African Americans, Hispanic IT Executives Also Face Challenges

The board of directors of the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE) talks about the challenges of being Hispanic American in corporate America.

African Americans aren’t the only minorities who struggle for equality in the workplace. A conversation with the board of directors of The Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE; www.shpe.org), which hosts an annual national conference and provides technology workshops, guest speakers and outreach programs through its 42 professional chapters and over 160 student chapters, reveals the unique challenges Hispanic Americans face.

“Sometimes the mentorship of a Latino isn’t there,” says Jose Rivera, a project management consultant and president of SHPE. “Sometimes you’re the only Latino voice or face in a division. You may see another Latino only in the cafeteria or cleaning the offices at night. It can be lonely.”

“I think that sometimes people perceive you as not being the management type, just because of the stereotype,” says Jazmin Jonson, senior software engineer for the Sun-Netscape Alliance and national secretary of SHPE.

SHPE, which was founded in 1974, plays much the same role for Hispanics as the BDPA (see Why Are African Americans Still Largely Absent From Senior Management Positions?) does for blacks. Byron Gutierrez, who works as a project leader at Sun Microsystems Inc. and is SHPE’s national vice president, says, “I didn’t even think there was a viable career path in computer science. I was the first person in my family to go to college, so I had little support. SHPE gave me a network.”

Rivera encourages companies to recruit at the SHPE national conferences, which are attended by 3,000 to 4,000 Hispanic Americans. “We’re the second largest ethnic group in the United States,” says Rivera. “SHPE is here to help corporate America help Latinos. We want to help them help themselves.”

—T. Datz