00:00
The other day, someone asked a question about, are you a Latina
00:03
or an executive first?
00:06
And without a doubt, I'm very Latina, very Mexicana because
00:09
I think that the cultures, the values that I carry have allowed
00:14
for me to be a strong and effective executive.
00:23
Let's begin with your uh your name and nationality Monica
00:27
I am Mexicana from Santa Barbara, California.
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So you, you were born where Monica?
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I actually was the only one born in the United States in Santa
00:37
But my 11 brothers and sisters were born in a small Pueblo in
00:43
The last I am the last of 12, last of 12, go back to your childhood
00:52
here and share just some of your, your earliest memories.
00:56
Um If I look back at my childhood and my early memories growing
01:01
up, I always remember a very vibrant household.
01:04
Uh 11 kids with myself.
01:07
Number 12, my parents um I remember the mornings where we wake
01:10
up in the morning and there was three girls on one full bed,
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two on top, on the bunk bed and two on the bottom.
01:18
And we would sit there and we talk about like the night before
01:20
what we did and our routine every Sunday was to get up, go to
01:24
You couldn't do anything until you have the whole house clean
01:27
But that memory that I recall the most is when we were all at
01:31
I don't know how we fit, but we were drinking fun.
01:34
We were having fun with the coca-cola.
01:37
And that is just the one thing that I recall the most of just
01:40
growing up and the conversations, you know, you're a little
01:42
kid growing up with siblings that are a lot older than you.
01:46
And you want to hear their curiosity about what they did about
01:49
what guy they met or what dance they went to.
01:52
But also if I look at back at growing up, that is what instilled
01:56
What instilled family in my life would instill still the unity
02:00
that I seek for, whether it's with family or with friends.
02:04
It's that um emotional connection of just what feels like
02:08
And I kind of think about that often, you know, before we jump
02:12
back in, I'm thinking, ok, so you guys can't go to church until
02:14
you clean the house.
02:15
I got 11 brothers and sisters helping you clean the house.
02:18
So you're in church by 6 30 in the morning.
02:20
Give you five minutes to clean the house with a crew of 12.
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No, because the men still didn't do anything.
02:27
And we had very, very, we had very specific Latino roles in
02:32
The women cleaned the inside of the household and the men did
02:35
all the outside work throughout the trash.
02:37
I was just talking to my brother the other day and we were laughing
02:40
because I was telling him, how is it that in college I was still
02:44
doing your bed and I couldn't go out unless we finished all
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Um But, you know, I do like those memories because they're
02:53
And now that we're adults, you kind of look back and you think
02:57
you know, I've been cleaning your household forever and
02:58
you still say, oh, I'm not gonna do it, but you actually still
03:01
do it um as an adult.
03:03
And there's just a lot of stories like that.
03:04
I mean, I think about uh when my sister got married to a non Latino
03:11
So the first white guy, if you will, that came into connection
03:15
with our family and he was, didn't understand why the men had
03:19
to eat first and why the women had to serve them.
03:23
And I remember my sister was, you know, had grown up here and
03:26
she, he came in and he says, um, can you please get me a tortilla
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And she looked at him.
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But the reason he said it is because my dad was in the room and
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she knew that there was no way he was gonna say no.
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Uh So you think about those things and you know, we've come
03:39
a long way quite a bit to say the least.
03:44
I'd say what drove your parents to, to come to the US?
03:49
You know, I think what drove my parents to come to the US is pretty
03:53
much what other immigrants face.
03:56
Uh, you're living in a small where there's one man, one church
04:01
one telephone, uh, water some days, no bathrooms, uh, outhouses
04:06
Uh, who isn't gonna want to get a better life, want to have a
04:09
better life for their kids and their families.
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So I think my father was always ahead of his time, despite having
04:17
a third grade education, he was always looking for the future
04:22
How do you take care of your 12 Children?
04:24
And um, he actually had an opportunity through the Bracero
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So he came in 1961 which was the tail end of the Bracero program
04:34
um, and was able to work in the cotton fields to uh wash dishes
04:41
at uh uh at a local, a golf course.
04:43
And I think having seen the life that he faced here versus the
04:47
life he changed back, he had back in, in Mexico.
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He decided to bring the entire family and we did in waves.
04:54
Um, from what I understand, he came in 1961 and then he brought
05:00
the three eldest women who were over 18, um and was able to get
05:05
them um naturalized here.
05:07
And then he brought the rest of the family in 1971 and I was born
05:11
here, must have been very difficult.
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I mean, not only to raise so many Children, uh, but to be separated
05:18
from them for, uh, for a time as you look back, how, how did they
05:22
deal with that separation?
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Well, I hear most of it from my sisters, their separation of
05:27
having left the rest of the family and I think they remember
05:31
the day that they left and they threw a big for them in the ranch
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So you know how those go the ranch, everybody shows up.
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Um And they played the song.
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So they recall a lot that memory of hearing the play as they're
05:46
Um And it was, it was difficult for them.
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I mean, to be here in a different country where they don't know
05:54
a word of English where they're living with uh other cousins
05:58
who are more acculturated and have, don't really identify
06:02
with the Mexican culture for them to have to completely adapt
06:06
see things that they've never seen for the first time in their
06:08
lives to see African Americans.
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That was something new for them.
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They didn't get the culture, they didn't understand why they
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Um And for my mom to have to be by herself raising the rest of
06:21
her Children um expecting a visit from my dad every march which
06:25
were La Fiesta de Rancho San Jose.
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So I think when I hear back about that all I can think about is
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their strength and their ability to maintain a unity despite
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And I think that that's what's so unique about us as a family
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is that we may not always be together.
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But when we hurt, when one of us hurts, we all hurt whether you're
06:45
in Mexico, whether you're in the US, whether you're in L A,
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whether you're in Santa Barbara, uh we all still feel very
06:52
connected to each other despite being away, you were, you
06:57
were born here uh to immigrant parents.
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How, how do you, how do you self identify?
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How do you, how do you see yourself despite not being born in
07:07
I identify myself as Mexicana.
07:09
Um I heard the other day someone asked a question about, are
07:13
you a Latina or an executive first?
07:17
And without a doubt, I'm very Latina, very Mexicana.
07:20
And the reason I say that is because I think that the cultures
07:23
the values that I carry have allowed for me to be a strong and
07:28
effective executive.
07:30
So when I look at how I identify myself, I think it's my Latina
07:34
ness if you will, that has quite frankly made me uh given me
07:39
the ability to be successful in my company, in this country
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It's that, that I take with me everywhere I go.
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And when you say your, your Latina, what fits within that context
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what, what part of you is that Latina that Mexican that you
07:58
Oh my Latina is everything.
08:00
The minute I walk into a room, look at me.
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I got big hair red lipstick.
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II I we I use uh sauce uh in my work when I take it in um I'm very
08:10
non-traditional in corporate America.
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Um So I think it goes from everything from my parents in my look
08:17
to the fact that when I'm in uh a, a corporate culture fighting
08:23
for a cause, it's those immigrant experiences, it's those
08:27
stories that I have to take with me into my job.
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Whether it's thinking about my father who was a gardener his
08:32
entire life, whether it's thinking about um my sister Teresa
08:36
who cleans houses for a living, delineating the lines between
08:40
the haves and the have nots when it's uh thinking about my mother
08:43
who's raised her 12 Children.
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Um Now fighting Alzheimer's, I have to be able to take those
08:49
stories into my job.
08:50
I have to be able to take those stories into my friendships
08:53
and even bring my those stories into my family again.
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You know, I have uh 24 nieces and nephews.
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How do you instill those values to their lives in this world
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Which is so much different.
09:06
It's fast, it's technology, it's, it's moving so quickly
09:11
where I get kind of nervous that they are going to lose the values
09:15
that I think have made our family successful.
09:20
And that's a concern today.
09:22
And that really is a concern and, and, and, and one concern
09:26
I have through, through the project that you see is you have
09:30
you know, if you look back at the country's history, you have
09:33
wave after wave of immigrants that arrive, who are misunderstood
09:37
and mistreated and then they kind of find their way and they're
09:40
accepted and then that next generation or two generations
09:44
later, they become the oppressors of the next immigrant,
09:48
So I often ask myself, you know, will there come a will there
09:50
come a time where our Children and grandchildren are the ones
09:54
you know, making it difficult for immigrants from another
09:58
part of the country here in the US.
10:00
So I think it's so important that we, we, we pass on those sensibilities
10:04
and that sense of compassion and understanding to them as
10:07
I think we absolutely have to pass our immigrant experiences
10:11
to the next generations in our family.
10:13
And it's hard because they, they don't think the same way and
10:17
they think you're being, you know, oh, you, you don't know
10:20
what you're talking about.
10:21
But what I'm hoping that we instill into the next generation
10:25
is the fact that you have a responsibility to take care of others
10:29
as you were taking care of yourself through our families.
10:32
Um The values that we have, whether we, you know, we, we, we're
10:37
very observant, you learn to be very observant.
10:39
When you're an immigrant, you learn to look around and figure
10:42
out what's going on and how to, to uh navigate your way through
10:46
of systems which are foreign and different.
10:48
So, what I'm hoping that we instill in this next group of kids
10:52
that are in our family is that you have to be observant, but
10:55
you also have to do something for the people who don't have
10:59
And it's difficult because you grew up in this very me, me,
11:03
me generation that it's all about yourselves, but it's the
11:06
fact that we did help others that quite frankly has made us
11:09
successful as a family has made us successful in the workforce
11:14
Um And as a culture.
11:15
Um And I think that what really is lacking is a sense of character
11:21
right now, you think about our families, think about your
11:23
parents, all of our parents, um our ancestors, there's no
11:27
other group that has the values, the systems as immigrants
11:32
do the sense of character, the work ethic.
11:35
And if you're gonna be looking for a job someday, if you're
11:39
going to be trying to get that next position, it's your character
11:44
that is gonna distinguish you.
11:45
Of course, you have to work hard, of course, you have to have
11:47
to be professional, but it's that sense of character that
11:50
is going to distinguish you from the next person that is gonna
11:54
make you more marketable if, if, if you will.
11:56
Um And also that it's gonna make you a good person.
11:59
I, my dad, my mom had third grade education and mentioned that
12:04
and I, I can't think of people who are kinder who are harder
12:11
I can't think of people who have a sense of self dignity.
12:15
You know, despite not having an education, they were always
12:18
a pro uh proud of their work.
12:20
Never ashamed of the perception that came with it.
12:22
It was me who had to learn how to deal with that.
12:25
I was the one who had a transition and say, you know what their
12:29
value system is is the right thing to do.
12:32
Um Yeah, I do worry, I do worry what, as you look back, um What
12:40
What are the, what, what are you the proudest of?
12:44
What am I the most proud of is, is of my family.
12:48
Um It, when you look at so many characters in a household, it
12:55
really is never about you.
12:57
You always have to make sure that the next person comes up and
13:02
is having the same vibrancy, the same outcomes as those ahead
13:06
that, that, that are doing well.
13:08
Um But I'm proudest of my family because despite living in
13:12
this country for 40 years now, they really have still maintained
13:18
a level of culture, a level of Mexican that navigates since
13:24
through both worlds that makes them successful, whether
13:27
you're uh in, in, in, in the US or in Mexico, they're able to
13:33
navigate through both.
13:34
Um I think when I look at my family, they still have a very strong
13:39
work ethic, a sense of pride.
13:42
Um And every graduation you have, you see this sense of pride
13:46
in them when you feel a level of accomplishment.
13:50
Um and we still will get together and we still make tamales
13:57
Um We still say when it's someone's graduation and break out
14:02
with horns and, and confetti.
14:04
Um, and we're not embarrassed about it.
14:06
You know, I, I, I'm, I'm proud of every single one of them.
14:10
I'm proud of the sister who cleans houses.
14:12
I'm proud of the brother who, who owns restaurants.
14:15
Um The landscape architect, design, the teacher and I can
14:19
go on and on and I'm proud of my nieces and nephews um for still
14:23
trying to make sure that um they're taking care of grandma
14:29
Previous generations assimilating into the country meant
14:33
forgetting where you came from and losing the language and
14:36
the culture and the uh for our parents' generation and our
14:40
generation, we sort of have rewritten the book on that uh where
14:46
we can rock both cultures and both languages.
14:49
Talk to me a little bit about that.
14:52
See, I can't, for, for my family, I think I have a little bit
14:56
of a different experience.
14:58
I don't think for us we ever really assimilated.
15:01
Um I think we had a very clear understanding since very you
15:04
since you're very young, it is Mexican.
15:08
And that was one thing that my dad always was clear on, we were
15:11
never ashamed of that.
15:13
Um It was hard, it was hard to not be the student that, that to
15:16
to not understand what renaissance fares.
15:18
My parents just didn't understand why it was the right thing
15:22
from an educational standpoint to do.
15:25
Um So from that perspective, it was hard.
15:28
But I also remember being in classes and having to do a speech
15:32
and my speeches were always different.
15:34
They were always about my family and everybody was fascinated
15:37
with what I had to say.
15:38
They were curious because it was so different.
15:40
So in terms of assimilating, I don't think you learn how to
15:45
be part of this country.
15:46
But to me, assimilation is that you put something away and
15:50
you get rid of something else.
15:51
Uh Ever since I'm young, I, I've been Mexicana and I'm still
15:55
very Mexicana um in every aspect of my life.
15:58
So it's not something that we in that is part of my family.
16:03
Um We're very proud but we're also not like in a sense, very
16:09
You know, it just kind of comes naturally um growing up, it
16:12
was difficult because you didn't identify with anyone else
16:16
You, you, you were, I was a lot of times dealing with black hair
16:19
in my classes um doesn't feel too good.
16:22
And I think as you grew up, I learned to embrace my differentness
16:26
if you will and make it an asset.
16:28
Um And ironically, that's what I do now.
16:32
And my job is, my differentness is probably the biggest asset
16:36
that I can offer my company right now.
16:39
Takes time for a young woman to realize that that, that comes
16:42
with a certain amount of maturity, doesn't it?
16:46
I think I was a really young sometimes to, you know, understand
16:51
just be patient and that, which, you know, is a source of, you
16:55
know, anxiety perhaps now is gonna be a major strain.
16:58
You just have to give yourself time.
17:00
And I think patients um if you're patient at times, people
17:06
will surprise you and that happens over and over again where
17:09
people will surprise you with their actions.
17:11
Um But I think you talk about maturity in terms of coming to
17:17
a realization of your identity.
17:20
I think for me as for a lot of my friends, um it, you have to be
17:25
an adult really young.
17:27
Um when you're an immigrant, when you, when you come from an
17:30
immigrant background and we were talking about uh having
17:33
to translate when you're very young, I was five, having to
17:37
translate documents for my parents.
17:39
The pressure on you is real tough having to go to doctor's appointments
17:44
Um And I don't, I I think about that.
17:48
I i it really does make you grow up a lot faster.
17:51
Um when you're cleaning houses when you are working in uh restaurants
17:57
as a cashier, um when you are trying to balance reading a Hamlet
18:03
or Shakespeare or Great Gatsby in a room with 12, 12 brothers
18:08
and sisters walking around throughout the household.
18:11
And the only place you can really do it is the bathroom.
18:13
Not because the quietest, but that's just the place where
18:16
you're probably not gonna get, you know, uh, uh, uh, get de
18:20
deterred a lot more.
18:22
So, it's one of those things that you have to grow up quick and
18:25
you have to be able to um to be flexible, absolutely be flexible
18:31
That's a great point that comes up in so many interviews on
18:34
how you're forced to grow up quick when you're, you know, the
18:38
child of immigrants in many cases, the first to really understand
18:43
Uh you, you, you're put in a tough situation, you know, you
18:46
are and you're, you, you're put in a tough situation when you're
18:49
with growing up with things that are so different.
18:52
But also I think, you know, as, as I'm looking at that kind of
18:59
the experiences of assimilating, you also, I mentioned about
19:03
the fact about being very observant.
19:05
You really have to be very observant of your surroundings
19:08
not only as a woman.
19:09
Um But I think as you're growing up and you're seeing things
19:13
around you, nobody's telling you how to do things.
19:16
So you have to figure it out and that's why I actually think
19:19
we're really great workers and why I think Latinos are gonna
19:22
save America because we're able to pick up on things that nobody
19:25
else can pick up that quickly.
19:27
Uh You observe everything around you and you're forced to
19:30
do it if you want to be able to survive and thrive in whatever
19:33
environment that you're in.
19:35
Absolutely, you recently were honored uh by two, by two groups
19:45
Uh Talk to me a little bit about that.
19:47
Why, why, why did you receive these honors?
19:50
Why did I receive the, because they didn't have anyone else
19:53
to get everybody else was out of town.
19:57
Um Why did I get these honors?
20:00
You know, it's so uncomfortable uh to, to even think about
20:06
you know, when you're seeing yourself on screen and there's
20:08
people are saying all these nice things on you and you know
20:10
your brothers and sisters are saying what in the world is
20:14
Um No, but I think that the, the the honors are I uh two things
20:20
One, I work for a company that empowers me to do good things
20:27
Um And I know that my company has enabled me to help a lot of community
20:31
groups to help a lot of organizations.
20:33
And I don't um I'm not mistaken about that when you work for
20:37
a great company, a great leader.
20:38
Um And they let you loose, you really have an opportunity to
20:41
create positive change.
20:43
And I think that that the honors come with the fact that you
20:47
that you have an opportunity to be an agent of change wherever
20:53
you go and whatever organizations that you work with.
20:56
And I think that the honors come specifically because I've
21:00
been able to share the Latino story, whether you are a, a first
21:04
generation uh Latino that has come from Mexico, whether you're
21:08
an immigrant that has come from political baggage in Central
21:11
America to the one that doesn't speak a lick of uh Spanish and
21:15
has been here for four decades uh to the Mojado that came in
21:20
uh yesterday, crossing the border in Tijuana.
21:23
It's able to take those stories and bring value into your company
21:26
And I think that the honors come with that, you're able to share
21:29
stories and you're able to tell those stories and make them
21:33
part of the DNA of your company um and the communities that
21:36
you work with and not so much just bringing your company outward
21:40
but bringing what's important to the community into your
21:43
And um I feel that, you know, we, we, we've done a pretty good
21:48
So if you could speak directly to a five year old version of
21:58
Young American, born, daughter of Latino immigrants who
22:01
may be watching, what advice would you give her?
22:07
The five year old love version of me is probably very similar
22:15
to the 39 year old version of me.
22:17
Um If I can give her some advice and I do have five year old nieces
22:23
um you know, we didn't grow up with dreams and not because
22:28
our parents didn't give us that, but because you were so busy
22:32
on the day to day life of, you know, siblings and family.
22:35
Um And I know it sounds corny and it sounds cheesy, but I would
22:38
tell that five year old that you can be anything you want to
22:41
If you want to be an Olympic athlete, you can do this.
22:44
Um So I think that I would encourage her to dream and uh to recognize
22:50
that anything that expectations are always going to be put
22:54
A lot of times kids don't want expectations, it's better to
22:58
have expectations on you than for somebody to have no expectations
23:03
And I think I would tell that five year old to work hard, do their
23:07
work diligently and sign their name proudly.
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