Unlearning Invisibility: The Leadership Lesson Hispanic Heritage Month Offers Associations

In honor of Hispanic Heritage Month, observed each year from Sept. 5 through Oct. 15, we are highlighting the vital contributions and voices of the Hispanic and Latino communities within associations and beyond.

My father built a business, lost it and built it again.

It takes only a few seconds to say, yet those few words overlook the countless ways that experience shaped him and, in turn, shaped me in ways I am still uncovering. When he tells the story now, he tells it quickly, usually with a shrug, before moving on to something about which he would rather talk. The shrug is the point. In our house, hardship was something you moved through, not something on which you lingered. We didn't talk about hardship. We simply adapted to it.

He and my mother arrived in Canada from Caracas, Venezuela, in the 1970s with grade-school educations, very little English and a conviction that governed every decision they made. Work hard enough, long enough and ask for little enough, and your children will inherit a life that was closed off to you. That is why when his business went under, he started again, the way you restart a stalled car.

Please select this link from ASAE's Center for Association Leadership.