Latinas in PR Leverage Crucible Moments

Back in college, I had a debate with my creative writing professor about my identity. 

“Am I a Latina poet? Or am I a poet who happens to be Latina?”

For me, the difference between those two descriptions wasn’t really about identity. It was about the type of work people could expect from my writing. I recognized that there was an expectation on what I should write about based on my ethnicity. Expanding what’s expected of me became my unconscious mission.  

Today, I still strategize on how to describe my work in PR. Summary: I’m a Latina working in public relations and sometimes I “do” Latino PR work. 

Because of this duality and sometimes polarizing pressure, I’ve been invested in expanding the stories about Latinos in public relations for years. And I’ve contributed to research on this topic so I’m excited to share recent research on “Latinas in PR” by Rosalynn A. Vasquez, Ph.D., and Marlene S. Neill, Ph.D., APR, Fellow PRSA.

Vasquez, assistant professor of public relations at Baylor University, shared some insights with me in this abridged interview.  

What inspired you and Dr. Neill to examine the experiences of Latinas in PR?

As scholars, we both have a great interest in examining career and leadership development among women in public relations. Marlene had been working on a book, “PR Women With Influence,” and I was one of the few Latina participants. 

Due to this experience of having few Latina participants, she approached me about pursuing a study focusing on Latinas in PR. Upon reflection of my own experiences as a former PR practitioner, I knew that I wanted to pursue this study and it was the perfect opportunity to collaborate.

What were the key findings from your study?

In our study, we introduce the Crucible Model of Leadership Development for Latinas in Public Relations to further explain the journey of immigrant and first-generation Latinas as they develop into PR leaders.

• Immigrant and first-generation Latinas are raised with unique cultural identities from their host country that they bring as they acculturate to the United States
• Their crucible experiences (good or bad) are often marked by critical turning points in their lives (e.g., learning a new language, feeling isolated, discriminated, financial struggles)
• Through a critical reflection period, Latinas assess their cultural and intersectional identities of living in dual worlds (two identities, two cultures and two languages) and re-examine their career goals
• The crucible experiences develop them as leaders who demonstrate confidence, tolerance and empathy

Did you learn anything that surprised you?  

One of the biggest surprises from this study was the differences we found between Latinas who self-identified as recent immigrants and first-generation from those who had been established in the United States for some time. Immigrant and first-generation Latinas struggled with pressure to perfect the English language and tried hard to erase any trace of accents to avoid being perceived as inferior or less knowledgeable.

Interestingly, non-immigrant Latinas often resented the bilingual or Spanish fluency expectation (perceived as a microaggression) since they never learned it due to their families being discriminated against. They preferred to not be evaluated by any cultural identifiers, but rather be valued for their work and performance. This is an important distinction for employers to understand and never make assumptions about language expectations or preferences for doing multicultural work.

What should Latinas working in PR focus on to overcome any hurdles you found?

Latinas should continue to speak up and advocate for themselves and always be mindful of their worth. One of the findings that came up several times was about Latinas not being fairly compensated for their work, being passed over for promotions, and feeling the cultural tax of being sought out for their bilingual or cultural competencies and not being receiving instrumental support to make it sustainable over time.