a roasted pork shoulder, served with black beans cooked in rice

Alex: Quimbombo, a Cuban-style okra dish similar to gumbo

Janice: The rice her mom cooks, which is practically impossible to replicate — and her mole!

The best traditions

Part of any culture’s heritage is its traditions, and, for the Latinx community, there are many. Janice’s favorite holiday is Christmas Eve, or Nochebuena, as they call it in Mexico. “It doesn’t matter where we are, we always find a way to make the all-night celebration special,” she says. Even a few years ago, when her grandfather passed away on Nochebuena, the whole family bonded even more in his memory.

Nat’s favorite traditions might seem unexpected: “I love funerals in the Dominican community,” Nat explains. “Dying isn’t seen as a somber event for our community — yes, we have a service and bury our dead, but then we hold a celebration of life where we mourn, remember, and celebrate the person,” she adds. For Nat, this celebration is deeply comforting. “It’s even beautiful over Zoom,” she says. Her family held seven days of prayer and remembrance over video chat during the pandemic when one of her aunts passed away. “We all still gathered, celebrated, remembered, and laughed together — even virtually, it brought us comfort.”

Being Latinx at Chime

For Alex, Janice, and Nat, being Latinx is more than heritage and traditions, it’s also their every day. “I’m proud to bring my Hispanic identity to work with me and I believe it gives me a valuable lens through which to see my work,” says Janice. She’s also been able to put her Latinx background to work, partnering with a Spanish-speaking vendor and owning an entire project with them. “I used my ability to speak Spanish to improve the outcomes of the partnership and the relationship with the vendor because it created comfort and ease of communication,” she says.

For Nat, who works on launches for all Chime credit products, it’s the idea of helping people in her own community and others get access to secured credit cards that gives meaning to her work and encourages her to embrace her cultural identity at work. “When I was growing up, the mentality was to work, pay the bills, and use any leftover money ‘pa la casa’ — for the house — but now I work on products that provide people the liquidity they need to get their first home loans, car notes, and more. Helping people do those things every day is deeply rewarding,” she says. “I can’t help but think that we would have benefitted from these kinds of products when I was growing up.”

And for Alex, whose parents and grandparents always encouraged him to do better financially, it means a lot to enable people to make good financial decisions and reach their goals. “I feel fortunate because my family blazed the trail for me by saving enough to send me to college,” he says. “To be helping others build a solid ground to stand on in order to achieve higher financial goals — that’s why I work at Chime.”

We’re so grateful to these three Chimers for sharing their stories, recipes, and heritage with us. We believe that every Chimer brings an important perspective, valuable experiences, and meaningful contributions to our team and company thanks to their individual and combined heritage. Stay tuned for more Latinx celebrations this month and to get to know other cultures at Chime soon!