First Hispanic Leadership Summit at United Nations Concludes with Call to Hispanics to Unify, Lead Change as 2020 Nears
Top Three on Leaders’ Agenda: Education, Financial Empowerment, Image of Hispanics
More than 300 leaders from the worlds of business, news media, policy and politics attended the summit, which was designed as a working meeting, during which attendees voted on issues ranging from professional skills development to improving the success of Latino entrepreneurs to increasing the Hispanic voter turnout.
The three items that leaders agreed should top a common agenda for U.S. Hispanics: access to education, financial empowerment and improving the image of Hispanics and Latinos as a community.
“We’ll remember this summit and its role in playing setting a common agenda as the rallying point from which we moved forward as one aligned Hispanic community,” said Claudia Romo Edelman, founder of the summit’s organizer, the non-profit We Are All Human Foundation, which champions equality, diversity and inclusion.
Informing the summit’s dialogue were research insights from We Are All Human’s recently commissioned Hispanic Sentiment Study. Conducted by Zeno Group, a global communications firm, the study surveyed more than 2,500 Hispanics over the age of 14, analyzing results by respondents who identified as first-generation Americans and second-generation Americans, as well as along generation lines: Generation Z, Millennials, Generation X, Baby Boomers and Matures.
A key insight from the Zeno research: 77 percent of Hispanics and Latinx respondents were surprised by at least one of the recent accomplishments made by their community when presented to them in the survey.
“Our research affirms that the significant contributions of U.S. Hispanics are consistently underestimated and overlooked, including among many Hispanics,” Romo Edelman said. “Our summit leaders agreed this is no longer acceptable, and must be reversed if we’re to realize our true potential as America’s largest diverse community.”
Other leaders echoed the need to increase the U.S. Hispanic community’s influence, as the December 10th summit’s hashtag (#HispanicSummit 2018) became the number one trending topic on Twitter in both Dallas and New York.
“We need to disclose to the world that we are Latinos and we are Americans,” said Sol Trujillo, one of the first Hispanic U.S. CEOs and the head of the Latino Donor Collaborative, in opening remarks.
Added Henry Cisneros, the former U.S. secretary of Housing and Urban Development and ex-mayor of San Antonio, Texas: “2020 needs to be the year of Latino emergence in American politics.”
“[Hispanics] should make sure our stories are being told – producers, bookers, everyone involved in storytelling from concept to execution, needs to understand that Hispanic stories are [American] stories,” said Hugo Balta, president of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, during a summit panel on the media’s role in the perception of Hispanics.
To view a recap of the Hispanic Leadership Summit and follow We Are All Human’s journey to unifying Hispanics by 2020 visit their website.
About the Hispanic Leadership Summit
The Hispanic Leadership Summit is a non-partisan event that plans to go beyond sectoral interests and insights from the November midterm elections to discuss and reflect on what unites America’s many Hispanic and Latinx communities, and what should be done to ensure their importance to the U.S.’s future is understood. Event sponsors included
Golden Sponsors: AT&T Business, Dairy Management Inc, Greenberg Traurig, HARMAN, Microsoft, ULTA Beauty. Silver sponsors: Chevron, PepsiCo, Western Union. Bronze sponsors: Aflac, APCO, Alzheimer Association, Colgate, Viacom, Walmart. Also, Hispanic Executive & The Alumni Society, HACE, Cultura Colectiva, Zeno Group.
About We Are All Human
We Are All Human is a foundation dedicated to advancing the agenda of equity, diversity, inclusion.
In October 2018, the Foundation unveiled the results of its Hispanic Sentiment Study, which focused on the outlook of the U.S. Hispanic/Latino community by exploring pertaining to politics, business, education and personal values. Conducted September 15-19, 2018 via online by the global communications firm Zeno Group, the Hispanic Sentiment Study surveyed more than 2,500 Hispanics/Latinos, aged 14 and older, across the United States.
For more information, visit www.WeAreAllHuman.org.