CRG Year in Review: Chimigos
During LatinX Heritage Month — September — Chimigos, the Chimer Resource Group (CRG) dedicated to supporting the LatinX community at Chime, hosted a series of events to educate fellow Chimers on their cultural heritage, connect LatinX Chimers together, and give a voice to all Chimigos members. “It was a week-long celebration featuring Mexican Loteria, trivia, a lunch and learn, and a snack box featuring local LatinX businesses,” says Jessica Lara, a Chimigos group co-lead.
The group led other activities in 2020, including presentations during Voter Education Month and a Dia de los Muertos special, which featured a presentation on the history of the day, a papel picado workshop, and a view and review of a Mexican Netflix documentary.
Chimigos was started to build a community between LatinX Chimers and educate other Chimers about the LatinX experience in order to foster a more inclusive workplace and develop a better product.
The importance of sharing culture
Jessica believes that the value Chimigos provides to Chime is sharing culture. “It’s like we’re sharing a tiny piece of ourselves, which helps us all develop empathy for each other,” she says.
This year, with Chimers adapting to working from home, the importance of sharing culture — and experiences — became paramount for Chimigos. Drumming up engagement on an ongoing basis became a challenge for Jessica and her co-leads, but they kept Chimigos moving forward with a steady stream of conversations, opportunities to connect, and broader events (like LatinX Heritage Month). “We’ve diversified the ways we come together to share our experiences and culture because we’ve had to,” Jessica says. “Relying on ongoing Slack conversations, view and reviews of shows, and other smaller ongoing activities has helped us all stay connected.”
Connecting with the community outside of Chime
Chimigos didn’t just share stories and culture internally, they also connected with the LatinX community externally, too. As part of Chime’s give back campaign, the group donated to the Chicago Food Bank: “It was during the height of the summer surge in COVID cases and, since the virus disproportionately affects LatinX communities, we wanted to partner with an organization that could ease the burden on those impacted,” Jessica says.
The community is also where Chimigos would like to focus their energy in 2021. “We’re going to volunteer and conduct more outreach,” Jessica explains, “exploring intersectionality across our communities and other ways we can serve those with shared experiences.”
We can’t wait to see the amazing work Chimigos does in 2021!
