[00:00:01.030] - Speaker 2
Hello, everyone, and happy Thursday. I hope it's Thursday where you are, and you're having a wonderful day. This is another one of the Achieving Unity podcast, and we're so glad you're here. It's all about creating solutions, one reality at a time. One thing we do is start making our world better, a better place, by doing several things that we're going to talk about today. One of them, and the biggest one, what we need most today, is achieving unity. We would do the power of encouraging, inspiring, and including others. Second, building prenuptual or relationships agreements for clear understandings and coaching parents to resolving problems in a marriage or before marriage to achieving successful parenting time during or after a divorce. We also talk about creating solutions based on your personal or professional realities possible struggles in front of you and how to handle those. We'll go over that in another slide in just a second. Feel free to contact me anytime, email me at marketmarkentrican. Com, or go to my website and go to the Let's Connect page and send me an email. I'm always looking forward to hearing from you. Again, it's the Achieving Unity Weekly podcast, and it's on Thursdays through the end of 2024.
[00:01:26.450] - Speaker 2
If it's not a US holiday, we do have Thanksgiving coming up, so we will not have a live podcast on that day, but it will stay at 1:00 PM Pacific Time, 4:00 PM Eastern Time throughout the next year, but it will be moving to Wednesdays next year. What is Reality Focus Dynamics? Well, Reality Focus Dynamics is from where we stand today to success-focused solutions that we create. Contact us today for more information on using Agile and Lean, or sometimes called Lean Six Sigma, that works outside of software. A lot of people on this call or listening to this call may be in business or even engineers, and we work on it day to day, that theoretical eight to five, but we can also take the solution process home. The philosophy can be used in every discipline, every vertical, including our homes. Agile is the ability to create and respond to change, enabling success in an uncertain and possibly struggling environment by emphasizing adaptability through better collaboration and communication. We'll talk about some of that today in our daily life and working with other people. Lean is a methodology focusing on maximizing value by minimizing waste and optimizing your processes through continuous improvement, effectiveness, and efficiency.
[00:02:53.440] - Speaker 2
Connect with me and I'll show you how to break all products and services down from the most complex business projects to the basic steps of training our teenagers. Yay. Think of a busy morning at a family breakfast. Everyone has somewhere to go from work to school to many other locations. What you can do is have a family standup meeting the night before where everyone shares their task for the day. Use sticky notes with those chores and responsibilities placed on the refrigerator where each person can move their note from a to-do spot to a done spot. Create a breakfast station with pre-portioned ingredients and a weekly meal plan. The minimize decision fatigue and reduced time spent searching for items can help everyone join in on a smoother and more efficient process. That's just showing one way we can do that at home that we try to do or work to do every day at the office. We can be achieving unity through the power of encouraging, inspiring, and including others. Encouragement can be the strongest power known around the world today. That power is in the center of empowerment, empowering others. That's what we hope we're going to do today.
[00:04:13.590] - Speaker 2
We talk to our guests in just a moment. We can be united by achieving unity. We will become a successful team, no matter how small or how large, by inspiring one another to achieve each and every goal. Together, we will conquer every challenge to inclusion and then celebrate each victory, personally and professionally. This works at home as well as the office, no matter how large. Are you or someone you know facing relationship challenges or difficulties with parenting time as a divorce or divorcing parent? I can help you transform that frustration into understanding with what the frustration Demonstrating that anger holds no value. Yes, we do have to draw lines. We have to be able to stand up for ourselves, but we also have to end that frustration, build a communication, and collaboration. Remember, anger is only actions not gaining effective results. A-n-g-e-r. Anger. Actions not gaining effective results. Where's the value? From personal relationships, prenuptial agreements, nuptial not required because a lot of people aren't getting married today. Life happens and we can learn to embrace and enjoy every moment of it together. If you'd like, pull out that phone. There's my two QR codes, my website home, and my website contact page.
[00:05:51.060] - Speaker 2
Please reach out to me anytime. I am looking forward to hearing from you. Our Achieving Unity podcast's upcoming guest. I guess it's not pending on that. Evan will be here next week on talking on Sheminism and the LGBT history. I'll make sure that slide deck is updated. Mori Zukowitch will be here for Veterans Day celebration. We'll be here 11:7, Veterans Days 1111. Talk about several items, including the COBT, some of the trauma that some of our armed services, men and women, have encountered. Tara Woodley will be here for the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. That'll be on 1114. Pending, I've been working with him today, but we're going to talk about a National Playday with Dad. We can't forget our fathers. Sometimes they feel a little bit out of the mainstream, and That's one of the things we want to talk about with Achieving Unity, is bringing everyone in into the family, no matter how they feel. Then, of course, Thanksgiving in the US. There'll be no live podcast on that day, but we may still do something. I'm not quite sure yet, but let's stay in touch and see what we can do together.
[00:07:04.290] - Speaker 2
But here is where I am so honored, so excited about being here today. Dr. Juana Bordas is recognized, our guest today, as an elder and an icon in the world of leadership, diversity, and the advancement of Latinos and communities of color. She is the first Latina facility as at the Center for Creative Leadership, the CCL. She taught in the Leadership Development Program, the most highly utilized executive program in the world. As a leader, a teacher, an activist, and author, Dr. Bordas continues sharing her wisdom and insights with people around the world. One of her books, The Power of Latino Leadership: AHORRA, Inclusion, Community, Community, and Contribution. This is written by Ken Blanchard, who's the author of The One Minute Manager. Talks about the book is to develop a deeper appreciation for the countless contributions to the Latino community is making to America's multicultural leadership journey that you must read this book. Excellent book. Latinos, is it all about Dolores Huerta? Latinos We have advanced because of the activist tradition of our leaders who organize people to address social injustice. As the Latino community comes into power, our future leaders can learn from the power of Latino leadership.
[00:08:44.910] - Speaker 2
. Yes, we can. It's a call to action. This book captures that spirit. When we talk today, Dr. Bordas, this is a book that she wrote, and put together, and we'll find more about it as we talk with her. Also, she has another book. As our nation is rapidly becoming a vibrant multicultural mosaic, and to fully leverage this diversity, we need leadership that resonates with our changing demographics. In salsa, soul, and spirit, Dr. Bordas demonstrates how incorporating Latino, African-American, and American Indian leadership styles, how they can enhance mainstream leadership and inspire our diverse workforce. She identifies nine core principles shared by these cultures, rooted in their values and developed through adversity. And brings them to life with personal reflections, leader interviews, historical context, and insightful analysis. With all the honor in the world, may I introduce to you Dr. Bordas. Dr. Bordas, how are you today?
[00:10:03.650] - Speaker 1
Oh, I am fabulous. It's a beautiful day in Colorado, and I am so honored to be with all of you. We have a saying in Spanish,, knowledge is power. The whole idea of us coming together to learn from each other, to be inspired, to collaborate, that's just where I live. I want to thank everyone for joining us.
[00:10:26.360] - Speaker 2
Oh, thank you. Thank you so much. I'm so with you on Colorado. But right now, I'm looking at the possibilities of living the winter somewhere in Puerto Rico, around the Caribbean.
[00:10:39.390] - Speaker 1
Oh, you're talking my language again.
[00:10:41.780] - Speaker 2
And it's been the summers in Colorado.
[00:10:44.360] - Speaker 1
Oh, no. We don't want to make everybody jealous.
[00:10:49.010] - Speaker 2
What are those called?
[00:10:50.550] - Speaker 1
The Caribbean is really beautiful. I was actually born in the Caribbean.
[00:10:54.750] - Speaker 2
Is that right? We're about. Yeah.
[00:10:56.270] - Speaker 1
I was born in the Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua, and That whole coastline is... People actually think I'm either Cuban or Puerto Rican or Dominican because I've got that Caribbean flavor, and it's because that whole Caribbean side. It's actually a mixture of all the different cultures. There's Indian and Spanish. My dad was French Nicaraguan. There were a lot of Germans that were down there. When we talk about diversity, we're pretty mixed. All of our ancestral lines. Nobody, I is a purebred anymore. And by the way, being a purebred ain't so great. That mixing it up gives you more vibrancy. Nature loves a hybrid. Nature loves a hybrid.
[00:11:42.240] - Speaker 2
Exactly. And I'm sorry, but I may embarrass myself right here, but was that you I was talking with the other day about when you're somewhere between the 10th and 13th cousin, that's as far as it goes? No, it wasn't me. Okay.
[00:11:57.700] - Speaker 1
But I think DNA, the testing people are doing now is fairly exciting. I think it's going to show that we've been on this... Well, human beings have been mobile since we started because we have that sense of adventure, that sense of wanting to explore. Sometimes, like with my family, it was a natural disaster. There was a tsunami that wiped out the Coast, and that's the reason we immigrated. There's a lot, one out of five people in the world today are refugees, either from climate change or economic reasons or political reasons. I think we have to accept we're living in a global community now and that what an opportunity for all of us to now come together and learn from each other and share because it's only going to enhance the human spirit.
[00:12:48.740] - Speaker 2
I am so with you. That's some of the things I want to talk about today. I think you just led us right into the spot where why didn't we do this yesterday? What has caused some of the friction and some of that frustration? What the frustration? Why have we been this way? What do you think caused some of- I think I do a lot I'm a historian, really, because I believe you got to know your roots and you got to know the past in order to move into the present and the future.
[00:13:22.670] - Speaker 1
There was a time when we lived in tribes. There was a time... I mean, think about it. They say that we have more information in a day to day than people used to have in a whole lifetime. They didn't meet each other and they didn't cross boundaries. Then we had nation states and city states. Perhaps that was necessary when human beings were more geographically limited and didn't get a chance to interchange with the other. I also think we're growing out of, I would say maybe a lower consciousness where we had to survive. I think people were more in those times. But I think today, when we look at our society, we really need to be more adaptable, more open, more willing to learn from others, more willing to change even because of the fact that we have such rapid change. Today, cultural adaptability, agility, understanding, awareness, those are the skills you need because we're going into a global multicultural age. I want to tell you this, half the children children in America under 18 already identify as multicultural. The younger generation is intersectional. They want to know about each other's. They have a global culture.
[00:14:41.270] - Speaker 1
When we're looking at our grandchildren and those that will come after us, they're going to live in a different paradigm, if you want to call it that, where differences add value instead of what we've had in the past with segregation or racism, or even when you look at a patriarchy.
[00:15:00.990] - Speaker 2
That's one of the things- I don't think the women are going to stand for that anymore, by the way. I hope not. That's funny.
[00:15:07.030] - Speaker 1
We want a partnership society where we bring our gifts.
[00:15:11.250] - Speaker 2
And why not? I helped one of my best friends. It was a strange situation, but as life happens, I had the top locker, she had the bottom locker, and we just were just great friends. We never dated, never anything more, but wonderful friends. I helped her become the first female President of our high school senior class. And that was just so awesome to see that and do that. To see the growth that all of us have done. And a lot of times that growth is It's not growing necessarily this way, but it's growing this way as we build within each other and know that no invention, nothing that has been great in this world has ever happened alone. Exactly. Ben Franklin may have been the one that was credited as electricity, or Thomas Edison, but they didn't do it alone. I think this is- Go ahead.
[00:16:15.000] - Speaker 1
Yeah, this is an interesting story because I was at Marquette University giving a talk on diversity and inclusion, and I was on fire. There was all these people from the community there and everything, and we took a break. It It was actually a priest who came up, and he was in charge because Marquette's a Catholic University. He said, I want to honor the people that prepared you. It just stopped me in my tracks because all of us need to honor the people that prepared us, and not just the ones in our lifetime. I like to do yoga because at my age, let me tell you guys, maintenance is really important.
[00:16:54.540] - Speaker 2
It really is. We need to stay in shape, right?
[00:16:56.950] - Speaker 1
Years and years and years of people who put that together. If you're an engineer, the years and years of people that little by little, our knowledge grew and grew. And so we stand on the shoulders of other people. And that just stopped me. Let us honor the people that prepared us, the people that came before us. And I think in doing that, we also gain much more respect for the people around us as well.
[00:17:22.380] - Speaker 2
I think you're so right. And that's one of the things, too. Even the appreciation for our parents, I think, is just needs to be there and needs to grow with us. Sometimes we wonder if we need to maybe recycle those thoughts a little bit because do our children of today think the same about that togetherness and that family and that parental leadership, that parental guidance? What are your thoughts on that?
[00:17:50.400] - Speaker 1
Well, I have two good stories on that one. One is that I did have a daughter late in life, so I have a millennial daughter, and I was trying to raise her. You In the old tradition, if my parents said jump, my response was, how high?
[00:18:05.670] - Speaker 2
On the way up, right?
[00:18:06.940] - Speaker 1
Oh, yeah, but not with a millenn. They need to know. If you say jump, if I said jump to my daughter Paloma, she'd go like, Well, why? Why do we have to jump? It's really interesting. I really believe we are evolving as a species. When you look at our younger generations, they're smarter than we are. She was about five or six years old when I realized she was smarter than You know what I mean? We have to raise children differently today. She was on a computer when she was three. I didn't get on a computer until I was almost 50. She thinks in very different ways, as does that whole generation. I wanted to tell you that my other story is that I'm on TikTok because I really believe in intergenerational diversity and intergenerational leadership as well, that we learn from the different generations. And today, because the lifespan doubled, we have four generations working together. So we need to have that intergenerational interchange. And so I'm on TikTok, but my name on TikTok is Tia Juana or Ant Juana. And a lot of us have aunties and people that were friends of our family or our parents that were like relatives, aunties and uncles.
[00:19:24.360] - Speaker 1
And that's because the new generation does not like dominance and hierarchy. They They want inclusion. They want intersectionality. They want everybody to be able to share and collaborate. This unity that you talk about is not possible if you have a circle and somebody's excluded. That's right. Unity means everybody's included. Everybody has a seat at the table.
[00:19:46.040] - Speaker 2
And that's right.
[00:19:47.960] - Speaker 1
Go ahead.
[00:19:48.660] - Speaker 2
And the leadership process, which I'm hearing you say, too, is they want everyone to pitch in. It's okay to have a leader to turn to for help or for guidance, but not for somebody that's going to the boss, as we've known it for so many years. Instead, we want everyone to be a leader and joining in, not excluding anyone in the process, right?
[00:20:11.480] - Speaker 1
Yeah, exactly. I have two principles of leadership. One of them I learned from the Hémis Pueblo Indian tribe. One of my mentees was a leader in that community, and he was elected the youngest person to be on the council. He said to me, Juana, I will take my place. I am so honored and I will serve. But when I step down, I'm a leader as equal. I'm like everyone else. The great mayor of Denver, Federico Peña, he talks about being the leader as equal, and that when he would walk into the administration building building into the mayor's office. He knew the name of the janitor. He knew the name of the secretaries. He knew everybody. The other thing you have to do is treat everyone with the same respect. You don't treat the CEO different than you treat the person who does your IT or gets your office nice and clean so you can work there, or someone who's taking care of your children so that you have the ability to be able to do your job. The leader is equal means that you really do have that sense of respect for everyone and that you recognize that everyone can be a leader and that everyone has something to contribute.
[00:21:16.270] - Speaker 2
Well, I think that is so beautiful. And that's why, again, I'm so excited about having you here today, because how do we get to the point that we can all think that way? Because we have a lot of bosses, people that are in the political nature that think they're special for whatever reason, but we all do need to be the same. How can we share that understanding better?
[00:21:45.620] - Speaker 1
Well, I'm a very old feminist. Back in the '60s and '70s, we used to say, We just have to outlive them.
[00:21:54.630] - Speaker 2
That's the sad part about it.
[00:21:56.870] - Speaker 1
It is true. I was giving this speech to Johnson & Johnson. There were 200 people in the room, and I was doing a thing on intergenerational leadership and the different generations. Me and one other person were the only boomers in the room. Wow. That's really true. Out of the 200 people that were working for this company, the Johnson & Johnson Company, what we have now is a group of millennials, the Ys and the Zs are coming, right? I mean, they're making up larger and larger percentages of the workforce. They I really do want a different leadership. The other thing I want people to think about, because it is about your ego. I have a little sign I put up when I do leadership training, Leave your ego at the door.
[00:22:42.790] - Speaker 2
Yeah, beautiful. That's exactly right.
[00:22:44.550] - Speaker 1
It's not about you, it's about the people you serve. I teach servant leadership. It is a great privilege to be a leader that people allow you to lead, but you're there to serve them. Anyway, they're really looking for a different leader. The other thing the leader is equal says is that right now you're the leader because you're doing this podcast, but when you step down, you may go home and you have to do the dishes, or you may go into a different setting where you're the team person that has to keep track of everybody. We should have leadership that is... It revolves, it's situational, it's relational, so that sometimes I lead and sometimes I follow, and sometimes I listen, and sometimes I talk. But you have to have that adaptability and that agility as a leader. I do think that in the past, we had this whole thing about the leader being the person at the top. That doesn't work anymore. Even if you're the smartest guy in the room, there's too much change, there's too much ambiguity, nobody has the answers to the complexity that we face. There's too much diversity inclusion, one size does not fit all.
[00:23:58.990] - Speaker 1
The savvy leader knows that the best solutions, and this has been proven in all kinds of research, comes from collaboration, from teamwork, from having different perspectives, and from listening to other people. I think there's some dinosaurs around, particularly in the political situation, because we live in a gerontology politically where we have very old leaders leading. I think that we really need to make a commitment to change and help young people step up to leadership.
[00:24:29.180] - Speaker 2
I am so within that process because that co-leadership, joint leadership, and turning to each other. Because as we talked earlier, there's no big invention, there's no big process that happened with anyone doing it alone. But that brings up my next question, if you don't mind. What got you into this? You've done so much. You've accomplished so much. How did you get started?
[00:24:55.420] - Speaker 1
Well, it is interesting because this is not my job. This is my purpose.
[00:25:01.930] - Speaker 2
I like that.
[00:25:03.280] - Speaker 1
As I grew up, people love my origin story. Young people are into superheroes and origin stories. So my origin story is that after this tsunami hit, my father went and got a job up in the gold mine, the Bonanza Gold mine. He ran the commissary and earned enough money to bring his family to the promised land, to the land of opportunity, because he had had enough and he wanted his children to have an education. My first memory is being on a banana boat crossing the Gulf of Mexico to get to Florida. Well, people really need to, if they're going to be leaders, need to know yourself and know your history, know your background. Here I am. I am the youngest daughter of a very large, I had eight brothers and sisters, immigrant family. When I came here, I was only three. That's why I can speak English so well and why I was able to get an education. I was the first one in my family to go to college. I say I'm the first intellectual, I'm the first person in my whole ancestral line to be able to do that. That was real important because I understood the dominant culture system then.
[00:26:13.360] - Speaker 1
I also have graduate degrees, and so I understand the mainstream culture, and that's important because we have to build partnerships across all these different cultural lines. But the thing that happened to me because I did grow up in the '40s and '50s was that in order to be successful in those days, you had to assimilate, and you couldn't speak your language. I met my grandmother, and I couldn't talk to her. I had missing something, my soul. I was missing part of my soul. When I was in college, I heard John F. Kennedy speak, and he inspired a whole generation when he said... We're really there today, again, where he said, The torch is being passed to a new generation. That was our generation. But now the torch needs to be passed again. I joined the Peace Corps and I went to Chile. Oh, wow. That was amazing to me because as a child, I had never seen a Hispanic bus driver. I had never had a Hispanic teacher. I had never seen a Hispanic in a leadership role. I had never seen a Hispanic that owned a nice store or even worked in a nice store.
[00:27:23.340] - Speaker 1
All of a sudden, I was in this great country that's very literate, has had a great economy, and was Hispanic. The senators were Hispanic. The head of land, Chile. The Airlines was Hispanic. The TV station was run by Hispan. I went, Oh, my God, it isn't my culture. That's preventing us from sharing our gifts. You I just imagine for a young Latina that was 21 years old in the '60s to have that experience because nobody had had that. We didn't even become a minority till the 1970s. Richard Nixon is the first one who signed anything that made hispanics a group. Here I am, almost 15 or 20 years before that, knowing that my culture, my family, my traditions, my history had something to contribute to the world and to others, and that my role in life would be to help to uplift my... Not just uplift my people, because I think when you... It's like the tide rises all boats.
[00:28:24.850] - Speaker 2
Yes, it does.
[00:28:26.660] - Speaker 1
As we raise others up, we all to go higher. People say, Well, are you just promoting Hispanics? No, I'm not. I do think people need to know who we are, the great contributions we have to make. We're 78% of the new entries into the labor force. We love to work. Look and see who's cleaning the streets and putting on the roots and cooking your food and taking care of your kids. Now, we are also becoming an intellectual class, finally.
[00:28:56.810] - Speaker 2
Absolutely.
[00:28:57.960] - Speaker 1
I was the first one. Now, the fastest-growing entries into the universities. That's going to be a great thing for America.
[00:29:04.730] - Speaker 2
That's excellent.
[00:29:05.530] - Speaker 1
Yeah. That's going to be a great thing for America. The other thing I want to say about my family is that all four of my brothers served in the military. My brother David was in Vietnam. Two of my brothers were in Korea. My other brother, he had it easy. He didn't go to any wars. But my sister Rosemary was a wave in World War II. She was 20 years older than me. Let's have this immigration debate. When I have eight in my family and five, five serve this country.
[00:29:35.590] - Speaker 2
Please send them my sincere thanks for their service for our country. I mean that.
[00:29:40.760] - Speaker 1
Well, it's Danos Martos. I'm going to have to tell them because They're in a high point.
[00:29:46.150] - Speaker 2
They're in a high point. I'm telling them now. That's the thing. I am telling them now. Yeah, they can hear it. Because that's one thing I tell so often is, again, I want to see someone in a uniform, it's, Thank you for your service, because you're exactly right. How How did we get to where we are today? It wasn't because of a few people in this corner, a few people in that corner. It was all of us working together. My dad was in World War II. He served in Germany. My brothers were in the Air Force, in the army. My nephew is a colonel of the Air Force. I have a lot of that in my family. I was going to join the Marines to be a pilot, but I got injured in an automobile accident. I think I briefly mentioned that to you before. We thought with a head injury that we'd not be able to fly the plane. I whined and cried and didn't do it, but I wish I would have. I wish I were still- If you believe in life's purpose, you're doing the right thing.
[00:30:42.160] - Speaker 1
This is what you were supposed to do.
[00:30:44.010] - Speaker 2
Thank you. I think we created our own purpose. There's things that we could all do. But thank you so much for that. It's amazing what you have done through your family because like you mentioned, eight brothers and sisters, how you captured what you I think that's one of the reasons I'm so grateful is because it was my mother who went to...
[00:31:05.590] - Speaker 1
She went to the school and said to the priest, I can cook, I can clean, I can take care of children. She washed dishes for 10 years so I could go to the Catholic school and get a good education. My other sister would slow my clothes. My brother, when I went to college, he was running a little grocery store and he got me cases of Franco-American spaghetti and shit like that to eat. I remember those. I am the product of a whole family. I think you see that. You can see it in the Asian community. You can see it in other communities where they really groom and take care of their young so that they can move forward. I think that's such a great gift that we have to keep. When I see people retiring and saying they're going to spend all their money, I get furious. I go like, No, we have to help the generations that are coming after us just like we were Exactly.
[00:32:01.740] - Speaker 2
Because we need to help, as we're doing today, and as so many people, the ones on the call, that we're able to help others to achieve unity, work together in achieving unity by harnessing that process of helping others, engaging others, inspiring others, and including others. Because I think I mentioned to you briefly, and I won't go into the whole story, but we are all the same. There's only four blood types, four blood groups there, A, B, A, B, and O. No matter where you go in the world, there are only going to be those four blood types, blood groups. And if you heard Scandinavia, Antarctica, Russia, China, wherever, United States, your person that if you were just in a situation where you had road rage, which is unbelievable anymore, the person that you just aggravated you, if you were in an accident, They may have been the one that also donated the blood. They helped keep you alive. That's right. We just don't know anymore because there is only four blood types. Sometimes they call them blood groups, positive or negative for each one of them. But we are all the same, and there is no reason ever for us to hate each other.
[00:33:20.400] - Speaker 2
We are all one. And how can we keep carrying that on? And I love what you're doing to carry that on.
[00:33:27.720] - Speaker 1
Yeah. And I think It's interesting to me because when you say, Why is this still going on? That is a hard question, isn't it? Because it was so ingrained in us to see the other. I grew up in the segregated south. Seriously, I grew up in the segregated south. When I entered the University of Florida, it was not integrated. I marched when I was a junior in college to integrate the University of Florida.
[00:33:57.950] - Speaker 2
Thank you. Congratulations To see what you've done.
[00:34:00.710] - Speaker 1
Yeah, to bring it. There were no other Latinos. I never met another Latino. But think of what we're losing when we don't educate all of our youth, right?
[00:34:09.460] - Speaker 2
That's it right there. Sorry to interrupt you, but let me just... If you don't mind, I'll just grab on to that point because that's one of the things that I feel is our greatest disadvantage, and that is our teaching because we grow up with a culture. Sometimes it's a family culture or starts as a family culture. But then as we get and there's more and more kids going to daycare and other people taking care of our children because the parent has to work, then it goes into school. How long was it when that two, three, whatever year old would see somebody else two or three years old? It didn't matter if they were red, yellow, black, brown, or white. They were still some fun scene in their sight. And then by the time we're into first grade going on, how many times do we just see somebody and we're looking for something wrong. We're seeing, was it the color, the tattoos, whatever it may be, their hair? And we're looking for something wrong instead of looking for the good in all of us. And I know that sounds simple, But if you look at all of us just going to the store, someone grabs the grocery cart that we want or grabs that last can of beans and the things that we think about and how we rate them and find some prejudice about them.
[00:35:30.010] - Speaker 2
What is it that we're doing that continues that? And what can we do? And I want to get into a few things in a second, just about some stereotypes. What can we do working together to help people learn? Because as we talked about in the cultures, that's what we're learning. How can we help others learn more or learn differently?
[00:35:53.820] - Speaker 1
Well, let me share a proverbial wisdom. I love proverbial wisdom.. In everybody's head, there's a whole world. I think that for us to really love the other, we must love ourselves. I like that. We must love ourselves, right? Because Latinos believe that we're unique. We're a one-of-a-kind design. I say we're a one-of-a-kind design, a unique expression of the divine. There will never be another person like you. There will never be another person who has this opportunity. Spiritual people even say, Figure out who you are and give your gifts because you're the only one who can do that. If you don't do it, there's a hole in the universe.
[00:36:40.570] - Speaker 2
There is.
[00:36:41.360] - Speaker 1
So if people could just stop for a minute I know, you were talking about loving your parents or whatever. In a formal life, I was a therapist, by the way. It was to figure out myself, really. But my therapy teacher told me, he said, You will really be grown up and healed when you forgive your parents and realize they were just human beings doing the best they could. I can remember distinctly because my poor mother was working all the time. She was dead tired. I had a narrative or a story that, Oh, I didn't get the mothering that I needed, and blah, blah, blah. You know how you can get on these stories about, I didn't get this, or this happened to me, or, Oh, poor me. As I worked this through, I the power I got from her, the strength I got from her, the fact that this was a woman with a vision for me and for her children. This was a woman who sacrificed her life so I could be who I am. This was a woman who had the greatest gift of leadership relationship, which was legacy, that she would go on through her legacy, through me and through others.
[00:37:50.190] - Speaker 1
And look at the power I have because of her. So when you change your narrative, and by the way, I had three older sisters, so bullshit that I didn't get the mothering that I needed. You see what I mean? I do. So work on yourself. Heal yourself so that you can love yourself and then love others. Because when you have a challenge in life, it's an opportunity. Okay, I get it. I get it. It's hard. I get it. Some people have had some bumps in the road. But a leader is a lifelong learner. A leader, when you have a challenge, when you have a setback, when you make a mistake, when something happens to you, if you can regroup, if you can reflect, if you can learn from that, it makes you a better person, it makes you a better leader. It does. The beginning of my book, especially the Latino book, is all about how do you prepare yourself. One way is to realize who am I? What are my gifts? What were my experiences? What were my early childhood? What did I learn from it? Really take a deep dive because exploring yourself and your own universe is so important in loving others.
[00:38:57.980] - Speaker 1
Then giving people the grace because Because if everyone's unique, if everybody's head is a whole world, what an opportunity when you meet somebody else to meet a whole world.
[00:39:07.600] - Speaker 2
Two worlds together, right?
[00:39:10.070] - Speaker 1
And it's synergy. Then you've got three and then you've got more. I think my message is, yeah, I'm older now and I've worked through a lot of this, but I encourage people to step back and do a little bit of personal healing so that you really can love the other or appreciate the other and just give the other some grace because we've all had good times and bad times. We all had. Nobody's given a free ride. If you're perfect, you're out of here.
[00:39:39.130] - Speaker 2
That's right. I'm glad you think that, but people think that. But Let me ask you one of the questions. I think we touched on this briefly, but the identification of some of the stereotypes and how can we look to understand the prevalent misconceptions or sometimes the oversimplified ideas that people might have about Hispanic communities, and how these stereotypes can be harmful and misleading, and affecting how any other race, creed, anything can be perceived or treated. How can we look to understand that prevalent misconceptions or oversimplified ideas? What can we do?
[00:40:23.040] - Speaker 1
Well, I think we now live in the information age, and I'm always surfing YouTube and trying to look learn new things. I think that's why I wrote my book. It's the first book on Latino traditional. I love that. I think that we need to learn. We need to study. I want to say a few things about the Latino community. Our golden rule is Mi Casa, su casa. My house is your house. I've heard that. That means that our culture is, first of all, very generous. Second of all, that we are hospitable and that We have what's called a bienvenido or a welcoming spirit because Latinos are not a race. Like I said, I am French, Indian, Spanish, and I'm American. We make great beer. Mexican beer just went to the top of the charts because the Germans and the Austrians were in Mexico. Mexico is a very diverse country. Latinos bring that sense of generosity, but they also bring that sense of family and community and collectivism because Hispanics are a we culture. We're a collective culture. We're not an individualistic culture, and that's what we need today. We need to get out of our individualism, the numeno uno, I come first, and start thinking about others and start thinking about what we've been talking about, the other people who have brought us to where we are, who have contributed to our lives, who contribute to our work, to contribute to our organizations, who contribute to our schools.
[00:41:57.530] - Speaker 1
If we can get to that sense of we, that collectivity, and then the generosity. Also, Mi Casa, su Casa, Latinos are not a materialistic culture. We're a humanistic culture. People come first. It's all about people. Mi Casa Su Casa really means what I have is yours. We're much more fluid about taking care of each other and taking care of things. There's just that spirit of generosity. The other way we really contribute is through work. Like I said, 78% of the new entries, we are the highest people that work, but we also are going to continue to do that. We contribute through work as well to be able to contribute.
[00:42:43.840] - Speaker 2
That's excellent.
[00:42:45.250] - Speaker 1
Yeah. I always say there's no downside to Latinos. The other thing about us is that we love to celebrate life, and people really are stressed today. If you look at Latinos with salsa and we spend more money on going out to eat, going to movies, entertainment, we even spend more money on phones and electronics so we can stay connected. We spend more money going to the movies because we work hard, but we play hard. I think that we need today that sense of celebration, like you were talking with the family, how do we celebrate with our family? How do we really enjoy each other? I say that if you're in a job, every single time a person has a success, let's have a celebration about that. Let's have a recognition about that. Success builds success. It does.
[00:43:30.050] - Speaker 2
Celebration Yes.
[00:43:30.740] - Speaker 1
And celebration also creates collective memories, so we feel good about each other and working together. And so Latinos, we invented the word fiesta.
[00:43:41.580] - Speaker 2
Oh, you did?
[00:43:42.920] - Speaker 1
Yeah, fiesta. That whole idea of enjoying life comes out of our culture, our music. Then again, because we're a hybrid culture, because we come from 26 countries, and we have all the different races. There's Afro-Latinos, there's Chino-Latinos, there's Sephardic Jews that are Latinos. You can be from Spain, you can be from Portugal, you can be from South America, you can be from Iowa. You're still a Latino. You can be from Washington, DC, you can be from LA. It's a culture. And because we're a culture, we invite people. It's not like being a race. We're an ethnic group, and we invite people to join with us. I call this becoming a Latino by Corazón. And it's It's worth it because speaking of Corazón, we have passion, and we have energy, and we go for the gusto. And so this is all part of who we are. We're such a dynamic, colorful culture that loves people, loves to work, and loves to celebrate. So what's the downside here?
[00:44:48.170] - Speaker 2
And I think that breaks down. I've got you to mention that fiesta. I never thought about it that way. Yeah. New perspective to that word fiesta. I spent the winter 2022-2023 in Puerto Aventuras, Mexico, and loved it. I had always heard about the problems and the crime and the drugs.
[00:45:06.470] - Speaker 1
Friendliest people on the planet, Latinos.
[00:45:08.410] - Speaker 2
They were so nice. Everybody was. But I did see a few, let's just go ahead and say Americans that were a little bit driving in nature. I could see that they had expectations that were not necessarily And they may have been just as impolite in an American restaurant in Texas as they were, but I just know that I saw a lot of that problem because everyone that I was nice to was nicer to me.
[00:45:45.840] - Speaker 1
Yeah. It's all being simpatico. So think about this. If you have people-centered culture, where people and family and community come first, relationships, you can't be rude. You have to be nice. So we value congeniality. We value mutuality, you and I give to each other. We value people that are simpatico, that are easy to get along with. So you will see that. Now, I'm giving you the cultural... When I write my books, I go like, I've read a lot of leadership books by white leaders. They don't sit there and tell you what's wrong with the white culture. They tell you what's right with the white culture.
[00:46:24.010] - Speaker 2
I'm telling you what's right. And that's the way it should be.
[00:46:25.810] - Speaker 1
I'm telling you what's right about Latinos. What's our shining star? What's North Star. It's to be the person that helps people out, that you can count on, that's. I just went to a funeral yesterday because if someone dies, you have to go to support the people and take either something to eat or contribute in some way. If we have a wedding, people pin money on the dress or they bring the cake or they pay for the band. It's all about mutuality because if we all work together and we all share, and that's one of our deepest values is to share and to give back, then we can all enjoy life, and then we can all support each other.
[00:47:06.510] - Speaker 2
I am so with you on that, and I love what you do, and I love how you bring this together. Because everyone's sharing in the value that creates that fiesta in the process. And as I emphasize as much as I can- You don't want to be a Hispanic pinata, though.
[00:47:21.070] - Speaker 1
That would not be a good job.
[00:47:23.510] - Speaker 2
I'm going to break one of those. I don't want to get the candy out. It's as you say- A pinata. A pinata. The word opportunity, of course, ends with those five letters, unity. So getting that opportunity for us all to be in unity and solving the problems, our community is the same way, is those same five letters of unity. So as we're achieving unity, bringing us all together to be at that fiesta, it is an opportunity for us to grow together as a community, right?
[00:48:00.380] - Speaker 1
And to have some fun, some celebration. The first precept, the Buddhism, the first thing the Buddha taught was life is difficult. I said to my grandson, he's 26, I said, I think I want to write about this, but I want to say, Life is not a bowl of cherries. Have you ever heard that? He goes, No. But you remember that saying, Life is not a bowl of cherries. I think people today, their expectations a little bit out of whack. If I was moping around, my mother would say, Get busy and do something for somebody else. It's like to take your mind off that. That doesn't mean you shouldn't heal. That doesn't mean you don't have problems. But I think we really have to realize that life does have its ups and downs and that if we can have the right attitude, which I think you got to work at your attitude to have that positive attitude, regardless of the circumstances, and you do have a choice about that because life does throw you some curveballs. You have a curveball. You told me about the curveball you had when you had an accident as a young man.
[00:49:11.270] - Speaker 1
We all have curveballs. Again, we can learn and grow from those. Doesn't kill you, makes you strong.
[00:49:18.920] - Speaker 2
If you did, then you just keep on going because there's all the ups and downs in the road. It's like, even if life is a bowl of cherries, you still got the pits. I mean, That's right.
[00:49:30.900] - Speaker 1
Well, it says life is not a bowl of cherries, and in addition, you have the bits. But I liked in the beginning when you were offering people to call you and so forth, because that's another really important thing. In the Latino culture, that support, that help is there. But sometimes you just need to reach out to others when you need the help or support or just a listening ear, and then be willing to do that when someone else needs you. I think that's also I like the way you encourage people to reach out because-Thank you. We don't need to be embarrassed about the fact... When I was doing therapy, I used to say to people, If you got a car problem, you go to a car person. If you got a dental problem, you go to the dentist. If you want to have a really good dinner, you find a good cook. Well, if you got an issue, go talk to somebody who knows something about it because it's the same thing. I'm really glad that we're getting to a place where people understand that, yeah, people have issues sometimes and they need some support and help.
[00:50:33.260] - Speaker 1
I think we should all be willing to be there for each other.
[00:50:37.220] - Speaker 2
I think so, too. I love what you're saying. It's just, why don't you have such a great concept on life? That's what working with you and others that have been on my show and this show, our show, that we all can do this by working together, achieving that unity by harnessing that engagement, to be able to build together for tomorrow. Because one of the places that I speak is at universities. Yes. And a lot of times you see at the university, we're all coming into a new life. It's out of high school, out of the mom and dad syndrome that may or may not have been good, but you're coming into a new world, and we have a lot of rebellion that happens in college. I try to share with people that it's okay to rebel, but it does not require violence. That's where sometimes we take it to one level too far instead of us coming together and having that Hispanic attitude of, let's work together and then have that fiesta, right?
[00:51:44.900] - Speaker 1
Well, I do want to, before we close, offer a a challenge to people, and that is, I had to search for knowledge about my culture, and I had to search to be able to write books on how other communities lead. I'd like to just take this moment to encourage people to do that and to also share some wisdom from these communities. For example, you were just talking about change. What greater example than the African-American community when you talk about non-violent change and all the civil rights who have benefited women, benefited veterans, benefited people with disabilities? They literally opened up the box and said, equality and justice for all. Yes. That's so beautiful. They also brought an incredible spiritual tradition. I call it leading with soul. Whether you're talking about John Lewis, who just was called the consciousness of the Congress, or Martin Luther King or Jesse Jackson or Raph Abernathy. They were all ministers, and they brought this sense of soul, this sense of if you want to be spiritually centered and developed, well, you have to serve and uplift people and help humanity. Community. They also had this incredible sense of when we talk about young people, I think Martin Luther King was maybe 28 years old when he first started.
[00:53:12.240] - Speaker 1
César Chávez, who was the great Hispanic leader, was also very young. We have to listen to our young people. They're upset about gun violence. They're correct. They're upset about climate change. They're correct. So we really need to have that sense of listening. And then from our Native Americans to think about the fact that they have survived and thrived for 500 years because they know who they are. They have a clear sense of identity, which tribe they come from, what their traditions are, what their ceremonies are. And they have held on to that. Through incredible trials and tribulations. So who are you? What is your identity? Who are your people? What is your tribe? And getting that sense of identity that we can learn from American Indians. They also have that incredible sense of generosity. A leader who's generous, shares their time like you do, invites people, helps them, develops them, serves them. All of that comes from these traditions and communities of color. I really welcome people to look at the different ways that Latinos... We have Cise Puede, which means yes, we can, that whole idea of innovation, of making change that's better for people.
[00:54:24.950] - Speaker 1
I think I'd like to challenge them to really take some time to learn about other to incorporate some of their values and some of the ways they lead. Because if we don't change the way we lead in our society, and if we don't change the values, we'll never move forward to an inclusive, equitable society, which is what we want. We want a society that takes care of all its people.
[00:54:48.250] - Speaker 2
We do. Thank you so much. That's beautiful. I'm just about to give you a few more minutes to close on that because that's what we want to do is work together going forward and not look at a culture or a heritage in a negative format, because we all learn together. And so many times, if we look at the 100, 200, 300 years ago, and what we came from today We still came together. There were people that were abused. There were people that were armed. That is yesterday's history. What are we doing today to write a better history for our children?
[00:55:31.100] - Speaker 1
Right. Yeah. Well, and I think it doesn't matter where you're engaged. My mother's purpose was to raise up her children and to make sure we got educated. I have some such distinguished people in my family. I mean, she has great grandchildren.
[00:55:45.430] - Speaker 2
Sounds like it.
[00:55:46.780] - Speaker 1
She has great grandchildren that have PhDs in chemistry and that are lawyers. I mean, my family has done so well, but it's all based on the sacrifice of my parents who are willing to dedicate their life service of others. I think we really need to understand that it's through that sense of being part of this human race is such a great privilege, first of all. But it is one race, one people. Yes, we want to celebrate the cultures just like God made every single person different. Every culture has gifts, traditions, histories that are going to enrich all of humanity. It's like a beautiful tapestry with all these different colors. It's like a beautiful... Going out in the springtime when you have all these different flowers that come in different colors or the birds, the rainbow. We are a collective humanity, but we are within that, all the beautiful spectrums of the rainbow. I think that if people can just get that in their heart and begin to open up to that, they're going to be so enriched and they're going to really be able to help us build a new world because that's what our young people want.
[00:56:58.910] - Speaker 1
They want us to build a new world where there's equity also, where people are taken care of because it's no good to have inclusion and still have this incredible division of wealth where some people don't have enough to eat.
[00:57:12.430] - Speaker 2
That is so true. How we can work together, and as you say, the younger generation is coming back to say, How can we come together? Be more sharing in the process so that one person isn't singled out for any other reason or two people. But again, we come together. At that, again, I'm loving the word to the fiesta. We all celebrate together.
[00:57:37.580] - Speaker 1
And young people love culture. Watch how they dress, watch their music. They are already there with a global international multicultural sense of self. And so we got to catch up with them, really.
[00:57:51.140] - Speaker 2
We got to catch up with them. That's well said. Right. Yes. That's beautiful. We have to rethink some of our own culture with some of the things that I work with is that I call that culture of yesterday and that learning that may be 100 or 200 years old and three or more to rethink that process like our young kids are thinking today. We've got one more minute. Dr. Wana Vordas, thank you so much. I love both of your books. How would you like to close today?
[00:58:21.760] - Speaker 1
Well, let's close with just a sense of gratitude. Thanksgiving is coming, and I think when you're looking at that change is hard, but if we can be grateful for what we have, if we can see that, like I say, I've never missed a meal even. I mean, I've been very fortunate. It might have just been rice and beans when I was growing up, but my mother was a great cook. I think if we can just have a sense of gratitude and say, Thank you for this time together. Thank you for the ability to learn. It's such a great privilege to come together. Thank you for this beautiful world that we live in that is so abundant and has given us so much. Thank you for the power that we have not only to change ourselves, but to uplift people and to create the society that we want to leave our children and grandchildren and those that come after us. But most of all, thank you so much for the grace of life, for the grace of love, and for continuing on this journey together. All my relatives, as they say in the Lakota tribe.
[00:59:22.920] - Speaker 2
That's beautiful. Thank you so much, Dr. Wana Bordas. This has been awesome. I so much appreciate what you're doing, what you have done. I can see you're doing so much more in the future as we continue achieving unity by harnessing, of encouraging, inspiring, and including others. Thank you. Thank you all so much.
[00:59:44.160] - Speaker 1
Thank you, Michael, for what you're doing.
[00:59:45.540] - Speaker 2
No, thank you. We'll talk again soon to everyone. Hope to see you next week. Enjoy. Cheers.
