When Karla Boldery first came to the United States, she was shocked to discover a whitetail deer hopping around in her backyard. Growing up in Mexico City, whitetail deer were a rare sight.
As a 20-year-old, she found a home in the rural Boone County farming town of Verona. In the 2020 Census, Verona was listed as having a population of 1,545 people, with the vast majority of them being white.
“Imagine that 20-year-old from Mexico City come into Verona, Kentucky and here’s a deer jumping in my backyard,” Boldery said. “So you understand the cultural shock of me coming here and the type of living here that I had to adapt.”
In 2023, people who identify as Latin American are close to becoming the second largest minority population in Northern Kentucky across all three counties, according to U.S. Census data.
The Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce hosted their Investing in Equity Series last week, focusing on Latin immigration into Northern Kentucky. The event featured a panel comprised of three prominent Latin American community leaders in the Greater Cincinnati region.
Boldery, the Cincinnati market manager at La Mega Media, was joined on the panel by Judge Marilyn Zayas of Hamilton County’s First District Court of Appeals and Perfetti Van Melle USA VP of Operations Paco Tello. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce President Alfonso Cornejo moderated the discussion.
The conversation centered around dispelling stereotypes about the Latin American community and how Northern Kentucky businesses can better support Latin American immigrants entering the workforce.
One of the most common stereotypes about Latin Americans, according to the speakers, is the tendency for people and organizations to lump Latin immigrants of differing backgrounds together into one group without accounting for their diverse cultural differences.
“Latin America is a very large and rich region of the world in general, with many countries with the many different backgrounds,” Tello said.
In order to combat this, Tello suggested businesses, and people in general, be cognizant of their cultural differences such as foods, ethnic backgrounds and language dialects. Tello urged people to keep an open mind when meeting others.
“Get to know them and understand where are they are coming from,” Tello said. “What’s important to them? What are their values?”
Zayas said business owners, recruiters, teachers and social workers should reconsider using the terms “legal” and “illegal” when referring to people’s immigration status. In her opinion, these terms creates a sense of morality around an individual’s immigration status.
“I would ask you to consider to stop using that term and rather, someone who has immigration status, or doesn’t have immigration status,” Zayas said.
Boldery worried that children of Latin origin are in danger of losing their culture through systemic assimilation. Using the example of an educational setting, Boldery described a scenario where Latin American kids are encouraged from a young age to focus on learning English instead of also incorporating Spanish into their curriculum.
To combat this, Boldery suggested people should continue supporting those actively working toward improving Latin American representation in the business community, nonprofit sector and educational systems.
“They can see themselves in positions of impact of making change at whatever level it is,” Boldery said. “It can be a homework group at their school, it can be a sports group, but whenever the kids can start seeing that actually people that look like them are doing cool things and they’re making a difference.”
Education was frequently mentioned as an important factor in helping Latin American immigrants entering the Northern Kentucky workforce. Tello thinks it’s vital that community leaders be “intentional” when constructing workforce training programs for their community.
“It’s about education,” Tello said. “How do we feel about our cultural heritage?”
Boldery encouraged the audience to support Latin American cultural organizations across the Greater Cincinnati region such as the Esperanza Latino Center in Covington and community events like F.I.E.S.T.A. Annual.
“Every organization plays a key role in the growth of our community and specifically with the growth of the Hispanic community,” Boldery said.
For Zayas, the desire to succeed is apparent in the Latin American community.
“I hope that what you’re hearing from questions that are coming from people that are in the trenches from the Latino community is that the Latino community wants to belong, wants to grow, and also wants to succeed,” Zayas said.
