[logo sonoro] [música dinámica] PATRICIA GÓMEZ: Hola a todos, soy Patricia Gómez y esto es Adelante.

En el episodio de hoy tenemos una conversación esencial sobre el arte, la inclusión y el liderazgo.

Nos acompañan Rachel Peri de Welcoming América para explorar la integración de inmigrantes y refugiados.

También nos sentamos con Eduardo Arabú del National Hispanic Corporate Council, quien compartirá la clave de la representación hispana en el ámbito corporativo.

Prepárense para ser inspirados por el arte de Max Zuleta en nuestro segmento especial.

¡No se lo pierdan!

[logo sonoro] PATRICIA GÓMEZ: Mientras el panorama de la inmigración continúa cambiando e impactando la vida de muchos, Welcoming America juega un papel crucial en la construcción de puentes y la creación de entornos donde todos puedan prosperar.

Rachel Peri está hoy con nosotros para explicarnos cómo las comunidades pueden fortalecerse a través de políticas y programas de bienvenida, promoviendo la cohesión social y el desarrollo económico para todos sus residentes, sin importar su origen.

[music] RACHEL PERI : Welcoming America is an organization that works to support communities in building a welcoming society and welcoming places where every one of us, including immigrants, can thrive, can belong, and can prosper in the places we call home.

I'm not the founder of Welcoming America, but it has been a labor of love for many years for me.

My own family came as refugees to the United States.

They had left and survived a place that really represents the worst of what society can do when we let prejudice and dehumanization get the better of us, and came to the United States, I think as many immigrants do, believing in its promise of freedom and opportunity and benefiting from that.

But we also know that there is a very strong economic case, and I think that that is especially true for states like Wisconsin, as well as many rural places in the United States where immigrants have accounted for just about all of the population growth of many places in the U.S., which has had a really outsize economic impact in terms of making sure that communities can stabilize, can see businesses on Main Street, can have the workforce that we need.

We have an aging population here in the United States, so we need, we need people not just to fill jobs, but to really be rooted in our communities to be able to thrive.

So what we're talking about here is really our economic future, but also, building a country that really lives into its democratic values and the idea that we can come from anywhere in the world and call ourselves an American.

PATRICIA GÓMEZ: Beyond the economic part of what happens when immigrants are welcome in a country, it is also established in your beliefs, your philosophy, that immigrants enrich communities in many other ways.

Can you comment on that?

RACHEL PERI : Just to keep putting a finer point on the economics of that, because I know that is important for many people, I just wanted to share, you know, a little bit of statistics in terms of Wisconsin.

Three billion dollars is what immigrants in Wisconsin are contributing, you know, both in state and local taxes and also federal taxes.

So there is, you know, a lot that immigrants are paying into the system, and unfortunately, for many immigrants not being able to access or benefit from all that they are putting in.

So we believe it's really important for communities to make sure that everyone, including immigrants, can contribute their fullest, and that is not just an economic contribution, but also being able to fully participate in decision making in communities, being able to volunteer, serve on boards and commissions, being able to connect with neighbors at a human level, socially cohesive, you know that building trust across lines of difference makes for communities that are safer.

And we also know that many communities benefit so much from the cultural contributions that people make in cuisine, in arts and culture and humanities.

So there's just so much that enriches communities as a result of migration and as a result of people fully belonging in the places we call home.

PATRICIA GÓMEZ: Do they have a role in the resilience of their communities?

RACHEL PERI : Absolutely!

I think the act of migration is itself an act of great resilience to pick up everything and move to a new place, shows an ability to adapt, and we see that in the way that so many immigrants, including my own family, have become entrepreneurs, opening businesses and being able to build a new life.

And also communities themselves are more resilient when they are able to adapt and make it easier for people to be fully part of the community.

PATRICIA GÓMEZ: Rachel, what is the welcoming standard?

RACHEL PERI : It is a roadmap for communities to look at how to become a more welcoming place, making it easier to open a business, making it easier to learn English, reducing some of the common barriers that immigrants might face to being full participants, civically, socially, economically, and encoding those in a standard, and we also have a program called certified welcoming, where communities can demonstrate an ability to meet that standard and then be certified as a welcoming city or county.

PATRICIA GÓMEZ: What is equitable access?

How the welcoming standard helps that?

RACHEL PERI : Equitable access is about making sure that all members of the community, whether they're immigrant or not, can access services, access resources.

And so in the standard, we wanna make sure that communities know how to do that in practical ways.

PATRICIA GÓMEZ: How does it build trust?

RACHEL PERI : Building trust between neighbors.

A lot of our communities are really segregated.

We don't have naturally a lot of opportunities to connect with one another.

So many communities are doing really wonderful work to bring neighbors together, whether that's over a soccer pitch or over community dinners or using local arts and culture to help people connect at a human level.

That work is, more than ever, so important, I think as many people don't feel that trust.

I mean, both immigrants, especially right now, especially people who may not have documentation, there's just so much fear, and I think, you know, many Americans are feeling that sense of fear or feeling that there isn't trust with neighbors.

So we have to be really intentional about building that, and I think welcoming is one of the many ways that we can be smart and thoughtful in our own backyards about connecting with our neighbors and building the trust.

I think that education is one of the most important areas for communities to be thinking about.

A quarter of all children in this country are immigrants or children of immigrants.

Many of them are hearing messages that they don't belong.

We've seen a rise in bullying and hate crimes.

So at a minimum, I think our educational institutions and especially K-12 can be playing a role in reducing fear, reducing harm.

It's the place where you access information.

It's the place where you meet first friends.

It's the place where you maybe learn to speak English.

And so equipping schools to be prepared, to be welcoming, is just so critically important.

PATRICIA GÓMEZ: Right now, Latinos are facing many challenges.

Not just Latinos, but other immigrant and refugee groups.

Is Welcoming America using special ways to address these challenges, and what are for you the key challenges that these communities are facing?

RACHEL PERI : I think that one of the most important messages that I want to bring to your audience is that, regardless of what is happening in Washington, we have so much power in our own backyards, in our communities, to reinforce people's belonging, to reinforce trust between neighbors, and regardless of our political affiliation, regardless of our identity or race or origin, all of us benefit from living in communities where we feel valued, where we can trust one another, and building a welcoming community is something that we can all do, and reinforce for one another.

And then every year in September, we host an event called Welcoming Week.

It's being celebrated across the US and around the world.

That's something that we all have the power to do, and we would love for as many people as possible to participate in that.

We have members in about 47 states and any organization that is a local government or a nonprofit can become a member.

We do have a few members in Wisconsin, and a number of them are in rural parts of Wisconsin where the role of immigrants, especially in revitalizing industries like the dairy industry for example, is especially important.

So much fear in communities in mixed status families, among people whose status is really tenuous at this moment, or people who don't have status, just given the deportations that are happening.

You know, have many loved ones who are confronting impossible decisions about whether to say goodbye to family members and know that they may not see them ever again.

I mean, it's just gut wrenching.

There is no doubt, you know, the human consequences, the economic consequences, the public health consequences, not only to people who are directly impacted, but to all of us.

And so I think it's just so important for all of us to be kind of growing together to create the opposite of what we're seeing, the opposite of the fear and the hate, and, you know, building what we can in our own backyards to really, again, reinforce our shared belonging and, you know, build the country that I know that we can be.

[music] PATRICIA GÓMEZ: Eduardo Arabú del National Hispanic Corporate Council abordará la crítica necesidad de representación hispana en el liderazgo corporativo.

Describirá cómo su organización impulsa activamente la inclusión de profesionales hispanos en juntas directivas y puestos claves, resaltando el impacto positivo de esta diversidad en el crecimiento y éxito del sector empresarial.

[music] EDUARDO ARABÚ: The National Hispanic Corporate Council was founded almost 40 years ago in 1985 as an organization for corporate America, by corporate America, to educate its members on the rising Hispanic Latino population.

At that time, it was a much smaller population of what it is today.

Back then, it was around 10 million on a national census, and today it's almost 63 and a half million Latinos per the last census.

And so, companies got together and said, hey, this is a rising consumer base.

How do we tap into this market for a customer perspective, but then also for maybe talent and workforce?

So, this organization had been working together as an education, as a learning organization, to bring awareness about leadership, best practices and resources to help companies better understand our community and leverage that for their business operation.

PATRICIA GÓMEZ: Eduardo, what is your background that brought you to be part and to be the head of such an important organization?

EDUARDO ARABÚ: Yes, I had a very diverse background, first starting out in human resources, talent acquisition, also had opportunities to work in public relations, public policy, as well.

And I think those two were an opportunity administration, public administration into a role that to fuel business one, allows me to be an association executive, but also work with corporate members under Hispanic and Latino strategy.

So, I believe my background as a fellow Latino, born in Venezuela, raised in the United States, allowed me to be bicultural, bilingual, and provide that perspective to corporate America.

PATRICIA GÓMEZ: What are the key strategies that NHCC provides for these companies to acquire a Hispanic/Latino talent and to retain them?

EDUARDO ARABÚ: When we look at Latino talent, we look at it from a talent acquisition, talent development, talent retention, and talent management.

So as the population, as our communities continue to grow, more and more of the available workforce will be Hispanic or Latinos over the next couple of decades.

And so, we try to bring that awareness to companies.

We try to leverage cultural competency so they can understand who we are in the community.

As you may know, Latinos represent many countries, many intersectionality, and many different backgrounds, whether you're first generation immigrant born here or however you self-identify.

And so, bringing some of that cultural competency to corporate America is key, and number one, and then applying it to their strategy.

Where can they find best and brightest Latinos around the country?

How can they grow the talent pool?

How can they best tap into the existing workforce?

How do we elevate current leaders in corporate America to the next world manager, director, vice president, C-suite?

And so, these are the type of conversations that we have with our member company, and we provide that as a resource.

Sometimes you don't know what you don't know, or you may have not worked with certain communities, or you may be missing out certain job fairs or organizations that can be strategic partners that help you attract that talent.

The Latino consumer is the fastest growing demographic in the United States.

To put it in perspective, we're the fifth largest economy in the world, if you group all the Latinos that are here in the United States and named us as our own country.

And so we provide awareness, information, data, demographic that highlights the purchasing power and the Latino consumer buying power opportunities for that.

We also share content.

Again, going back to that cultural competency.

It's important to understand who the Latino consumers are -- mobile, we're younger, we're a larger family -- and things like that that can help make a connection to a particular brand, to a particular company for their product and services.

So when we're looking at workforce or marketplace strategy, you must have a campaign or initiative that specifically targets Hispanics and Latinos as your stakeholders.

Without that, you're at risk of not continuing to reach that market and to grow opportunities in those areas.

Yeah, there are major companies that have been with NHCC since inception or have recognized the value of our market way many, many years ago before it becomes a necessary thing for growth.

So some of those key fortune companies, they are who they are because of their intentional outreach, their intentional campaign for Latino community, and not only from a marketplace and consumer side but also from a workforce.

PATRICIA GÓMEZ: Eduardo, how those NHCC partners with other organizations to reach your goals?

EDUARDO ARABÚ: We have many events and activities where we convene leaders to connect, learn, share and network around best practices and strategy.

So as we have our events and engagement throughout the country, we invite national and regional partners that can collaborate, that have the audience base, that want the knowledge, that want the collaboration and the better way from a national organization like NHCC to support local, regional partners at the ground level.

Some of the companies that have been with us since 1985 really recognize the Hispanic market potential from a customer perspective and a talent, companies like Coca-Cola, companies like McDonald's, but over the years, we have invited folks like Hilton, Marriott, the Boeing Company, Liberty Mutual, State Farm, Comcast NBC, Universal and many, many other fortune-level companies around the country that are coming to us not only to get the knowledge, the awareness, but also the content and the way to engage with their perspective Hispanic and Latino stakeholders.

PATRICIA GÓMEZ: Eduardo, how can people get involved in your organization?

How can they reach out?

Is there a website where they can go and look for more information about you?

EDUARDO ARABÚ: Absolutely.

We'd like to have corporations, leaders and other executives from around the country consider to learn more about NHCC and how we can collaborate together to help elevate their Hispanic/Latino talent, customer, supplier, community relations and their important resource group strategy.

We invite them to come to our website.

That is www.nhcchq.org and/or follow us on LinkedIn for more information.

[music] PATRICIA GÓMEZ: Ahora, los invitamos a sumergirse en una historia producida por nuestro colega, productor y director de The Arts Page de Milwaukee PBS, Adam Lilly.

Les presentamos al aclamado artista Max Zuleta, conocido internacionalmente por sus impresionantes esculturas de hielo, a través de su empresa Art Below Zero.

[BACKGROUND NOISE-CHAINS-PLASTIC CRINKLING-DRILL WHIRRING] MAX ZULETA: In order to become an ice sculptor, you need to have not only the artistic skills, the endurance to get the sculpture done, but the discipline.

[drill whirring-music] MAX ZULETA: You're in a freezer for many hours a day or in a winter festival.

It's a very challenging material, and there's a lot of logistical things that go along with ice sculpting, like the drainage of the water in an event, in a room temperature event.

So it's very hard, but it's very rewarding.

You do ask yourself continuously, "Why am I doing this?

It's going to melt."

But the beautiful thing about ice sculptures is that it teaches us that beauty is not permanent.

It teaches you to enjoy what you have in front of you and make the most out of it.

[music-pumping water] MAX ZULETA: One of the secrets of in a crystal clear block of ice, two of the secrets: one is we purify the water.

We have a reverse osmosis system, a water softener, and an industrial filter.

So this is better than Evian water.

Is super clean water, and then the other secret is the motion.

These pumps make the molecules of water to freeze really, really, really tight together.

That's why the ice is so crystal clear and so dense, so strong.

As motion is the biggest secret.

There was no ice sculpting school in Venezuela.

That's usually taught in culinary school.

So the only way for me to learn was to try to learn from somebody.

So I was begging for like three months to a to a chef in Caracas, in Venezuela, and so he took me in.

He taught me some basic principles of ice sculpting.

[ice carving machine running] MAX ZULETA: And then I started going to competitions all over the States and Canada and Europe.

My purpose in that time was just to learn as much as possible.

So I had to balance between doing my sculptures, trying to do well in the competition, at the same time trying to learn as much as I can, and trying to learn of their techniques and tools.

[saw cutting ice] MAX ZULETA: In those days we didn't have chainsaws or chainsaws were not applied to ice sculpting yet.

So it was, you know, like a handsaw and ice picks and chisels to be able to carve a sculpture with only a handsaw.

Oh, I have so many stitches all over the place, and then it's also a physical job.

[HEAVY ICE BLOCK SHUFFLES ON DOLLY] MAX ZULETA: These are 300-pound blocks of ice, and at that point, they felt like this is one of the most difficult things in the world.

Why am I doing this?

What was the most difficult thing at the time, which was learning how to carve with only handsaws and chisels, now I have the technology.

I have massive CNC machines and every tool that I can get.

[machine whirring] MAX ZULETA: But having the skills of starting really, really, really hard and having the skills to create a sculpture with only a hand saw or a chisel, when somebody wants to start over, I'm like, start with the basic tools and just create your skills based on a very limited amount of tools, and then eventually you develop and you can add more tools into it, but you have a really good foundation for your technique.

[MACHINE AND BLOWER SOUNDS- MUSIC] MAX ZULETA: 26 years ago I had an offer to work in Paris or I had the option of buying a company in Chicago.

That deal didn't go through, so I decided, okay, I'm going to open my own company, but I'm going to move a little bit north.

I mean, it's Milwaukee, Madison, Lake Geneva, all the way up to Green Bay.

And at this moment, I'm inspired by people, by the effect my ice sculptures create on people.

I am grateful that I come in in people's lives in very special times in their life, in their wedding or their anniversary or a birthday or a bar mitzvah.

I think there's a lot of things that we do that translate into you can do whatever you want.

If we can create this ice sculpture out of a block of ice, you can go home and do whatever you want.

You can create your own masterpieces into any material that you want, and you can overcome any challenge.

[torch ignites, flame roaring] If you can amaze and inspire people, that's the best thing you can do.

One other beautiful thing about ice sculpting is that it allows me, like I have some ideas, and I'm like, how can I get this out of my head?

How can I get this into a material?

And so at the end of the day, you feel like, ah, it feels good to be able to translate something into a block of ice.

[music] PATRICIA GÓMEZ: Y con uno hasta pronto nos despedimos invitándolos a que nos dejen saber sus comentarios por el teléfono 414-297-7544 o a que nos visiten en nuestro sitio web en milwaukeepbs.org y en nuestras redes sociales.

Soy Patricia Gómez deseándoles paz y bendiciones.

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