A Reflection of Work

by Antonio Tijerino, President and CEO, Hispanic Heritage Foundation

With Hispanic Heritage Month 2021 as a reflection heading into the Holiday Season, I look back at how our community was challenged in so many ways through a pandemic that hit us disproportionately hard in terms of our health, finances, jobs, homes, education, mental health, and even our unity. But we demonstrated our resilience that we’ve built for centuries. We demonstrated our adaptability. We demonstrated our ingenuity, and we once again demonstrated the value we provide America, especially when the great country we share is under duress.

AFTER THE PAST YEAR and a half, I am hopeful that America, and our own community, has an even greater appreciation for the service of our noble frontline workers who have put themselves at risk to keep our families safe, healthy, equipped, and nourished.

I remember over the years taking offense when I was mistaken at a fancy event for the catering team, or as a valet parker when standing in front of a fancy restaurant, or even on the front lawn of my own fancy neighborhood picking weeds as neighbors thought I was a landscaper ... why? Because I had opportunities that others didn’t?

Years ago, I had an awakening on this issue of mistaken identity. So, let me make it clear – I
AM PROUD TO BE MISTAKEN FOR A LANDSCAPER, DELIVERY PERSON, RESTAURANT WORKER, DOMESTIC WORKER, FARMWORKER, or anyone else that will WORK harder than I could ever imagine. They should actually be the ones to be offended.

Latino workers – of whom five out of six were not able to work from home like many of us – have been affected disproportionately in health, housing, jobs, financially, and in education. Yet they continued to work for the benefit of our economy.

According to a report by the Center for American Progress this year, despite being over four times more likely to be hospitalized from COVID-19 and almost three times more likely to die, our workers showed up because we were counting on them.

Despite accounting for 23 percent of the initial job loss during the pandemic, our workers adjusted and took the jobs that needed to be filled.

Despite lowered ability to feed their families and pay for basic necessities, our farmworkers made sure our families were nourished, and delivery people made sure we had the products we needed in the comfort of our homes.

Despite housing becoming more unaffordable – 40 percent of Latinx households expressed slight to no confidence in being able pay for the following month’s rent payment – domestic workers made sure
many of our homes were safe and clean.

I could go on and on with these examples because our workers go on, and on and on. It is a privilege to be mistaken for America’s heroes doing superhuman work.