Focus — Americano y Latino

(continued from page 14) how Latinos have affected my family. My uncle Efrain Villa came here as a young man from Puerto Rico. I grew up with my cousins Brian Villa and Julie Villa and thought they were so lucky to grow up with exposure to two cultures. Ileana Ascencio met my nephew Josh Schroeder in high school and they became sweethearts. They are currently in their mid-20’s. Our entire family adores Ileana. Ileana and Josh will be married in Guadalajara in March of 2023.

A special thank you to my fellow members of the Latin Landscape Network Advisory Board, Pam Berrios previously with Ruppert Companies and now an industry consultant, and Kiara Daniel of Kubota as well as fellow NALP Awards Committee member and Chair, Jake Leman of Singing Hills Landscape Inc. Kelly Haskett of TrueWinds Consulting was in attendance and contributing as well. It was my pleasure to have met Kelly and Fred Haskett in person last year at the NALP annual convention LANDSCAPES, where we had a great conversation and I had introduced Fred as a speaker. Also, I am very appreciative of Chalet Landscape, Nursery, and Garden Center for sponsoring me to come to ELEVATE.

Pam Berrios is a certified bilingual trainer, consultant, and is now the President of Infinity Group. After the session, she expressed interest in the presentation itself and that she may be interested in getting involved, so I connected her with Scott Grams. Pam responded, “I was fascinated by Debbie’s topic because it’s something I’ve been building awareness about, for years! It would be my absolute pleasure to join your meeting.” However, from out of state we intend to have Pam join us for a future ILCA Latino and Americano Subcommittee meeting soon. Our ILCA Latino and Americano Subcommittee initiatives are certainly not unique to Illinois companies. This is a national thing.

Momentum is building now for our iLandscape 2023 Latino and Americano sessions, which will be during the first week of February. We will present Como trabajamos/How We Work and Como lideramos/How We Lead. Twenty years ago, 1 in 10 workers was Latino. Today, 1 in 5 workers are Latino. By 2050, 1 in 2 workers will be Latino. This information is from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. It is my hope that those of you reading this article will attend any of our sessions, in whole or in part. It does not matter what color you are, your first language, your background, or your title. You can take the talking stick or you can stand on the perimeter. Bring your coworkers and colleagues. It is all about awareness and personal growth so we as a multicultural collective can get closer to bridging the gap between Latinos and Americanos.