As a minority-owned business, building a stronger understanding of diversity—and contributing meaningfully to the continued effort for equitable representation in the corporate world—is a cornerstone of Monticello’s philosophy. This week, we attended ALPFA webinar on the economic benefits of Latinx immigration. Here’s a little about what we learned.
What does the face of the American entrepreneur look like? In a country as teeming with diversity as ours, it’s a tough question to answer—but there’s a very real possibility that they look like a member of the Latinx community. If you’ve stopped by an establishment of any kind in the past week, there’s a one in five chance that it’s run by a Hispanic, Latino, or Latina business owner. Let that sink in: a community that represents around 18.5% of our national population accounts for a fifth of all businesses in the country. It’s a staggering figure that’s only compounded by the fact that members of the Latinx community are twice as likely to start businesses compared to the average American. Hispanic-Americans consistently contribute to the national economy in a way that far exceeds the proportion of the population they comprise.
This capacity for contribution extends well beyond entrepreneurship alone, and it’s crucial for major corporations to reflect the growing national profile of the Latinx community within their own rosters; attracting qualified Latinx applicants allows corporations to harness their unique insights and backgrounds. Whether it’s through hiring more employees from Hispanic-Serving Institutions, or actively encouraging Latinx engagement, there are intuitive, straightforward measures corporations can take to create diverse workplaces. In recent years, diversity initiatives may have moved away from race and ethnicity, but building a heterogenous community has never been more important than it is now—and it begins with empowering and enabling our Latinx community.