I grew up in a bicultural and bilingual world. Born and raised in Miami, I am a second generation Cuban-American Latina. My entire life has been about navigating between the Latino and American cultures, embracing this duality.  

While I was growing up, I learned all about that hustle and drive Latinos share and emphasis we place on family from my Cuban abuela. She encouraged me to be curious, explore the world and always be myself. She instilled in me a great balance – she pushed me to accomplish great things but never let me forget about my culture or my home.  

I’ve always been passionate about connecting with people. While studying communications at Florida International University, I discovered my love for marketing because it combines the need to understand people’s mindsets and behaviors with my passion for connecting and engaging audiences.

After college, I pursued my dream of working in marketing and also got my MBA from San Francisco State University. But, no matter how far I went, from Miami to San Francisco and now Seattle, I never forgot my roots. 

As a Senior Audience Marketing Manager with a focus on the U.S. Latino and female audiences, I am able to bring my whole self to work, integrating my passion for marketing with the love for my culture. I’m also part of the leadership team for the Hispanic/Latinx Organization of Leaders in Action (HOLA) employee resource group, where I drive awareness of Latinos at Microsoft, help build a sense of community and organize networking and career development opportunities.

When you think about Latinos, we have a beautiful, diverse and rich mix of cultures and backgrounds, with members of our community from different generations and countries. But what unites us is that we’re here, in the United States, living out that duality daily.   

By living in between two worlds, one of the biggest challenges we face is staying true to who we are. If we can’t bring our authentic selves to the workplace, we will leave behind the best version of ourselves, and we will not be able to accomplish our goals.  

My advice to Latinos is to always be yourself. We’re already changing the popular culture as we hold on to our traditions: language, music, food and sports. We have an exciting future and way forward, unique to who we are and where we came from. And, we’re not looking back.