Today we’d like to introduce you to Ana Reyes.
Ana, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I was born in San Francisco, and have been in San Diego since I was five years old. San Diego is my town! I grew up in Otay Mesa and went on to study at San Diego State, with a B.A. in Education with a minor in Spanish. I worked at Sony for 20 years in Corporate Communications, with my last position being in Public Relations.
I have a keen passion to work in the community and always find ways to tie what I am doing professionally and give a little to the community. I’ve always loved technology.
While doing PR, I met Lala Castro, one of the founders of #LatinaGeeks at E3, the biggest gaming convention in the US. Immediately I knew I found a Geeky Latina that had a lot of the same passion for our community. We had an immediate connection, and that was the beginning of an amazing journey.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
It’s never a smooth road, or you are not on the right road. I always like to challenge myself and go to the next level.
Any project I work on, I look to the next level, so maybe I create my own struggle to make sure I am exceeding. My first main challenge was given an opportunity to be a spokesperson on a National Media Interview, the topic was a crisis, and I had to do it in Spanish.
I took the challenge, studied the topic, became an expert overnight and the next day took the interview that was broadcast throughout the U.S. Its never a smooth road, but if you take any challenge, break it down, study, resolve, and you can conquer anything.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the #LatinaGeeks story. Tell us more about the business.
#LatinaGeks was established in 2013, LaLa Castro and Tanya Salcido were brought together thanks to a common passion — the love of technology and all things digital.
With backgrounds in marketing, eCommerce, and social media, these early adopters of tech found a gap within the online Hispanic community. It was at that pivotal moment#LatinaGeeks was born. #LatinaGeeks mission is to empower and inspire women by spreading knowledge of entrepreneurship, social media, and technology #LatinaGeeks promotes and reviews the latest gadgets, mobile applications, social technology and supports local tech-startups that women can apply to their daily lives and/or business.
In the fall of 2017, #LatinaGeeks designed the “Latinas Learn to Code” program to help bridge the gender gap in the tech programming industry by providing an introduction to the foundations of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript — the three building blocks of the web.
This was when I met Vanessa Miranda, and we decided to launch the San Diego Chapter. Our workshops are held one weekend a month with 50 attendees. When we post our workshops, we sell out within 24 hours and have had waiting lists of up to 200 waiting. We have chapters in Orange County, San Francisco, Seattle and ours in San Diego.
In 2019, we will continue to grow chapters across the US and into Mexico. Our community yearns for more, after each workshop or networking event, we need to force the girls out, they want to keep talking and sharing stories, its a great feeling.
Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
Being a Latina in major corporations has helped me. I am very active in Employee Resource Groups and Networking organizations. I love to meet people and connect people.
I’ve managed to lead our Hispanic Resource Groups at both of my major companies, and this helps me get visibility on big projects, I volunteer to get on projects and pull in my colleagues and peers that I see with the same interest.
By networking, I have met a lot of people in the community and media with roles that can help leverage and support many of the projects that I work on. You really make your own luck, it is out there, just need to find a passion and nurture it.
“Failure is an important part of your growth and developing resilience. Don’t be afraid to fail.”
Michelle Obama
Contact Info:
- Website: https://latinageeks.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/latinageeks/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/latinageeks
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/latinageeks
- Other: https://latinageeks.com/contact-us/
Image Credit:
Fry’s Electronics, Maria G Hernandez
Getting in touch: SDVoyager is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
