[Music] [Music] Rachel Parish in America.

Welcome in America.

A welcoming America is an organization that works to support communities in building a welcoming society and welcoming places uh where every one of us including immigrants can thrive, can belong, and can prosper in the places we call home.

I'm not the founder of Welcoming America, but it has been a labor of love for many years for me.

My own family came as refugees to the United States.

They had left and survived a place that really represents the worst of what uh society can do when we let prejudice uh and dehumanization get the better of us.

Uh and came to the United States, I think, as many immigrants do, believing in its promise of freedom and opportunity and and benefiting from that.

But we also know that there is a very strong economic case.

And I think that that's especially true for states like Wisconsin as well as many rural places in the United States where immigrants have accounted for just about all of the population growth of many places in the US which has had a really outsized economic impact in terms of making sure that communities can stabilize, can see businesses on Main Street, can have the workforce that we need.

We have an aging population here in the United States.

So, we need we need people not just to fill jobs, but to really be rooted in our communities to be able to thrive.

So, what we're talking about here is really our economic future, but also building a country that really lives into its democratic values and the idea that we can come from anywhere in the world and call ourselves an American.

uh beyond the economic part of what happens when immigrants are welcome in a country.

It is also established in your beliefs in your phil philosophy that immigrants enrich communities in many other ways.

Can you comment on that?

Just to keep putting a finer point on the economics of that because I know that is important for many people.

Um I just wanted to share you know a little bit of statistics uh in terms of uh Wisconsin $3 billion is what immigrants in Wisconsin are contributing um you know both in uh state and local taxes and also federal taxes.

So um there is uh you know a lot that immigrants are paying into the system and unfortunately um for many immigrants um not being able to access or benefit from um all that they are putting in.

So we believe it's really important for communities to make sure that everyone including immigrants can contribute their fullest.

And that is not just an economic contribution but also being able to fully participate in decision-m in communities, being able to volunteer, serve on boards and commissions, being able to connect with neighbors at a human level, socially cohesive.

We know that building trust across lines of difference makes for communities that are safer.

And we also know that many communities benefit so much from the cultural contributions that people make in cuisine, in arts and and culture and humanities.

So there's just so much that enriches communities as a result of migration and as a result of people fully belonging in the places we call home.

Do they have a role in the resilience of their communities?

Absolutely.

You know, I think the act of migration is itself an act of great resilience to pick up everything and move to a new place.

um shows, you know, an ability to adapt and and we see that in the way that, you know, so many immigrants, including my own family, you know, have become entrepreneurs, uh, you know, opening businesses and, uh, you know, being able to build, uh, a new life and also communities themselves are more resilient when they are able to adapt, uh, and make it easier for people to be fully part of the community.

Rachel, what is the welcoming standard?

It is a roadmap for communities to look at how to become a more welcoming place, making it easier to open a business, making it easier to learn English, reducing some of the common barriers that immigrants might face to being full participants civically, socially, economically, and encoding those in a standard.

And we also have a program called certified welcoming where communities can demonstrate an ability to meet that standard and then be certified as a welcoming city or county.

What is equitable access?

How the welcoming standard uh helps that equitable access is about making sure that all members of the community whether you're an immigrant or not can can access services, access resources.

And so in the standard we want to make sure that communities know how to do that in practical ways.

How does it build trust?

Building trust between neighbors.

A lot of our communities are really segregated.

We don't have naturally a lot of opportunities to connect with one another.

So many communities are doing really wonderful work to bring neighbors together, whether that's over a soccer pitch or over community dinners or using local arts and culture to, you know, help people connect at a human level.

That work is more than ever so important, I think, as many people don't feel that trust.

I mean both immigrants especially right now especially people who may not have documentation there's just so much fear and I think you know many Americans are feeling that sense of fear or or feeling that there isn't trust with neighbors so we have to be really intentional about building that and I think welcoming is one of the many ways that we can be smart and thoughtful in our own backyards about connecting with our neighbors and and building trust.

I think that education is one of the most important areas for communities to be thinking about.

A quarter of all children in this country are immigrants or children of immigrants.

Many of them are hearing messages that they don't belong.

We've seen a rise in bullying and hate crime.

So at a minimum I think you know our uh educational institutions and especially K12 can be playing a role in you know reducing fear, reducing harm.

It's the place where you access information.

It's the place where you meet first friends.

It's the place where you maybe learn to speak English.

And so equipping schools to be prepared, to be welcoming is just so critically important.

Right now, Latinos are facing many challenges and not just Latinos, but other um immigrant and refugee groups is welcoming American using a special ways to address these challenges and what are for you the key challenges that these communities are facing.

I think that one of the most important messages that I want to bring to your audience is that, you know, regardless of what is happening in Washington, we have so much power in our own backyards, in our communities, to to reinforce people's belonging, to reinforce trust between neighbors, and you know, regardless of our political affiliation, regardless of our identity or race or origin, all of us benefit from living in communities ities where we feel valued, where we can trust one another, and building a welcoming community is something that we can all do and reinforce for one another.

And then every year in September, we host an event called Welcoming Week.

It's being celebrated across the US and around the world.

That's something that we all have the power to do, and we would love for as many people as possible to participate in that.

We have members in about 47 states and any organization that is a local government or a nonprofit can become a member.

We do have a few members in Wisconsin and a number of them are in rural parts of Wisconsin where the role of immigrants you know especially in revitalizing industries like the dairy industry for example is especially important.

So much fear in communities in mixed status families, you know, among people whose status is really tenuous at this moment or or people who don't have status just given the, you know, the deportations that are happening.

You know, have many loved ones who are confronting, you know, impossible decisions about whether to say goodbye to family members and know that they may not see them ever again.

I mean, it's just gut-wrenching.

There is no doubt, you know, the the human consequences, the economic consequences, the the public health consequences, not only to people who are directly impacted, but to all of us.

And so I think it's just so important for all of us to be kind of rowing together to create the opposite of what we're seeing, the opposite of the fear and the hate and, you know, building what we can in our own backyards to really again reinforce our our shared belonging and, you know, build build the country that I know that we can be.

[Music] [Music] Eduardo, National Hispanic Corporate Council.

[Music] The National Hispanic Corporate Council was founded almost 40 years ago in 1985 as an organization for corporate America by corporate America to educate this member on the rising Hispanic Latino population.

At that time it was a much smaller population of what it is today.

Back then it was around 10 million on a national census and today it's almost 63 and a half million Latinos per the last census.

And so companies got together and said, "Hey, this is a rising consumer base.

How do we tap into this market for for a customer perspective but then also from a talent and workforce.

So this organization has been working together to as an education as a learning organization to bring awareness, thought leadership, best practices and resources to help company better understand our community and leverage that for their business operation.

Eduardo, what is your background that brought you to be part and to be uh the head of such an important organization?

Yes, I had a a very diverse background first starting out in human resources, talent acquisition, also had opportunities to work in public relation, public policy as well.

And I think those two were a an opportunity to fuel business administration, public administration into a role that one allows me to be an association executive, but also work with corporate members under Hispanic and Latino strategy.

So I believe my background as a fellow Latino born in Venezuela, raised in in the United States allowed me to be bicultural, bilingual, and provide that perspective to corporate America.

What are the key strategies that NHCC provides for these companies to acquire a a Hispanic Latino talent and to retain them?

When we look at Latino talent, we look at it from a talent acquisition, talent development, talent retention, and talent management.

So, as the population, as our communities continues to grow, more and more of the available workforce will be Hispanic or Latinos over the next couple of decades.

And so, we try to bring that awareness to companies.

We try to leverage cultural competency so they can understand who we are as a community.

As you may know, Latinos represent many countries, many intersectionality, and many different background.

whether you're first generation immigrant born here or however you self-identify.

And so bringing some of that cultural competency to corporate America is key and number one and then applying it to their strategy.

Where can they find the best and brightest Latinos around the country?

How can they grow the talent pool?

How can they best tap into the existing workforce?

How do we elevate current leaders in corporate America to the next role?

manager, director, vice president, seuite and so these are the type of conversations that we have with a member company and we provide that as a resource.

uh sometime you don't know what you don't know or you may have not worked with certain community or you may be missing out certain job fairs or organization that can be strategic partner to help you attract that talent and the Latino consumer is the fastest growing demographic in the United States to put it in perspective we're the fifth largest economy in the world if you group all the Latinos that are here in the United States and named us as our own country and so we provide awareness information data demographics traffic that highlights the purchasing power and the Latino consumer buying power opportunities for that.

We also share content.

Again, going back to that cultural competency, it's important to understand who the Latino consumer are.

Mobile, we're younger, we're larger family and things like that that can help make a connection to the particular brand, to particular company for their products and services.

So when we're looking at workforce or marketplace strategy, you must have a campaign or initiative that specifically target Hispanic and Latinos as your stakeholders.

Without that, you you're at risk of not continuing to reach that market and to grow opportunities in those areas.

Yeah, there are major companies that have been with NHC since inception or have recognized the value of our market way many many years ago before it become a necessary thing for growth.

So some of those key fortune companies, they are who they are because their intentional outreach, their intentional campaign for Latino community and not only from a marketplace and consumer side, but also from a workforce.

Eduardo, how are those U NHC partners with other organizations to reach your goals?

We have many events and activities where we convene leaders to connect, learn, share and network around best practices and strategies.

So as we have our events and engagement throughout the country, we invite national and regional partners that can collaborate um that have the audience base uh that want the knowledge that want the collaboration and how the better way from a national organization like NHC to support local regional partners at the ground level.

Some of the companies that's been with us since 1985 really recognized the Hispanic market potential from a customer perspective and a talent companies like Coca-Cola, companies like McDonald's.

But over the years we have invited folks like Hilton, Marriott, the Boeing company, Liberty Mutual, State Farm, Comcast, NBC, Universal, and many, many other fortune level companies around the country that are coming to us not only to get the knowledge, the awareness, but also the content and the way to engage with their respective Hispanic and Latino stakeholders.

Eduardo, how can people get involved in your organization?

How can they reach out?

Is there a website when they can go and look for more information about you?

Absolutely.

We we'd love to have corporations, leaders, and other executives from around the country consider to learn more about NHC and how we can collaborate together to help elevate their Hispanic, Latino talent, customer, supplier, community relations, and their employee resource group strategy.

We invite them to come to our website that is www.nhccu.org or and or follow us on LinkedIn for more information.

[Music] The Milwaukee PBS Lily Art below zero.

In order to become a nice sculptor, you need to have not only the the artistic skills, the endurance to get the sculpture done, but the discipline.

[Music] You're in a in a freezer for many hours a day and or in a winter festival.

It's a very challenging material and there's a lot of logistical things that go along with ice sculpting like the drainage of the of the water in in an event in a room temperature event.

So, it's it's very hard but but it's very rewarding.

You do ask yourself continuously why why am I doing this?

It's is it's going to melt.

But the beautiful thing about ice sculptures is is that is that it teaches us that beauty is not permanent.

Teaches you to enjoy what you're you have in front of you and make the most out of it.

[Music] One of the secrets of uh in in a crystal clear block of ice two two of the secrets.

One is we purify the water.

We have a reverse osmoser system, a water softener and an industrial filter.

So this is better than avian water.

It's super clean water.

And then the other secret is the motion.

These pumps make the molecules of water to freeze really really really tight together.

That's why the ice is so crystal clear and so dense, so strong.

Motion is the biggest secret.

There was no ice sculpting school in Venezuela.

That's usually taught in culinary school.

So the only way for me to learn was to try to learn from somebody.

So I was begging for like 3 months to a to a chef uh in in Karakas in Venezuela.

And uh so he took me in and he taught me some basic principles of eye sculpting.

And then I started going to competitions all over the states and Canada and Europe.

My purpose in in those in that time was just to learn as much as possible.

So I had to balance between doing my sculptures doing trying to do well in the competition at the same time trying to learn as much as I can and trying to learn of their techniques and tools.

In those days, we didn't have chainsaws or chainsaws were not applied to ice sculpting yet.

So, it was my, you know, like a handsaw and ice picks and chisels to be able to carve a sculpture with only a handsaw.

Oh, I have I have so many stitches all over the place.

And then it's also a physical job.

These are 300 lb blocks of ice.

And at that point, they felt like this is this is one of the most difficult things in the world.

Why am I doing this?

What was the most difficult thing at the time, which was learning how to carve with only handsaws and and and chisels, now I have the technology.

I have massive CNC machines and every tool that I can get.

But having the skills of starting really really really hard and having the skills to create a sculpture with only a handsaw or a chisel.

When somebody wants to start over, I'm like, start, you know, with the basic tools and just create your your your skills based on on very limited amount of tools and then eventually you develop and you can add more tools into it, but you have a really good foundation for your technique.

26 years ago, I had an offer to work in in Paris or I had the option of buying a company in Chicago.

That deal didn't go through.

So, I decided, okay, I'm going to open my own company, but I'm going to move a little bit north.

I mean, it's Milwaukee, Madison, Lake Geneva, all the way up to Green Bay.

And at this moment I'm inspired by people by the effect my eye sculptures create on people.

I am grateful that I come in in people's lives in very special times in their life in their wedding or their anniversary or a birthday or a bar misb.

I think there's there's a lot of things that we do that translate into you can do whatever you want.

If we can create this ice sculpture out of a block of ice, you can go home and do whatever you want.

You can create your own masterpieces into any material that you want and you can overcome any challenge.

If you can amaze and inspire people, that's that's the best thing you can do.

Another beautiful thing about eye sculpting is that it allow me like I had some ideas and I'm like, how can I get this out of my head?

How can I get this into into a material?

And so at the end of the day, you feel like it feels it feels good to be able to translate something into a into a block of ice.

PBS.

[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music]