GumGum HOLA Celebrates HHM at DAMA DTLA 🎉

On Thursday, October 20, the Hispanic and Latin/o/a/x identifying GumGummers in Los Angeles got together for the first time in GumGum’s history for an evening of good food, excellent drinks, and the best company at DAMA in DTLA. 

Over the last several months, our growing presence at GumGum has allowed us to build an organic community under our HOLA (Hispanic or Latinx) employee resource group, where we’ve championed Hispanic Heritage Month and setup programming and events to bring education to our broader GG community. We are not a monolith after all. 

It was important for us to find a restaurant that also embodied our culture - so we headed to Latin American restaurant, DAMA in LA’s Fashion District for inventive and modern Latin fare on their beautiful outdoor patio! 

This first-ever in-person event for HOLA brought together 10 GumGummers representing the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Venezuela, El Salvador, Bolivia, and Peru. A beautiful representation of the varying cultures within our community.

Through this intimate gathering, we were able to openly and authentically bring our whole selves to a safe space with others who understand the Latinx experience – with a shared language. We learned and laughed about the different words we used growing up - for example, how we each say ‘straw’ and how it translates to us.. “Is it pajilla or popote?”.

On a personal level, this was the first moment in my tenure here where I was connecting with others like me.. with a shared experience as being first-generation in America, sharing the history of our families, our hometowns, and how we’ve all arrived in our current career paths. 

It even allowed us to learn about our passions outside of work. If you haven’t heard our incredible violinist + SDR for Verity, David Cano - check out his Instagram. He recently performed at the Grammys! 

This event was our first true kick-off to HOLA, and it won’t be the last of these celebratory milestones! From here, we’re hoping to grow our Latinx and Hispanic representation at GumGum across all sectors and levels of our business, investing and partnering with more Latinx-owned companies and nurturing relationships with our clients + publisher partners to expand in the LATAM market. There is no ceiling to what our Latinx GumGummers can accomplish - and I’m excited to continue building this momentum with all of us, mi gente.

By Vanessa Rivero, proud Boliviana and DEI, People & Culture Business Partner