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i am mero and you're watching modern immigrant welcome everybody to a new episode of modern immigrant remember that we bring new episodes every monday and we talk about immigration immigration stories and some inspirational stories for everybody so you don't feel alone during this journey remember that you can check out our instagram at modern immigrant don't forget to subscribe if you're watching on youtube or wherever you are listening that really helped us a lot so i'm really happy that you are here today and today we're going to be talking to patty patty's the founder of latinos empower and i'm so glad i was able to connect with patty and i'm so excited that you're gonna get to hear not only her immigration story but the wonderful job that she's doing with latinos and power we're gonna hear how is latino in power impacting the life of many many latinos in the usa and we're going to hear how patti felt tired of feeling powerless a feeling that i completely relate to and how can we take that power back presentation matters and we're going to be talking about that today so enjoy the episode remember that you can check out links in the description if you want to check out the guest's instagram page or website and also would love to hear what was your favorite part of the interview if you leave it down below in the comments thank you one more time [Music] bye well patty welcome to modern immigrant and welcome to modern immigrant to everyone that's listening today thank you one more time for being here patty how are you doing doing well so excited to be here same i'm really happy that you were willing to share your story i was fascinated when we talk over the phone like i couldn't wait for you to like expand in some of those topics and for the rest of the people to listen to them i was like okay just hold on to this make sure we talk about this so patty um again thank you i usually start this interviews by asking my guests when did your immigration journey start and i know it's a very broad question but i feel like if you tell us kind of when and and like how old were you where were you that would help us kind of um continue the interview with more and more questions of course so my immigration journey started in 2000 when i was 9 years old my family so both my parents my sister and i moved to the us from peru okay so how old were you i was nine years old nine years old okay sorry if i missed that yeah you were such a kid did you how can you maybe if you can give us some uh background or context how was life in peru as you can remember having nine years old and what were some of the opportunities that were being offered here in the usa yeah so since i was fairly young i hardly remember complete memories of peru like there are a few glimpses here and there i mean we lived in magdalena for peru which is uh on the coast so we would go to the beach often um we lived also a block away from my grandparents house um so my mom's parents so we would always be surrounded by family i mean we live so close um so my mom was actually a nurse back there and my dad would work in like account receivable um and they both worked at a hospital and then that's actually how they met oh nice that's pretty yeah but in peru there's like a age discrimination almost that occurs where if you are starting to reach a certain age you're most likely to be either laid off and have your feet be filled up by somebody younger wow so as my parents started to reach that age like they were afraid that they too would lose their jobs and as they started to look for options um moving to the us was one of them because my aunt which was my father's sister lived here and was a citizen here in the us i think it always feels like it's so sorry sorry to interrupt you but um just by you saying this um kind of situation of you know your parents looking ahead um thinking about your future as well right um and seeing that maybe the opportunities in peru were in ask you know many or they weren't very secure if there's a word to say that but i think what's also really interesting is that one of the options was the usa because there was someone they knew here i feel like that's always kind of like a connection like to become an immigrant to have that point of contact in a way and it seems like it happened in your case yeah it seems like almost like a safety feel better if you actually know somebody um knows the ropes to help you along and i think also a big factor with that they had heard of this like american dream you know opportunity for growth freedom would be available along with the quality of education which was something that they valued and wanted for us um and you know the whole as long as you work hard like you could make things happen that kind of thing where i feel like that was the main difference with peru where you we had limited opportunities for growth and building wealth as long as well as like uh not as good of an education or you know as you could have here so i feel like that dream kind of gave us like hope and like drove our actions and fueled us to overcome like any challenges that we faced it's so interesting and i love that you said that in peru because it kind of connects me to how it was in venezuela like it seems like the harder we work the the harder we have it as well it's like we don't see that positive consequence like oh i have three jobs and therefore i have a great income and no i have three jobs because i need to make more money because one job doesn't pay enough right so it definitely seems like at least um there's an idea that in the usa you know we can work hard and get a good reward which i would love to explore if if your parents kind of found that american dream that they were looking yeah yeah i think i mean for the most part i think jumping ahead i think we have found and what we were looking for even though they weren't low income jobs i feel like for example for a really long time when um we were younger they worked like two to three jobs each almost to not only make ends meet but also put my sister and i through school and college and everything like that but what they were looking for i mean i have two bachelor's degrees uh i received my master's degree last year my sister's working on hers congratulations that's a big deal really from that perspective i feel like it was at least accomplished great yeah and that's great that's great to hear it's great to hear that their efforts paid off i know a lot of immigrant parents are doing everything they have and they're giving all of themselves into um giving us those opportunities so that's beautiful to see and i want to know this is always a topic that we explore in the podcast which is how was your journey with the visas and paperwork and the permits because this seems to always be an issue for a lot of immigrants and it always seems to be changing a lot with time yeah yeah that's true so it's like since my aunt was a citizen she sponsored us through my dad um in a family sponsored position but there was also like a law from maybe the clinton years or the clinton administration where you could stay in the u.s while your petition was in progress and you didn't need to go back home to your country to wait until it was resolved so because we had that um we had some sort of path to uh citizenship but it was still pretty hard i mean i feel like the biggest misconception which we actually talked about a little bit uh occurs in the water population that is like if you do things the right way yes or you know you will have documentation right away or pretty easy it's like straight path to citizenship which is not really true like for my family the weight for family petition the weight is actually eight to ten years yes and it depends on the country it's crazy it is crazy yes and it also depends on the country because i feel like for mexico it might be less than for other land american countries actually more um something that happened in our case was like the 9 11 attacks happened in 2001 and we came in 2000 which actually halted all petitions and made the progress even slower so it actually took my family 13 years to be granted residency from like when we actually filed versus when we actually went through the process as well as just like got in our green card that's like wow that's really wow it's a long time even back then and even before 9 11 because i know 9 11 really changed the whole immigration kind of game as as they know it um it's a lot of time it's a long time yeah so like in the meantime though you do not have any documentation whatsoever um other than your petition is in progress to prove that you are legal or waiting for a result which actually like that petition means nothing right so yeah until you were granted residency that's what i was going to ask you like what do you have like do you have to hold because you don't technically you don't have a visa like you don't have anything on your passport that says you know work visa student visa right like those are very clear cases but i feel like when you're waiting for a petition like a family petition or an approval of a visa you're really kind of hanging right like you're you're not totally here but you're here for over 13 years like this is definitely your home this is definitely where you're raising your kids so um it is kind of crazy and i'm and i'm glad that you mentioned the right way to emigrate we're quoting because that was like a really big and important piece on on our conversation because i think really there is no right way as you mentioned i feel like you know we can do our best and we can pick a path um but nothing grants you like that's gonna happen right and i wonder how was that for your parents and for yourself to grow up in that kind of like uncertainty because you know yeah it could happen but it wasn't like a hundred percent yeah exactly i felt like we just lived in fear like we would always be careful at least um to make sure we did things right or make sure we weren't you know out of line that we would i don't know we we would have people suspect um kind of thing and it also happened before i mean it was like around 2000 and happened before like the daca era so i feel like the whole topic of undocumented was like a big taboo subject yeah like not many people spoke out that they were undocumented or didn't feel comfortable enough i feel like that happened post daca when you know when people kind of said hey i actually have daca now or you know when people are fighting for the rights now um but prior to that i mean i don't think there was anything i don't think people were speaking openly about it yeah and there was not like a group of people that were feeling represented and connected i recently had an interview with marcella which is a writer and she was actually saying how that guy was for her like a before and after in a really positive way because she felt like before that guy she was living in fear right she wouldn't want to say that she was undocumented but after daca there was like a more positive stereotype there was like a wow these people you know have been going through this and and like you put that light and that um yeah just awareness on the rest so it's really interesting to to hear your story and the path that your family went through and not being able to go out of the country right is that correct like when you're waiting yeah because i feel like at least from our understanding was that if you left you couldn't come back yeah i think that's still the same yes have you been back to purdue yes after 13 years we went back um we went back for like two weeks it was also like i feel like it was fall break for me and my sister as we were both in college um but yeah it was it was a good experience to go back and i think this this part of the interview goes pretty well with the next question that i have that was about any cultural shocks because i feel like maybe you remember cultural shocks even going back to peru when you were already older than the ones you experienced when you came to the usa if you can kind of share a little bit on that experience yeah so my family moved to utah which is the west um of the us and it's like a desert uh state uh so we were surrounded by mountains which was like a huge shock for me because i had never seen mountains in my life you know there was no beach uh which i was used to we were in the middle of the country everything was all so spaced out as well like every time we needed to go somewhere you have to drive like you and it's still like that now you could not walk anywhere or any anywhere pretty fast because of how far everything was from each other um so like in peru and in most latin american countries i feel like the class the houses are all close together and everything's kind of walking distance yes that's a big shock that's that's a big difference any that you remember when you went back to purdue i'm kind of curious um not as much culture shock as maybe the memories that i had were not maybe i think i know what you're saying like as well like for example like we would my grandpa like we visited my grandparents house and that's where we stayed but it's like oh yeah i don't remember the outside well as much as the inside or i actually didn't remember our department that we used to live in before or i couldn't actually i feel like if i needed to go out somewhere i couldn't go by myself because i couldn't orient myself as well we really everything had changed we really remember like it's more like the emotion right connected to the memory than the actual place i feel in a way um which is interesting to then go back and be like oh yeah i kind of remember feeling this way when i'm here but i didn't remember it was so big or that it was so small right especially when we're kids our perception is so different to to reality and and that's that's really cool and and i'm glad that you were able to go and it really seems it's i feel like maybe i'm wrong but it's you said that you didn't feel maybe that big cultural shock and i feel like in parties because you were living with your parents in a latino household so a lot of the traditions were probably continuing to be similar to the ones in peru i don't know if i'm wrong i don't know if your family can change a few things but that can also be right yeah like our family still celebrated like peru's independence day and everything you know my mom still would cook peruvian food and everything in our house um so i didn't feel that kind of shock i was shocked at how also how fast people spoke and how my impression would try to yeah i would try to catch up or i would just be lost and sitting there like what are they talking about what are they saying i'm always the one saying no i don't speak fast what are you talking about but you're right i think in a lot of ways we do especially when we're talking with someone from our own kind of cultural town right it's like that's amazing i feel like the language had also changed like there was a lot of slang and that we hadn't probably heard but um i think the biggest also culture talk that we had here is like the language because we did not speak any english when we moved here amy wow yeah so like i mean i maybe a few words here and there like hello probably not even how are you like so i remember we moved on a tuesday and by the end of the week we had already been enrolled in school to start like the following monday so it's like really fast how was that first day can you kind of like what what do you remember i'm sure you have some memories from those days yeah when i walked into my class that first day i was like deep only latina there was actually only one other boy who had a similar resemblance to me like so he was a first-gen child uh his parents had moved here from mexico and he but he had been born here okay so spanish was almost his second language um so but he was tasked with helping me with everything and anything that like at school which was like a huge responsibility for like nine-year-olds he was also very shy and like uncomfortable or maybe embarrassed to speak in spanish just because he didn't know it that well um well and the representation was so little too which is kind of like what we're gonna talk about too like if he was the only one and then you who knows maybe he didn't feel confident right to to say oh let me speak this other language than nobody else speaking around me right yeah exactly like he was i mean i understand it was like a huge responsibility for him yeah to be put on like a nine-year-old like hey this part you're going to help this person you're going to translate everything we say you're going to help her like with her homework like where were the teachers another teacher my school actually offered esl classes so that was good but so they would take us they would take me out of class for maybe two hours per day or like twice a week where they would teach me english and they were like wonderful teachers um but other than that i was just with that with that like little kid like two of us kind of just trying to work on the homework together but him trying to explain it to me like actually explain what the teacher was teaching and then that's so hard to do like that's very complicated that's very complicated how i mean wow that's very shocking i can only imagine how did that feel and i think going a little bit back to when you mentioned the town where you moved or even the state i remember we talked about you feeling that it was very you know why predominantly um city town state and and that you weren't see i think it's not a secret that you weren't seeing as much latino representation around you right um so how was that how was that representation in your area and and you know um how did that impacted you yes i feel like well i may have alluded to it earlier but the latino representation was non-existent um i lived in a predominantly white state and i lived in a white neighborhood as well so i mean i didn't see that many people around uh that looked like me throughout when i was growing up um and i think all this also led to maybe a bit of discrimination from you know others because they didn't know how to treat other latinos or didn't know what other latinos kind of even looked like or their culture or anything like that but or maybe had heard other people speak spanish openly um but i didn't really see any latinos until high school and by that time i had uh you know i was what 15 or 16 years old i had very much assimilated to the culture here and yes considered whitewashed by other latinos because i mean i didn't see anybody else right yeah i even have even when i speak in spanish i actually have an accent just because i don't practice it other than with my family right um so i didn't feel latina or could form any relationship with other latinos because they thought i was different from them um you know they thought i didn't dress like them i didn't uh i liked school which apparently was a very white thing to do like i liked extracurricular activities that were considered white and no i didn't fit in and they would definitely tell me um so from that point on i just felt like i wasn't maybe latina enough or had just assimilated too much because i didn't have other latino representations that was kind of like my age you know i only had my parents and um my dad's family who uh who lived here but other than that i mean we didn't see we didn't see that many like people there were some here and there but you know it wasn't it wasn't like a huge representation as you would see like in california or new york or other bigger locations and what do you think because i think this topic is really interesting and i'm really like passionate about hearing how much representation matters but i would like to hear from you that you actually experienced that from an early age why do you think finding representation is so important like how do you think that would have shaped the curse of your life if if you wouldn't have seen so much lack of it if if that makes sense yeah i think representation just matters because you just feel more connected um to your culture or to yourself or to the country i guess that you kind of that you left um so from that perspective i feel like you know people do not have the same celebrations as you do not have the same uh holidays or anything like that so you can't really connect with people in that way so you find other ways to connect with them and i feel like you kind of can only connect with them on their terms or how they're doing things it's not very like equal connection there's no like an exchange and that's what then we see so many why we as latinos sometimes we feel so frustrated right because we're like oh why do they ask me this or why did they assume i was from this country or right because they haven't seen that representation either i think you mentioned that earlier like maybe they didn't know what questions to ask maybe maybe they didn't know that you know assuming that every latino person comes from the same country it's not right right like maybe they just and i feel like that's another big thing as as you say of their representation is to feel connected to feel like hey here we are you know and and we can maybe even show others our culture and i don't want to leave this topic of representations from really two important aspects which i think are aspects that we mentioned in our phone call that are discrimination like if you ever face discrimination how did that look like um and then i want to ask you a little bit more about your feeling latina or not latina not enough in the past yes i think there were probably the biggest discrimination or not discrimination but maybe misconception that uh i went through with that in high school we had to meet with our guidance counselor to discuss like uh college and you know post high school opportunities and this was one of the main reasons my family moved chair was you know i knew that was the path for me or that was the path i wanted to take um so both of my parents actually took the day off uh off from work um which was you know crazy because they had both two different jobs like two jobs each um right but they took the day off because they thought it was important that we met with the counselor we were going to discuss college and we were super excited about that and then before we even like we walked into her office before we even sat down like she asked us if we were undocumented like that was the first thing that she just said and you know she took one look at us and had made that assumption um and she uh and she also mentioned that like if i was if i was undocumented which you know she had no idea i was actually right spot on like she said you're right yeah you're right uh you have to look for other options because college would probably not be one of them and you know i had a 338 gpa i was like a president of one club a vice president of another club i was doing like extracurriculars up the wall like everything to kind of just line me up to a good college and you know get scholarships and all that stuff and i feel like also it was her lack of um knowledge and understanding of the latino population and you know uh that there could be other latinos that are not undocumented and also that latinos if they were undocumented in the state of utah you could actually attend college so that was not a restriction whatsoever but we had to learn that ourselves so like we walked out of there like okay she definitely can't help us yeah thank you for nothing yeah yeah thank you for not doing your job so wow we have to find other people who could that is so crazy and so like i mean yeah you're right like maybe she didn't have the information the right information but also like it's it's it's empathy too right because there's so much fear these days on like how to talk about certain things and how to approach certain topics right like we live in this era with where everything is wrong you say something is wrong you didn't say something is wrong but in that case in situations like this i just feel like empathy is so huge like how would you feel if somebody asked you that in the middle of a room right like when you're trying to apply for school like just it's to me it's common sense not to ask that question like yeah it's definitely common sense like i give her the benefit of the doubt like you know uh but yeah definitely common sense did not at least shout that out the first time exactly yeah or maybe find another way to ask for and always ask that to yourself too like would i like being asked this i probably wouldn't right especially what if that's the case right like how would that make you feel um and also buddy there was something that you told me that i think it's really important to discuss here which was how do you feel because of your not not fitting in the latina whatever people think being a latina is um how do you feel when you were trying to apply to latina uh scholarships to latina benefits like do you feel like yeah this is for me a hundred percent or you feel kind of maybe not maybe i shouldn't i felt a little bit worried so like when i came to college i was applying for a lot of latino scholarships like you said which made me feel even worse because i knew i was benefiting from something i didn't feel like i was a part of or people or represented or was part of my identity but that was because i feel like i left the external validations i let other people's uh judgment or what should be latino and what you know how latinos should behave or act or whatever um and i basically internalized those i was like like you know in a way i was like i'm cheating the system i'm a fraud that internalize those external um thoughts that people had had but at that time you know i was also young like i feel like you you you know in high school you just internalize or you look for external validation you look for you're trying to fit in um you know i come to terms that i'm a mixture of a latina and maybe uh you know american i may have lost some part of like my latin latin but i'm also doing like my best to honor both both cultures yeah the way that i feel like it should be like i no longer to listen to other people's opinions on what a latina should be or behave in a certain way or think or whatever like there's no truly like wrong or right way and people should really be kind to other latinos to be honest like everybody's struggling everybody's struggling to make it in a place that's not their own and you know find their way and find their space and find find themselves oh my can i clap that is so good and so beautiful and when you were talking about when you were talking i was just thinking on we always think how just to go back to the representation we always think that representation matters so others can get to know us but how important what you're saying is that representation really matters to actually accept ourselves as well if we see that there's not only one latina uh you know expectation or one latina story or one latina first uh general regeneration immigrant story but you see like there are many and you see many different ones you feel part of that like that's how huge that representation matters and how terrible our stereotypes as well because then we don't fit into any and then we feel we're lost we really want to feel connected i think that's all we want at the end of the day is is find connection and find a place where you feel that you belong as you as you are saying um but the um what have been the hardest part of your immigration journey um definitely i would say a couple of things learning the language i think missing our family in peru my parents worked two to three jobs to make you know ends me like i said previously and give us everything we kind of needed and even more to put us through college specifically me and that was like because i was the first uh person from our family to go to college you know trying to navigate uh how to even get there was also tough but i think it's also owning my story and being comfortable telling it um and then there's nothing like to be ashamed of but you know like i said previously there was no daca back then so not that many people spoke out or disclosed that they were undocumented um so sharing my story is something that i've wanted to do and you know be like okay i am also that or so but i also say like the best part was probably the growth and discovery of how like resilient we are um through many challenges that we faced um you know when we came here i feel like we had this american dream and so far um we have been able to accomplish it um of course it didn't come with any you know without sacrifice right or but we can honestly say that like we have accomplished that dream or are still accomplishing that and i don't think i would have discovered my strength and drive and resiliency without this journey and i also feel like it made our family more tighter and connected with each other that's beautiful that's beautiful and i do think that immigration is really getting us closer to our family in one way or another like if your family is abroad like my case i talk to them even more now than i used to talk to them before and if they're in the same country that you're at struggling like you're struggling i feel like that struggle also get you closer so it's beautiful that you mentioned that and i think it's really important to talk about the reason on how we connected and and the instagram account and project that you're working on because i feel like um we were we were talking about how amazing can instagram be or social media right like there's many terrible things about it but they're definitely great ones and i want you to share with the audience because i think it makes a lot of sense after telling us your story and your journey the reason why you started latinos empowered so tell us what it is and how that idea came to life yeah i think i think first of all yeah i agree with you instagram actually i wish we would have had that back then because then i would have met other latinos uh yeah related to them more connected um so i think the struggles that i uh went through maybe have would have lessened um or just been gone because of like how connected i would have been with other people who look like me but um going back to latinos empowered so i wanted to help our community and give back and i was doing so but after the current president or current administration uh was elected i thought i needed to do more so i opened up a scholarship for undocumented and daca students um at the university i went to um this is this actually is the second year uh that's being awarded that's so amazing how can you open a scholarship that's so cool congratulations on doing that yeah thank you like i i got a lot of help from people to be honest okay how to even do it so cool but i think once i got the correct people and route um yeah i just donate and they basically do everything else for me which is perfect because you know i'm pretty busy um i was also you know uh helping with diversity recruiting at my current jobs i mentor minorities within my workplace and outside of them but i felt like i was helping at a smaller scale and maybe i could do something with a bigger impact or have a bigger effect um on a larger population so like the idea of latinos empowered actually really grew and came about during quarantine thank you quarantine for something right like not everything is bad exactly i think this time really makes you reflect and slow down so i started reading a lot of biographies specifically steve jobs and michelle obama and they really embraced their story as it is and all the positive and negative things that help them become who they are or were and i wanted to be able to tell my story but in a way that would help others um i never wanted people to hear my story or read my story and be like oh wow that's really sad or you know oh you know i pity you or whatever um i wanted people to find some sort of glimpse of hope or advice that would help them in their own journey so i was also tired of feeling powerless as a latina in this country which would which was a huge thing prior the administration but maybe even exacerbated in this current one 100 we and how we as a community are made to feel like we are not powerless we make up 18 of the population but yet we are under represented and misrepresented in so many areas so this latino's empowered is a page that aims to be a resource for latinos to understand their potential and power in this country in the us like the page provides information and resources on finance and health as well as reflections and stories that are my own um all within to drive action and change in the lactonyx um community um and i'm not saying i have all the answers or know everything or you know or even that i embrace my story fully at times right but i'm certainly trying and i'm trying to better for myself on the issues and impact that impact our community um how to better advocate for us and do so effectively and represent our community in the best way possible and like if there are other people that are listening and you can relate to this or in a similar space like that's totally okay but we cannot wait to know everything or have the right words to speak up um yeah i want people to not only embrace their power but also embrace their story just as i'm trying to do um which is hard at times but yeah i mean of course it is i mean you're providing so many resources and so many um value information that i know as you said it's not easy it's not you don't have all the answers and that's okay i think something really beautiful um that you said was that you were able to open this space even though you didn't have all the answers even though you know you're still growing and you're still learning because so many times we just wait for things to happen because we want those things to be perfect we want to be experts and you don't have to be an expert you can even communicate that you can say hey i don't know about this topic and that's the power of of the internet and the social media saying hey do you know about this do you want to tell me your story right like it's it's that exchange and in that i really connect with you with you in that sense because i felt the same way like if i look back to the first interview that i that i did i definitely didn't know anything about immigration but my story right and but how can you learn about immigration if it's not sitting with other immigrants that have different journeys right like um so i just feel like just you sharing that is definitely empowering others it's empowering myself to embrace that too to embrace the parts that i didn't like and say hey you know this is this is it but we can we can be better and we can help each other so i think yeah i mean it's amazing and we need more and more space like that yeah so definitely like a lot of the posts that i do um that are not my story um that you know i've researched how these different topics affect latinos and i feel like when people feel mainly powerless because they either lack experience knowledge information um and if you were to maybe provide that or even just like sharing your story like hey i went through this but this is how i overcame it or these are you know i hit this wall but this is how i actually overcame this obstacle maybe this can help you to um yes here like like i staying quiet and not sharing that part because we love to share only the positive right on instagram nobody wants to show up and be like i'm crying i got this thing tonight but i feel like if we don't talk about that then the person looking at instagram is saying wow how perfect how did they do it right um and then they were never gonna get the answers for their as you said hey maybe give this a try maybe start your own instagram account maybe share your story right like if you don't get that sense from listening to you for example right now it's like come on we need we need that support and and but they can people um it's your page right now like receiving any sort of like donations for for example the scholarships or if anyone is interested in um it does not receive donations yes that is definitely something i've been thinking about doing in the future specifically so like the scholarship that i uh give is out of my own pocket like i save it up throughout the year uh to uh to provide it it's fairly small it's like two thousand dollars um so it can only help one student and it's not like probably they can help that much because college is so expensive right but it's like i'm trying to do my own part but i definitely do want to incorporate something for the page like okay like if you guys signed up you know this percentage or like this huge percentage would go to the scholarship to help other uh undocumented and doctor students that's definitely something i want to want to do just probably haven't really uh it takes time good way yes the page actually started when i was uh when i was on vacation for my career for my job you had the time yeah i did two weeks off that i had to take otherwise i would lose them um and so i was like all right this is a good time i guess i have all these ideas that i've been trying to bounce around my sister and my family um my sister does all the health posts so i'm not a health expert whatsoever so she does all the posts she's a nurse that's so awesome that's a great teamwork that's great why did you start i don't know sorry i don't know what you said this is the challenge with like soon meetings is that sometimes the internet is a little off and i feel like i'm cutting off people so sorry if i'm gone enough um but i did wanted to ask because i i didn't even ask you before what's your what do you work like what do you do for work is it related to also helping communities and human services or no so i work in an investment bank okay um i've been there for seven years i work in the finance department i'm an associate there so uh just because of tennessee um great my current job is basically looking at regulations that came about post-financial crisis at germany 2009. so i studied economics and finance and i really nerded out on um financial crisis and like things that happened prior to the crisis um that kind of led to those events um so it was very fitting that i actually had uh found this job because it definitely deals with regulations that came about the correct uh post crisis but to make sure that banks are safe um they continue to act as banks during an economic crisis or during a stress scenario meaning like continue to lend continue to buy and sell securities in the stock market and specifically have enough capital to not need to be bailed out by the federal reserve or by the government which happened in 2008 2009. so i look at the riskiness of the assets as well as investments that are that the bank does um to ensure we have money aside to absorb any unexpected losses that we that we could have in the future oh wow that's really cool that's awesome and it's totally different to what you do with your page so i think you can balance those two interests that's really cool i mean i studied finance and i do finance and so that helps me with my finance posts a lot yes i i have seen those which i think they're so important in the latino community and and in any immigrant that's also listening i think it's a topic that i feel like a culture sometimes we don't want to talk about it we don't or we treat money in a different way so i think it's really important that if anyone that's listening and wants to check out your account know that you're gonna find um as as patty said like different resources from different areas which i think is really cool empathy to say goodbye and to win the interview which i don't want to it's been a great time uh this is always the sad part but i just added something in inner outline that wasn't there but i thought that i should ask you this to end the conversation which is can you give us like a final message to any latino or latino immigrant that might be listening as something that as an empowerment as a message to empower them yeah it's like definitely own your power oh know that you actually matter in for example the voting that's coming up in the election um if you're able to vote do so um like i said previously we are misrepresented underrepresented because i feel like also we just act as if we were weak instead of strong um you know we do have power to make a change in this country in any way that we can um yes embrace your story uh it's hard to do so i definitely have that sort of challenge even now like i'm still struggling to be like what do i even share on my page like am i comfortable enough telling the story that i have had for so long and do it do it a hundred percent yes it helps people connect even if people could just relate to your particular post or to your story like uh i actually um one of the episodes that you did with jessie she's great yes i listened to it and i could relate she also moved um here from utah like uh to utah so yes after i heard the episode i actually like dm'd her on instagram like hey i could totally relate to you um so you never know who uh you could connect to um through the power of your story that is so beautiful and that's something i never expected that wasn't like a thing i could even imagine because when i started the podcast i didn't know anyone was gonna be listening i was just like yeah i'm gonna interview my friends right um and it's so beautiful when i hear that some people are meeting bless you my dog that some people are like meeting each other to me that's beautiful like that's the connection right like oh i live in utah i live in new york and and yeah as you said we needed this we needed those spaces that were creating back then i feel when i moved here uh but it's never too late i don't feel it's ever late to start and to share your story and own it as you said i think that's so beautiful patty thank you so much thank you for having me for giving me this platform to share my story um hopefully helps people um i know i will thank you i really do and i'm glad that now we're connected i can't wait to continue to see what you share on latinos and power can you share the handle so people can check out the uh instagram or anywhere else where you're at so it's at latinos dot empower perfect and instagram on instagram okay perfect that way we can all check it out and get like that information and pass the resources like that's what's so easy you can share you can mention someone um i feel like we all we all know at least one person that can learn something from from those posts so let's take advantage of that thank you one more time patty hope you have a good night you