The Latino Professionals Association’s mission is to recognize and enhance the lives of Latino professionals in the Madison area for leadership development, professional growth, civic and public engagement, and personal enrichment. Tonight, they will host their annual “Building Our Legacy Reception,” a major event for the young organization.
“’Building Our Legacy’ is the annual event where we gather the community, businesses, government leaders and we celebrate our individual and collective legacies for the community,” Latino Professionals Association Marketing VP Yuly Osorio tells Madison365. “We recognize the career trajectories and the contributions to the LPA as well as initiatives and programs for the community that are leaving a lasting impact on greater Madison.”
The LPA Annual Building Our Legacy Reception will take place in downtown Madison at The Madison Club, 5 East Wilson Street, from 6-10 p.m.
“This event is going to have something for everybody – there will be a lot of community leaders and influential people from different companies at this event,” Osorio says. “For Latino professionals – and, really, for any type of professionals in Madison – that want to support the Latino Professional Association are going to find amazing talent there and they can network with them.
“For young people who are graduating from high school and going into college, this will be an amazing opportunity for them to get involved with the community, too,” she adds.
The event will be a chance to officially unveil the video for LPA’s “Yo Soy” social media campaign that they use to raise awareness of their contributions to the greater Madison area. LPA hosted a kickoff event on July 15 where they recorded the event and took pictures with their members. You can see a sneak preview below.
“This year, the campaign is about all of the powerful words that we as a community and the Latino professionals contribute to this world,” Osorio says. “In other words, yo soy powerful. Yo soy change maker. Those are the type of words we are looking for this year.”
In the video, they asked people important questions like: What is your contribution as a Latinx in the community? What inspired you to lead? What defines your professional brand?
“We’re trying to engage the community in this campaign so we can show the world that we [as Latinos] give quite a bit back to our community,” Osorio says. “We’re not here to take; we actually give quite a bit. Much that we read in the news about Latinos has been negative, and, obviously, the Latino community goes through many challenges, but we just want to show the positives. We want to show that despite everything, we are happy and we are making a difference and we are striving to achieve something better than we have.”
The Latino Professionals Association has been around for four years and this will be the third “Building Our Legacy” event. LPA President Tania Ibarra says that they currently have 241 LPA members and rising. She’s very excited about the upcoming annual event.
“Changing the narrative of the contributions of Latinxs culturally, socially, economically and professionally has never been more critical, “ Ibarra tells Madison365. “We must elevate our community to protect our ability to improve our lives for generations to come.”
There will be three special guest speakers at the “Building Our Legacy” event. Each will speak on the three LPA topics: Inspire, Develop, and Empower.
Israel Lopez, a business attorney at Neider & Boucher, S.C., will talk about we can do as individuals to cultivate a community that inspires all of us to achieve professional success. Lisa Peyton-Caire, assistant vice president of Life, Learning & Events at Summit Credit Union, will talk about why is it important to commit to growth as a community in order to support and develop Latino professionals. Veronica Lazo, executive director of UNIDOS Against Domestic Violence, will talk about what empowers us to reach our potential and live our purpose as professionals within our community.
The music will be provided by Parces Trio, who play crossover rock/pop/Latin music and are made up of Julio Araujo (percussion), Angela Puerta (singer), and Edy Rey.
Osorio, who emigrated from Colombia to Wisconsin 16 years ago and has been involved in LPA for three years now, says there’s still room at the event for people who are interested in attending.
“It’s a great chance for people in the community to learn more about the Latino Professionals Association and to come and network, have fun, listen to music and have a drink,” Osorio says. “There’s something for everybody.
“The most important things is that there will be a lot of great minds in the same room that will be supporting the Latino Professionals Association and supporting community and the social issues that are so important,” she adds.
The LPA Annual Building Our Legacy Reception will take place Wednesday, Sept. 20, 6-10 p.m. at The Madison Club, 5 East Wilson Street. Tickets are $25 for members, $50 for non-members and $15 for students. Register here.
