Vanessa Gongora has faced a challenge that’s all too common for first-generation Americans: finding a balance between assimilation and authenticity. Born the daughter of Colombian immigrants in Queens, New York, the marketing professional says this push and pull influenced her career greatly and taught her valuable lessons along the way. “I’ve kind of been, for better or worse, a master of assimilation in corporate America,” Gongora said.
“Even though I was in New York City, the only women of color I saw in those spaces were in secretarial or mailroom positions.” Over time, she realized her lived experience as a Latina woman is just as or even more valuable as the years spent proving herself in the corporate world. Embracing this mindset helped Gongora evolve into the fierce advocate for the Latino community and Spanish language access that she is today.
Exploring identity Gongora’s mother worked as a waitress for 40 years and instilled the value of hard work and education in her daughter. Being surrounded by the entrepreneurial spirit of immigrants in her neighborhood, she saw New York City as a land of opportunity. Gongora put everything into her work with a goal of making her mother proud, and it paid off.
She found success in marketing for magazines, climbing the ladder quickly to manage big-name brand accounts such as L’Oreal and Procter & Gamble. After getting laid off from a Forbes luxury concept that folded in six months, she came face to face with the realization that productivity had become her identity. For so long, she had been balancing corporate and cultural expectations and losing herself in the process — and she was exhausted.
Then, an opportunity came up to freelance for a Spanish publication. “I thought, ‘Am I Latina enough to do this?’ Which is really funny to think now,” Gongora said. “It was the first time that I realized I had been carrying such a load of bricks in my book bag by trying so hard to assimilate and hide a working class culture that I was taught not to appreciate.
” After a few more gigs with Spanish language magazines, she made her way to South Carolina by way of Garden & Gun Magazine. While she said it was a great experience, Gongora felt like she had taken a step back in time to the luxury magazine space she left behind. Embracing authenticity Today, Gongora’s work is all about embracing the parts of her that she worked so hard to hide in the past.
After leaving Garden & Gun, she got involved with social work and volunteering, helping refugees and immigrant communities. In one of her roles, she managed pro bono legal services of asylum cases for the hundreds of men caught at the border and taken to Al Cannon Detention Center. Through this experience, she was shocked by the lack of language access.
“I was in jails, and people were asking me if they were in Guantanamo Bay because no one had explained to them where they were,” Gongora said. Seeing this firsthand eventually led her to create Spanglish Consulting, a firm that advises government and nonprofits through bridging cultural barriers, with immigration attorney Nina Cano. Gongora also works in marketing for Norsan Media, which owns radio stations such as Latina 95.
5 FM and La Raza 103.9 FM. She views radio as a powerful medium for South Carolina’s Latino community by providing language access and being a trusted source of information tailored to their needs and cultural nuances.
Gongora credits Kim Butler Willis, who she met at future leaders reception, as a mentor who helped her embrace authenticity and realize her lived first-generation experience is valuable. Willis co-founded a Charleston-based health equity consulting firm that works with Gongora and Cano for language services. “I think she has a genuine sense of kindness and compassion you don’t come across often,” Willis said about Gongora.
“It’s no surprise that in her corporate role and consulting space, she’s found a way to give back to the community and represent her community. She’s a proud Latina woman.”.
