Thinking about my Hispanic Heritage and what it means to me the first words that comes to my mind are “Love for others”. As a child I remember dreading going to the store with my mom because she always happened to see a friend. Normally that would be a quick encounter but for me it meant sitting down on the floor and grabbing the closest food packaging to read. Needless it was never a quick interaction. As I got older, I realized most of the interactions she was having were with people she didn’t even know! One day I finally asked her “ Why do you always talk to people when you don’t even know them?” and she replied “ That’s what we do, no matter where we go there’s always family“. I remember from then on, any time she would start talking to someone with a child there, I would also start to engage in conversation with them. I started to look forward to the interactions and realized they fueled me just as much as the other person. Love and community run so deep in my heritage that when asked “why do you do it?” the response is “That’s what we do” and that is a beautiful thing to celebrate.

We appreciate Ada’s deep sentiments on what Hispanic Heritage means to her. We hope that “love for others” continues to resonate through the lives of the people we interact with on a daily basis.