Hispanic Heritage Month is a time to celebrate the culture and contributions of the Hispanic and Latine community. Here at PagerDuty, we have an Employee Resource Group for Latine folks called Dutonienses. Being Hispanic, Latino, Latina, Latine, can mean so many things. There are so many countries and cultures included in those identities and it’s so beautiful. Although each country has unique traditions, foods, drinks, holidays and games there are some similarities that tie the overall community together. 

One way that Dutonienses celebrated HHM this year was by asking our members to share about their culture from the country they’re from or their family’s from. Their responses were shared with the rest of the company and folks got to learn about their foods, traditions and how even though Hispanic countries all speak Spanish, there are some words that are said differently depending on the country you learned it in!

Straw: popot (Mexico), paja (Nicaragua, Spain), pitillo (Venezuela), pajita (Chile), bombilla (Chile) 

Popcorn: palomitas (Mexico), palomitas (Nicaragua, Spain), cotufas (Venezuela), Cabritas (Chile)

Snow cone: raspa (Mexico), cono de nieve (Nicaragua), granizado (Venezuela), cono de helado (Chile) cono de helado

Pen: boligrafo (Spain, Mexico, Venezuela), pluma (Mexico), lápiz (Nicaragua, Chile)

A few other ways Dutonienses celebrated HHM at PagerDuty was hosting a Coffee Time to share Latine owned coffees and have a discussion about all things coffee, an in-person tortilla making event where folks learned how to make tortillas followed by a happy hour, a partnership with our recruitment team where Dutonians participated in a panel hosted by Latinas in Tech that was about elevating your career through personal brand and lasting connections. 

The last company wide HHM event was a panel with Dutonians hosted by Dutonienses leadership that was focused on the topic of being a World Citizen. World citizen is defined as someone aware of and concerned with the global community and its challenges. They are committed to working towards a more just and equitable world regardless of nationality or origin and embrace the culture of the communities they interact with.  At PagerDuty, we have a unique opportunity to be world citizens in a variety of ways. Our platform is used by organizations globally, and we have the power to make a positive impact by understanding them as a community and a customer. Becoming a world citizen is a lifelong growth, acceptance, and action journey. There is no easy formula for becoming a world citizen, but some things to get you started are Be Open-minded (be curious about the world around you) + Be active (get involved in your local community) + Be Mindful (what you’ve created to disrupt or incite growth and how that impacts the world around you). Every interaction is an opportunity to reinforce your growth as a world citizen. The panel was well received as many folks at PagerDuty felt that it was interesting to them and/or resonated with them. We received a 93.33 NPS score across attendee survey responses from our panel event, which also garnered a 70% response rate.  

The Dutonienses team is grateful that PagerDuty gives us the space and resources to celebrate our Latinidad and share it with the company.