This Sonoma County Latina-led board knows how to get the job done

When a team achieves a goal, often the phrase “group effort” is used to describe the experience. In the case of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Sonoma County’s Board of Directors, it takes a group of Latina women.

Since 2020, the board has been led by all women. They said they don’t remember if it was the first time the board was exclusively women-led.

However, this is not a realization they ever had. Mainly, because they just keep going. There has been no time to sit back for the team whose hands were full dealing with countywide problems like the COVID-19 pandemic.

Alma Magallon became the board president near the start of the pandemic in 2020. During this time annual events were canceled and priorities shifted. It was now boots on the ground work for the women who visited businesses and informed them on safety protocols and vaccinations.

Despite the ongoing struggles in Sonoma County, the women are happy to have each other’s backs and tackle everything as a team.

“I think that's what makes this board very unique that we do vent to each other,” Magallon said. “We do learn from each other, we all give each other advice.”

Magallon said as older members left the chamber it just so happened to be only women left.

“That’s how we ended up as an all-female board, but it's very organic because we had already been part of the board,” she said. “It wasn't that we selected new members to come in, it was those of us who were renewing our term or stepping up into a higher role.”

When asked how it feels to work with an all-female team, board member Leticia Romo said it is “effective and efficient.”

The board of directors is comprised of Alma Magallon, Jackie Gonzalez, Sandra Gutierrez, Nancy Calderon and Leticia Romo. Each member works as a volunteer..

Stepping up to help out

Magallon, who works at Redwood Credit Union, emphasized all the women have similar backgrounds and have a deep understanding of what it takes to multitask since most of them have children, full-time jobs and are volunteering on the chamber’s board.

Most members said they were encouraged by a friend or an acquaintance to join the team.

Magallon joined the group in 2016. At first, she said it was intimidating attending events with local business owners as a 20-year-old entry-level banker. After being on the board a few years, Magallon was asked to become the board’s vice president. She was intimidated at the idea of taking on the role, but her brother offered some words of encouragement.

“El que no arriesga no gana,” she said in Spanish. “The one who does not take a risk, does not win.”

And six years later, she’s now the board president.

The board’s current vice president, Jackie Gonzalez, was persuaded by Magallon to join the group. Later, the Wine Country Radio account executive was asked to join the board. Gonzalez isn’t from Sonoma County and saw it as an opportunity to learn more about her community.

“I've always loved to help people, regardless of whatever it was,” Gonzalez said. “I love being creative. And I love helping people. So when the opportunity came to be creative and help people here I was like, yeah, let's do it.”

Building confidence as a Latina

Another member, Nancy Calderon, is a real estate agent with the Better Homes and Gardens Wine Country Group. For her, the biggest lesson she’s learned from the women has been to build her confidence.

“And at the time, I was a banker. I feel like being in the chamber played a role with my confidence, venturing out on my own and having my own business as a Realtor,” she said. “And I feel like the chamber and the community plays a huge role in that.”

Magallon understood exactly what Calderon meant. She had her own take on cultural norms that come along with being Latina and a mother.

“Sometimes we're in the corporate world, and it requires us to be present — to give it our all being Latinas,” Magallon said. “And showing that we're capable and still meeting expectations from our cultural expectations of what a good mother is, and what a good wife is and trying to mix it and blend it and make it our own.”

Leticia Romo, a mortgage loan officer at American Pacific Mortgage, was reluctant to join the board or anything with a Hispanic/Latino connotation. But as she began to attend chamber mixers, Romo said she liked that people wanted to know more about her rather than zero-in on her job title.

“One of the things that differentiates this group versus others is that your profession and your value as a professional fall secondary to your value as a human being,” she said. ”And then when you take it a step further, and we start looking at things we've done as a board to change the narrative of how we're viewed within our communities. I almost want to say we've mastered the art of what it is to be a community and to be an organization within the community.”

Continuing to do great work

Sandra Gutierrez, similarly to Magallon, has ties to Redwood Credit Union, but she is now a business developer. Her manager at the bank encouraged her to join the board and attend meetings.

“I know the heart of the chamber, and that's helping businesses and being a part of the community,” she said. “And there's been so many times where people come to us and they say, ‘Hey, I want to become an entrepreneur, or I want to go from sole proprietorship to LLC. What's that process?’ I know that it's a safe place for the community to come and ask those questions.”

The board still has a lot of work to do as 2022 comes to a close.

They will have a new executive director join the team, which will allow each member to dedicate the time and resources as the county’s small business owners. The group will also bring back the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Sonoma County Scholarship Fund to support local high school students. On Sept. 22, they will host Golfiesta, their annual golf tournament at the Windsor Golf Club along with more events planned for 2023.

The dedication and passion these women have for Sonoma County, local businesses and the Hispanic community knows no bounds. They will continue to tackle what’s thrown at them as they continue to navigate the ongoing pandemic and whatever 2023 has in store.

“There's always a silver lining to every circumstance, right? Whatever that may be,” Magallon said. “And you take the good, you take the blessings from that, and you learn from the things that didn't go your way and you pivot.”