Letter from the Founder
Hola! If you’re reading this, thank you for joining MiM and helping build the little comunidad we’re looking to grow.
Mujeres in Marketing a year ago was just a concept, and one I didn’t think would come to fruition anytime soon. Fast forward to today, when we not only celebrate our launch into the world but the very reason MiM came to exist: community. The ones we’re raised in, the ones we create, and the ones we’re building with each other constantly in life. Community has been at the forefront of all of the passion and planning behind building something like MiM since it’s the very reason it came together.
It’s lonely in a lot of professional spaces where people don’t necessarily look like you or understand you. This made me crave the company of others who inspire me to be my best self, making MiM something very dear to my heart and selfishly, something that’s just as much a gift to myself as it is to the community we’re building, juntas. MiM exists to unify Latina creative professionals with opportunity and advancement but also as a place to build community authentically without feeling like we need to leave part of ourselves at the door to be more palatable to others – something many of the women in my life have experienced, but won’t have to with us.
MiM also exists to provide opportunities to break generational barriers to success so Latinas have options before anything else, something we aren’t used to. This generation of Latinas is so empowered, educated, and inspiring in ways I couldn’t have imagined, it’s an honor to gather all of our prowess and use it to benefit ourselves directly. I often get emotional thinking of the incredible, uncredited women who came before us, especially those who raised us, who had to pause their dreams to make room for us to exist as we do – those are the real MVPs.
Mujeres in Marketing is the result of the efforts of everyone who has ever inspired me and more. I want to give a personal thank you to my founding board members Yeliza, Ana Carolina, and Krystal who all went above and beyond to take my simple idea and make it into the organization you see today. They’ve lent their time, ears, expertise, and resources from their successes to execute this in a way I would have never thought imaginable.
I’d also like to thank my family for their support in this endeavor and for everything else I have wanted to do in life (thank you Mami and Papi, and my sisters, Isamar and Alison), my friends for never doubting for a second I could make it happen (and taking me for walks when things got rough), and a special thanks to my grandmother Carmen (Ita to me), who always inspired me through her incredible strength and character. She remains one of the strongest women I know, and whose emphasis on education to seek opportunity because she couldn’t is one that I’ve credited most of my mindset to.
I also want to thank our MiM community for making this truly possible. Without our members, we wouldn’t have anyone to serve. Gracias un millon!
Ashley Rivera Mercado, Founder and President