It’s apparently time to break out the maracas, guitars, drums, and red lipstick.

In this “Monthly Musings” episode of I HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY my dear co-Producer Chris Majocha weighs in on my rant about how Hispanic Heritage Month is clearly around the corner because Latina/Latino/Latine/Hispanic/Latinx artists, performers, book authors, and leaders are visibly busy securing gigs and answering the calls of corporations, government officials and nonprofit giants.

I call them “gigs” because by definition they are job opportunities that last a specified period of time – only some compensated with money, most bartered for “exposure”.

For a total of four weeks weirdly nestled between two months (September 15 through October 15) we have a chance to highlight Hispanic Heritage, under the historical context that celebrations of the independence of several Latin American countries occur during this timeframe.

And after this, there’s much of nada going on. In this episode, we go over the 2020 Census numbers that demonstrate that we don’t need exposure and access to opportunities ONLY during four weeks.

People who identify as Latina/Latino/Latine/Hispanic/Latinx are one-fifth of the U.S. population (all of these terms are confusing, I know, it’s by design – the labeling of humans).

The non-White population data also reflects that we are having more babies (U.S. Census) within and outside our culture (Pew Research), leading the next wave of workers (U.S. Dept of Labor), boosting the economy through entrepreneurship (Latino Business Action Network), and figuring out how to build generational wealth through homeownership (NAHREP).

Data don’t lie. We just need to start exercising our power, influence, and advocacy muscle, and build relationships of trust, everywhere, every day with everybody.

That’s the missing ingredient – TRUST – we don’t trust each other or anyone…it’s by design.