“Let’s do a Mixer!” Jose, Our cofounder and head of the steering committee said.

I looked at him for a moment, thinking of the logistics, who would come? Do we have enough latinos in the city?

A round of Yes, nods and affirmations came from around the table, Latinos in Tech was working out of a small office in the Impact HUB in Pioneer Square. From 6pm-8pm plotting ways to bring the community together while also creating dynamic and interesting events to keep our people engaged.

And so it happened..

On November 17th, Latinos in Tech (Seattle) had its first mixer.

I arrived thirty minutes early to help with setup, Jennifer ran to the next thing while I opened wine bottles. The space was big, gorgeous and reminded me of Jane Austen dances. Coming from the WeWork space to this one was a big leap. It resembled the cool vibes of Silicon Valley, everything was new and chic and we took up space there.

After the wine bottles opened and the reggaeton was on the sonos speakers, I stood by the door. Eager to greet all the new and beautiful brown faces that would appear.

Our very first visitor, my good friend Allison came in, signing her name and grabbing a name tag. I quickly introduced her to my team. I could not help but feel this immense sense of pride. We said we were going to do this and we did. Many hands went into assisting to set this up.

Closer to 8pm the room was bustling with Spanish, English, Reggaeton and wine. More people arrived from all walks of Tech life, Doris from Latino film festival, Environmental Engineers, Software Developers and Data Analysts. The list goes on and the most exhilarating part was to look around and see folks, just like you from all areas of tech coming together.

The feedback overall was incredibly positive. We had 30 people join us but, 30 is a start. As we continue to grow we want to continue to extend our hand into our community and pull them with us and have our voices heard.

Thank you so much to everyone that came we would not have been able to do this without you.

To the Amazing Leadership team and beyond we hope to see you at the next Mixer!

About the Author

Rebecca Rocha, is an 2D/3D  Artist residing in Belltown, She is currently working on an indie game as one of their 3D character artists, volunteer designer for GeekGirlCon and in her spare time performs Let's Play! videos for her Channel LatinaGeek.