[Music]
I am mestizo this means that my legacy
comes from diffusion or more accurately
the clash of European and indigenous
cultures since I am Mexican
that means that my cultural background
is a mix of Spanish indigenous cultures
from Mesoamerica with African Jewish and
Arabic in the mix too and in today’s
world in a globalized world being
mestizo is one of the most powerful
tools that a person can have and also
the most influence in contemporary
society let me explain why I say these
by sharing the story of how I became
bicultural mestizo ever since I was a
kid I was used to the idea and
surrounded by a culture that has things
that were particularly indigenous some
others that were particularly Spanish
and most others that were both language
is a good example of that
so I use words like a wakati
or is queen clay which come from the
Nahuatl language ojala or al guada which
come from arabic or acevedo which is my
spanish last name traveling all around
mexico you get used to the fact that the
church in the main plaza was built on
top of a pyramid oftentimes using the
same stones the colonial buildings have
indigenous motives on them and also if
you enjoy some food chances are that it
was prepared with indigenous ingredients
using European cooking techniques
I cannot separate my indigenous
background from my arrow key and one
even if I want it they are one and the
same thing it’s like a taco al pastor a
taco al pastor is a type of taco made
with a
corn tortilla maize being the staple
food of the Americas with a feeling of
pork marinated which comes from Europe
Grill in a Lebanese style shawarma and
which salsas that are made with tomatoes
and chilies that come from the Americas
what makes a tackle past or delicious is
not that is the combination of all those
things it’s all those things together
what makes it what it is so what I’m
trying to say is that being mestizo is
not a combination of several cultures
he’s being all those cultures at the
same time and that’s what makes us
unique ever since I was a kid I knew
that I was gonna be an immigrant I used
today dream with far away countries and
speaking of a foreign language I was
fascinated by the idea of living in a
country in which all customs were
different from mine but little did I
know that it was gonna be one of the
most intense experiences of my life
I moved to the US the very next day
after I defended my master’s degree
dissertation and got summa laude
literally from one day to another I
didn’t know how to do the most basic
things that we all take for granted like
sending a letter by mail or filling my
gas tank I literally had a nervous
breakdown when I went to Kinko’s and I
couldn’t figure out how to make a
photocopy but for the last 20 years I’ve
been living in San Francisco and
realizing my childhood dream on any
given day I get to discuss business with
my Indian American colleague or get on
the bus with a Kenyan driver or eat
dinner at a Bernese restaurant
in which and potentially the only person
who speaks English or Spanish I’ve been
in many situations in
I was the only non black person in the
room and many many many others in which
I was the only non-white one and I’ve
got to learn a lot about what it means
to be and adapt to another culture to
the point of making it your own so for
example I’ve learned that in order to
thrive in American culture you have to
be very precise in the way that you talk
so people get the exact meaning of what
you’re saying or that you have to keep
an optimist point of view at all cost or
people will see you as an obstacle or
that you have to keep control of every
situation and know exactly what to
expect from them so now after many years
I use phrases such as we’re on the same
page yes and or the goal for this
meeting is so I learn that being
bicultural is something that comes
natural to me
and because I am by cultural puedo
progress sorry entender dos cultura
diferentes I am able to progress and to
thrive in different cultures and because
I am mestizo it comes natural to me I
can navigate different cultural context
but let’s talk about you you you I want
you to remember the last time that you
felt empathy for somebody else
you know that feeling in which we know
what the other person is going through
and we almost can feel what it is to
work on hurt on his shoes it’s a feeling
of deep compassion and he left was
feeling not alone accompanied in the
world and knowing that we are all
connected but I want now you to
think about getting to that level of
empathy with a person that does not
belong to your culture does not speak
your language and does not share your
values the idea is easy to accept and
most of us would say that we do but in
reality is one of the most difficult
things that we have to do or that we
could do why because it implies to
question everything that we take as true
all our assumptions and think that they
might not be true that they might be
exacerbated or maybe even invalid
cultural openness is one of the most
accepted ideas but one of them is these
low attitudes to actualize but in
today’s world chances are that you need
to connect and create relationships with
people from many different cultures here
at home or abroad we are living in a
world that is increasingly
interconnected our economies depend on
each other and because of mass
communications we know exactly what’s
going on in every corner of the world
yet we’re getting to a point in which we
can also establish interpersonal
connections with people from all around
the world or people from many different
cultures around us it’s not at a macro
level anymore we’re getting to a point
in which we can establish deep
meaningful connections with people from
any sort of background so being mestizo
and bicultural comes handy when you want
to establish these type of connections I
want you to picture this I am sitting in
Dolores Park in San Francisco with one
of my best friends who happens to be a
white man from Detroit and we’re sharing
our struggles and our passions
about our businesses and our
relationships or families and filling
that deep level of connection well at
the same time acknowledging that there’s
a whole lot that we don’t understand
about each other and that we don’t know
how it works
but the most important thing is that at
that very moment I feel like I’m one
person and not a mix of people there’s a
very popular song in Latin America that
says not from here
nor from there no soy de aqui nice oh
yeah yeah at this moment in my life I
can say with confidence I am from here
and I am from there in today’s world
being mestizo and bicultural is one of
the most powerful things that we have in
our society because Latinos and
bicultural Latinos specifically know how
to navigate the turbulent waters of
intercultural communication so if you
want to establish meaningful
relationships in a globalized world but
also here at home pay attention to what
bicultural Latinos are doing nowadays
gracias
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
you
[Music]
I am mestizo this means that my legacy
comes from diffusion or more accurately
the clash of European and indigenous
cultures since I am Mexican
that means that my cultural background
is a mix of Spanish indigenous cultures
from Mesoamerica with African Jewish and
Arabic in the mix too and in today’s
world in a globalized world being
mestizo is one of the most powerful
tools that a person can have and also
the most influence in contemporary
society let me explain why I say these
by sharing the story of how I became
bicultural mestizo ever since I was a
kid I was used to the idea and
surrounded by a culture that has things
that were particularly indigenous some
others that were particularly Spanish
and most others that were both language
is a good example of that
so I use words like a wakati
or is queen clay which come from the
Nahuatl language ojala or al guada which
come from arabic or acevedo which is my
spanish last name traveling all around
mexico you get used to the fact that the
church in the main plaza was built on
top of a pyramid oftentimes using the
same stones the colonial buildings have
indigenous motives on them and also if
you enjoy some food chances are that it
was prepared with indigenous ingredients
using European cooking techniques
I cannot separate my indigenous
background from my arrow key and one
even if I want it they are one and the
same thing it’s like a taco al pastor a
taco al pastor is a type of taco made
with a
corn tortilla maize being the staple
food of the Americas with a feeling of
pork marinated which comes from Europe
Grill in a Lebanese style shawarma and
which salsas that are made with tomatoes
and chilies that come from the Americas
what makes a tackle past or delicious is
not that is the combination of all those
things it’s all those things together
what makes it what it is so what I’m
trying to say is that being mestizo is
not a combination of several cultures
he’s being all those cultures at the
same time and that’s what makes us
unique ever since I was a kid I knew
that I was gonna be an immigrant I used
today dream with far away countries and
speaking of a foreign language I was
fascinated by the idea of living in a
country in which all customs were
different from mine but little did I
know that it was gonna be one of the
most intense experiences of my life
I moved to the US the very next day
after I defended my master’s degree
dissertation and got summa laude
literally from one day to another I
didn’t know how to do the most basic
things that we all take for granted like
sending a letter by mail or filling my
gas tank I literally had a nervous
breakdown when I went to Kinko’s and I
couldn’t figure out how to make a
photocopy but for the last 20 years I’ve
been living in San Francisco and
realizing my childhood dream on any
given day I get to discuss business with
my Indian American colleague or get on
the bus with a Kenyan driver or eat
dinner at a Bernese restaurant
in which and potentially the only person
who speaks English or Spanish I’ve been
in many situations in
I was the only non black person in the
room and many many many others in which
I was the only non-white one and I’ve
got to learn a lot about what it means
to be and adapt to another culture to
the point of making it your own so for
example I’ve learned that in order to
thrive in American culture you have to
be very precise in the way that you talk
so people get the exact meaning of what
you’re saying or that you have to keep
an optimist point of view at all cost or
people will see you as an obstacle or
that you have to keep control of every
situation and know exactly what to
expect from them so now after many years
I use phrases such as we’re on the same
page yes and or the goal for this
meeting is so I learn that being
bicultural is something that comes
natural to me
and because I am by cultural puedo
progress sorry entender dos cultura
diferentes I am able to progress and to
thrive in different cultures and because
I am mestizo it comes natural to me I
can navigate different cultural context
but let’s talk about you you you I want
you to remember the last time that you
felt empathy for somebody else
you know that feeling in which we know
what the other person is going through
and we almost can feel what it is to
work on hurt on his shoes it’s a feeling
of deep compassion and he left was
feeling not alone accompanied in the
world and knowing that we are all
connected but I want now you to
think about getting to that level of
empathy with a person that does not
belong to your culture does not speak
your language and does not share your
values the idea is easy to accept and
most of us would say that we do but in
reality is one of the most difficult
things that we have to do or that we
could do why because it implies to
question everything that we take as true
all our assumptions and think that they
might not be true that they might be
exacerbated or maybe even invalid
cultural openness is one of the most
accepted ideas but one of them is these
low attitudes to actualize but in
today’s world chances are that you need
to connect and create relationships with
people from many different cultures here
at home or abroad we are living in a
world that is increasingly
interconnected our economies depend on
each other and because of mass
communications we know exactly what’s
going on in every corner of the world
yet we’re getting to a point in which we
can also establish interpersonal
connections with people from all around
the world or people from many different
cultures around us it’s not at a macro
level anymore we’re getting to a point
in which we can establish deep
meaningful connections with people from
any sort of background so being mestizo
and bicultural comes handy when you want
to establish these type of connections I
want you to picture this I am sitting in
Dolores Park in San Francisco with one
of my best friends who happens to be a
white man from Detroit and we’re sharing
our struggles and our passions
about our businesses and our
relationships or families and filling
that deep level of connection well at
the same time acknowledging that there’s
a whole lot that we don’t understand
about each other and that we don’t know
how it works
but the most important thing is that at
that very moment I feel like I’m one
person and not a mix of people there’s a
very popular song in Latin America that
says not from here
nor from there no soy de aqui nice oh
yeah yeah at this moment in my life I
can say with confidence I am from here
and I am from there in today’s world
being mestizo and bicultural is one of
the most powerful things that we have in
our society because Latinos and
bicultural Latinos specifically know how
to navigate the turbulent waters of
intercultural communication so if you
want to establish meaningful
relationships in a globalized world but
also here at home pay attention to what
bicultural Latinos are doing nowadays
gracias
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
you
[Music]
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