Hello! I am very excited about this post you guys! I feel it’s part of a large conversation currently happening almost everywhere: diversity, inclusivity, visibility. Whether it be the workplace, your school, the places you frequent, it’s obvious this conversation needs to happen to iron out differences and cast away myths about inclusivity.

This project came to be with Uber. They invited me to work with them to learn about their ‘Los Ubers’ employee research group which supports the Latinx community, and A: being Latino I was definitely interested and B: I wanted to know what was Los Ubers about – is it legit? Are they making a difference? Or is it just fluff? Well, here’s the scoop:

First let me give you a quick intro into Los Ubers: Los Ubers started as a grassroots initiative within Uber, driven by the (very few back then) Latinx members working at Uber. The program focuses on supporting Latinx employees and it also helps bridge the gap between the needs of the community and the response from higher management, though it does extend beyond Uber at this point (Los Ubers organizes events with other tech companies too). Some of the members that started this program were some of the only Latinx employees in their department; Cue Benito! My contact at Uber, an amazing hardworking and kind member of the Los Ubers team (and an engineer at Uber Eats).

Benito’s story is nothing short of amazing and inspiring; in a very short time he’s being able to accomplish quite a lot, from landing a job at Uber Eats to starting Los Ubers with his peers, and even give advice and motivational talks to the Latinx community (schools, businesses, young people looking to get into computer engineering, you name it).

As Benito mentions it “a community group gives others a powerful voice that they wouldn’t have otherwise, it almost boils down to “strength in numbers” and it goes beyond workplace meetings, it actually helps others feel confident to develop their skills to move forward”

Benito also talked to me about how small changes in the industry have ripples that echo everywhere, for instance, a meeting with Los Ubers can spark the idea to sponsor a hackathon event at a Latinx college where students get to practice and develop their skills. This change of looking outwards and taking care of your community has nothing but positive impacts.

“Companies can benefit from diversity, not only from a cultural point of view, but from a technical aspect too, some cultures may find solutions to problems in a different way and teams can learn from this” Benito says, “this has a good impact on all peers involved because they learn from each other and support their development at work”

Lastly I think one of the main benefits of Los Ubers in my opinion is to heal any divide – without any fluff – they are tackling the issue from the ground up; rallying the community to speak out about their issues and to connect with VPs and other people in power, converting any dull social/work systems into thriving, inclusive ones.

So, what’s my report from this experience? Los Ubers is legit and I am very happy to see people taking the time to spark change in the community.

---

This post was created in partnership with Uber. All opinions and comments are my own