A networking group for Latina women
The atmosphere is festive and welcoming at a potluck dinner in a small Brighton home. Laughter breaks out often among the 15 women who seem to be fast friends, but are mostly strangers.
They come from all around Greater Boston, and they are students, executive assistants, authors, part-time actresses, and accountants. Some are mothers, others single, but they all share a common bond: their Hispanic heritage.
The gathering is part of the informal monthly meetings organized by Las Comadres, which can be loosely translated as "the godmothers," a national networking group for Latinas whose Boston chapter, launched in 2003, has 250 members.
The organization was founded in 2000 by two Austin lawyers, looking for their own support group amid a good-old-boy work environment in Texas.
"All I really wanted to do was to make sure that we networked with each other to help each other build really strong relationships with regards to exchanging information," said Elizabeth Garcia, one of the group's creators, who hosted the first potluck supper at her home in Texas. Garcia said she wanted to "help each other professionally, socially, just really create solid friendships."
Since that first gathering of 40 women, the organization has grown to have chapters in 56 cities in 22 states. It has networks in Puerto Rico and Canada and a total membership of more than 7,000.
The president and chief executive officer of the nonprofit, Nora Comstock, who attended the first event, is credited with combining the face-to-face dinners with an Internet presence and e-mail network.
"I somehow became a nexus of information in those early years," said Comstock, 62, a business-development consultant who combined her own virtual community of friends with that of Las Comadres.
"I always thought I was so unique in wanting that connection to the community," she said. But meeting women in the group, she said, made her realize "it's not just me -- 500 women in Austin said, 'Me too.' "
At the cozy Brighton home, vivid artwork from Cuba and the Dominican Republic adorns the walls, a table full of dips and hors d'oeuvres, cakes, and drinks occupies a corner of the room, and the women mingle and talk in Spanish and English over soft Spanish reggae music.
The crowd is a diverse mix: The women or their families hail from places like Mexico, Peru, Chile, the Dominican Republic, Panama, Ecuador, and Spain.
"We've got everything," said Evelyn Reyes, 35, of the Dominican Republic, who has coordinated the Boston chapter since 2004 and likes how the group helps professional Latinas connect with one another. "Boston is a big city, and most of us are working in corporate America, but we are not the majority in corporate America."
The women keep in touch electronically with daily e-mail updates about everything from job openings to screenings of Latino films and fair-housing seminars. There are no dues and no officers. It's the simple nature of the group that makes it work, Garcia said.
"Once leadership positions start getting involved, or payment of some sort of dues, you start alienating people," she said. "And that's the last thing I wanted to do. I wanted to just embrace everyone."
For Reyes, the group also offers the opportunity to connect with a shared culture, something she worries that Hispanic youth in the United States is losing.
"They don't want to speak Spanish, they've just become so Americanized... they don't know anything about their cultural background," she said, adding, "you want to be able to preserve both cultures," American and Hispanic.
Another goal of the organization is encouraging members to patronize businesses owned and operated by Latinos and Latinas.
"When you call a plumber, do you call a Latino plumber or do you call somebody else?" Karla Jaramillo, 34, a senior accountant at an investment firm in Boston and another organizer of the local chapter, asked the group. "Do you recommend Latino businesses to other Latinos? We are just supporting our own culture by supporting" them.
Word of mouth is the group's main recruiting tool. Members are encouraged to invite friends, co-workers, family; non-Latinas married to Latinos are also welcome to join. Reyes said the Boston chapter has been adding two to three new members a week.
Recently, the national organization sponsored its second worldwide Comadrazo, in Austin, a national gathering of women from the regional networks.
Three-hundred members attended the weekend event, which featured an exhibit hall with artwork and merchandise from Latina businesses; roundtable discussions on a variety of topics, including Latina entrepreneurship; as well as a fashion show, dancing lessons, and a dinner.
Back in Brighton, Emily Correa, 23, a senior at the University of Massachusetts at Boston who is studying psychology and sociology, was attending her first meeting. She said she plans to use the group to help her network after graduation when looking for work.
"I think it might be a little easier with Las Comadres to get a job," said Correa, whose family is from Puerto Rico.
"I think this is powerful group of women; they are going places."
