Transforming
Our Mindsets And Rising Together
This new year will be
transformational and unlike any
other for us Latinas, bringing
much awaited opportunities for personal and
About the Author
collective growth.
Why? Because we got to an undeniable inflection
point. Many of us have been feeling that there is
more for us. Deep inside we know there are better
opportunities and professional success we have not
yet tapped into.
What we may not be fully aware of, is that many
of us carry cultural limiting beliefs that have been
holding us back from reaching that highest potential. If
you have been feeling inadequate, unprepared in the
face of big opportunities, or in any way limited, please
know you are not alone. We are collectively being held
back by a colonial mindset.
A colonial mindset is a set of cultural limiting
beliefs that influence our decisions and
behaviors. It is a
By Valeria Aloe
way of thinking so deeply ingrained in our collective
psyche that we may not notice how much it drives us.
It’s ancestral, and it was brought over from our Latin
American lands.
This colonial mindset is so real that it can be
measured, and it gave birth to what I call the Hispanic
Paradox. Let’s take a look.
On one end, numbers show our huge power. We
are approximately 62 million Hispanics in the US, and
we will be 111 million in 2060. By then, roughly 1 in 4
Americans will be Hispanic.
We are also the engine of the American economy,
opening businesses at the highest rate across all
population groups. We contribute a massive $2.6
trillion to the US GDP, as stated in a 2020 Forbes
report. This figure is so significant that if we were our
own country, we would be the eighth largest economy
in the world and the third fastest-growing.
Yet, it’s rare to find Latinas in leadership positions
and spaces where decisions are made. We also lack
access to equal opportunities for professional growth
and earn less than our market value,
impacting wealth creation for ourselves
and for our children.
In a nutshell, we are extremely
and increasingly relevant to the US
economy. Yet, we remain relatively
invisible, unseen, and unheard. And that...is
a Paradox.
In this New Year we can ponder on an
important question: How will we change this?
A Latina leader put it in her own words
when we connected a few months ago:
“Success is an inside job.” Change starts
within. We can decide to not see ourselves as
victims of the circumstances and acknowledge
that we are powerful creators of our reality.
To aid us in this journey, Uncolonized Latinas
invites us to decode those cultural limiting beliefs that
have held us back, and to create a roadmap to success
by learning from other Latinas who figured out how to
succeed in the US. It also inspires us to overcome
colorism and competition among ourselves, as we
build a new collective that will propel our community to
a whole new level.
As we decode, heal, and release our limiting
colonial mindset, we will reclaim our power and space
in our organizations and communities, closing the
Latina leadership and wealth gaps.
Latina sisters, we are the best-kept secret in the
history of the United States. Happy New Year, Happy
New US!
LS
Want to comment or have any questions on this
article? Email us at info@latinastyle.com
Valeria Aloe, author of Uncolonized Latinas, is the award-winning founder of Abundancia Consciente,
a bilingual mindset transformation, mentoring, and connectivity platform for Latinas who are first
generation to academic and professional spaces. Before launching her practice, she worked +20
years in business development and marketing in Fortune 500 companies across 7 countries. She
holds an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, and is currently pursuing a Doctorate
in Spiritual Sciences. You can find out more about her at www.AbundanciaConsciente.net
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