During her first couple years in the advertising industry, Dani Herrera says colleagues asked her questions like,"Should we schedule this meeting for later in the afternoon? I knowWhen Herrera moved from Argentina to New York City for work in her early 30s, she knew it would be a big adjustment – but she didn't expect to be on the receiving end of micro- and macro aggressions at work for her cultural and linguistic background.
Instead, she was the one who felt excluded."English is my second language – something you wouldn't know now," says Meléndez Ruiz."But when I was learning English, and could only depend on Spanish, I was left out of a lot of conversations, sometimes on purpose, because I didn't understand." Language was one of the few ties she had left to her native Venezuela, so she also felt her connection to her culture was diminished – even dismissed entirely.
Their success is due in no small part to their bilingualism, says Gomez-Aguinaga."Through our annual surveys, we have found that while the first language of most Latino entrepreneurs is Spanish, the vast majority of them are proficient in English and Spanish – and conduct businesses in both languages."
Meléndez Ruiz, too, has seen these benefits extend to her work as an entrepreneur."My agency stands out because we navigate between worlds and are able to create integrated campaigns and pitch in Spanish, something that is actually not very common," she explains."I would say that we get many of our new business inquiries because of our ability to execute bilingual campaigns.