Business, Belonging, Being
Insights into corporate experience, through the perspective of three Latina executives.
“Sometimes I think, ‘How did we get here?’” asked Marilu to neither one of us in particular. If we’re living the Disney dream, then we are Disney princesses. The three of us decompressed over green garbanzo hummus with pita bread at the hotel restaurant, recounting the day’s developments in our plans around equity, diversity and inclusion. Our separate paths led us to this phase where our time intersects as members of the ABC Owned Television Stations (OTV) Group D & I committee.
Although meetings were over for the day, we continued our discourse on business, belonging and being, well into our evening together.
ON BUSINESS…
Meet Marilu Galvez, VP, Community Engagement & Development, WABC/ABC7 New York –
Marilu told us to move closer as she shared a presentation on her laptop about facilitating one-million dollars of new revenue into our NYC station. This was no coincidental task. It was driven by commitment to win as a team, fueled by collaboration. Our OTV President, Wendy McMahon says regularly, “Hope is not a strategy.” The campaign slides on Marilu’s screen were now in the past of 2019 — in the present, she’s recently wrapped a town hall on resources and solutions to the opioid crisis, and is currently leading an initiative around Census 2020, through multi-platform activation.
Cue Diana Palomar, VP, Community Engagement, WLS/ABC7 Chicago –
Thinking back to Diana’s work in the Chicago market over her 19 years of service, she’s given communities a variety of media platforms to tell their stories. Just a few of the major events she’s been part of are the annual Mexican Day Parade with incremental money from a Univision simulcast, station recognition of the area’s top leaders, helping to raise literacy levels via distribution of books through Disney’s Magic of Storytelling to non-profits, pitching Localish episodes and peaking interest of the artistic beauty within the Mexican museum. Diana is like the dashing Elena of Avalor for being a first, and for her skillful contributions to the kingdom.
Enter Lilian Peña, Account Executive, Sales & Marketing, KGO/ABC7 San Francisco/Oakland/San Jose –
As for me, I manage over a million dollars of ad money annually, as a consultant to various accounts ranging in categories from entertainment, to art, to attorneys, financial, real estate, sports, casinos, corporate and right down to local festivals with less than a ten-thousand dollar budget. Our leading online reach and social impressions have become effective tools to extending brand messaging. In 2019, I trained on our social software for posting our ad-sponsored copy to our various platforms, and learned our online tool for publishing ad-marketing campaigns. While coordinating productions comes naturally to me after having run our operations department for 17 years, I also step outside our TV box into our world of ABC7 Facebook Live to interview Latin talent visiting the Bay Area. Most recently, I sat down with comedian Felipe Esparza and student of meditation/mindfulness Diego Pérez, known by his pseudonym Yung Pueblo.
ON BELONGING…
Marilu goes on to tell stories about what it was like during her 19-year career as newsroom managing editor in the bustling assignment desk of our Group’s flagship station. She doesn’t hold back saying she found her voice early on, the day she turned in her resignation letter. Diana and I lean in over the table to listen to her breakthrough. I liken her anecdote to the bravery of The Little Mermaid. When she realized she was losing herself in a sea of tension swirling around her, she put a stop to her freefall by validating herself when nobody else was going to. The defining moment when she was asked to stay, changed her. She was empowered to lead effectively with confidence. Marianne Williamson says, “As we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated by our own fears, our presence automatically liberates others.” During this business trip, Marilu stopped Peter Rice on the pedestrian bridge which connects the ABC Riverside building to the Walt Disney Lot: “Hi! How are you? We met in New York. Our D & I team is working here this week.”
Diana talked to us about being the only Latina in her role across the Group when she first started at the station, having found her calling in broadcast after a brief career in telecommunications. She stood out — her skin tone the color of cinnamon, like mine. She’s lived regularly through the common experience of being the only female of color in meetings, to which she tells us she whispers to herself, “Ok, here we go!” The spirit of community is part of her fabric, a tapestry woven by her father’s Chicago history. He came from Mexico to the U.S. through the bracero program. Having put down roots in Chicago, he noticed a longing for culture through music. He was responsible for bringing the first Mexican artists to clubs around the city in the 60s and 70s. As a self-made promoter, he charged 25-cents for a ticket to dance the night away. He could finally afford classy outfits, a legacy I see in Diana’s fashion. Her grandfather’s soul also lives on in the Windy City. His hands laid down railroad tracks to create the maze of steel during the industrial revolution. The family name has come a long way. Diana recently toured the Lot which included a visit to Walt Disney’s office! It has been restored with every detail intact.
My Space Mountain of a ride has taken me through endless turns. When I first started in our San Francisco station sales department at 22 years young, I was a quiet, little brown girl. I looked around to relate, being new to office work; my parents hadn’t known English enough to even be of help in navigating the college process, but did back me financially. There was an older salesman of color by the name of Manny (R.I.P.), who I wondered how he was still breathing, with all the Marlboro smoke he puffed in the building break room. Then there was Miguel, a Mexican-American TECH OP on the first floor, who had worked with my father during his Univision days of the 80s. I eventually leveled up to management by what I attribute to adapting and pivoting, pivoting and adapting. Starting from our Cap Cities days, my examples were all those around me whom I observed as assertive, mostly kind, yet I also learned from those who were intense. This group of unofficial mentors had names like Jim T., Bill, Bob, and Bob, Dennis, Arden, John, Dave, Bruce, Mike, Greg, and Greg, Debi, Lynne, Carl, Julie, Gary, Joey, Milt, Woody, Gene, Ed, Verna, Chuck, and during my latest transition, Todd. There was one other like me, Rose, yet I found my own voice after earning the respect of the operations team I led, whose years of service felt like 200 years over my six, at the time. FastPass to the magical places this roller coaster has taken me — in 2015 I was on a production crew which filmed in the Disney Dream Suite and I walked through the Captain E-O tunnel (Michael Jackson’s former passage to stage). In the early 2000s, a new I.T. manager was hired from our Fresno station, ABC30, who set up my department with email. Eventually, we wed under the San Francisco City Hall Rotunda on our lunch break because it was Fourth of July weekend and we had deadlines to meet at the office. For these adventures, I call myself The Glitch and my husband Ralph, from the colorful worlds of Disney’s Wreck-It Ralph and Ralph Breaks the Internet.
ON BEING…
Marilu proceeded to show us a paper she wrote for her MBA class. The header read, “I believe hard work brings success.” She grew up in a borough of NYC, as an ethnic minority, in a strict Cuban household overflowing with female power and love. She lost her father when she was a teenager. Her mother was her role model, a career-minded woman from the finance industry who put her through college. She met her husband through friends in her early 20s, yet, she was not free to come and go as she pleased. She would invite her then-boyfriend to her house to watch movies, supervised by her family. Although she felt embarrassed, they found love which led to matrimony and two kids. Marilu’s influence opened her husband’s creative eyes to an interest in camera work and so, he’s been a TV photog for several years. She is the first to say to teammates around her, “I will always elevate you.”
Diana leaned back to consider her voice, then outlined steps to reaching new heights. Candidly, she tells us she was invited by a news co-worker to a house tamale party where she engaged with colleagues from around the station she doesn’t normally get to spend time with. The experience of workforce community created another avenue for communication. On family, she talked about the closeness with her sister and being there to help raise her girls, while living the dream which her young nieces can see.
As we sat in The Front Yard (such an appropriate name for the restaurant), I pondered the question, “How did we get here?” How was it that also on this trip I had encountered our CEO in a Lot plaza. My thought took hold of my voice as he passed me on his way to his quarterly earnings call. I heard myself say, “Oh, look, it’s Mr. Bob Iger,” to which he gracefully responded, “Hello.” I looked back at The Ride of a Lifetime we’ve each had on the tracks we forged with ingenuity, speed, delays and turns, sometimes scared, sometimes filled with glee. Although my career has been the steadiest part of my life, the ride has not been without surprises which were ultimately delightful. Through this corporate coaster, my husband and I raised four kids, holding on to the grab-bar for dear life, yet getting to the light at the end of the tunnels, smiling at each other.
In this phase, Marilu, Diana and I have arrived in our place of business, while being able to be, in a space where we all belong. This is how we got here: “While our own actions can better the world, the actions we inspire in others can profoundly change it. That is the true promise and potential of our efforts to be good citizens,” a phrase left for posterity by a previous Disney employee. °o°
Footnote: The Ride of a Lifetime is a book written by Robert Iger.
