From its origin in Galveston, Texas in 1865, Juneteenth commemorates African American emancipation in the US. Why do you think it has taken so long for this day to become a holiday?
The flaws that generate the most shame in a society are usually the last to be made visible. I think it is a kind of instinct of our collective being and one of the real struggles that communicators should still lead today. Racial segregation, cultural colonialism or malnutrition ... crucial issues to take a step forward as societies, today continue to be encapsulated in the shame they generate in us.
Will you be giving space to people who wish to celebrate? How does observing this day create more awareness?
In Guatemala, our operational center country, the true artistic and cultural wealth was born and survived in the pre-Columbian indigenous roots. Its scientific value and its craft legacy was stressed for hundreds of years by the colonizing cultural matrix. Today, in my opinion, a large part of our responsibility is to honestly revalue the talent and native culture, generate the necessary spaces and make every day people - who have embraced and maintained their aesthetic roots based on the craft legacy - the main protagonists of more projects.
Equal opportunity starts at the grassroots level and the structure of the advertising industry makes it extremely challenging for BIPOC to enter, without the right network. Do you have any programs in place to make it possible for underserved communities to access the industry?
Today we are fortunate to be able to integrate talent from all over the country and the region. We have invested time in internal inspiration. Just as we give time for international talks, we also take our thinking and philosophy of "no limits thinking" to different regions of the country. This is how we have managed to add talent that identifies with our idea, method and purpose from an organic and inclusive place in both ways.
Do you think our industry is progressing well enough towards greater diversity at the executive level?
Not yet. The damage that has been done is done. It is still there and it is not resolved with political correctness transformed into programs or actions that look good in an annual work report or in a company narrative. I recently read that the subject can be compared to the phenomenon of Newton's Pendulum by Edme Mariotte: the suspended balls are collided by a ball that comes from above and the energy it releases causes the ball at the other end to rise, matching the energy received and restarting the phenomenon. Breaking this eternal loop depends, in my opinion, on the only energy that can break a closed, antagonistic and time-tainted system: honesty and a true love of value and disruptive wealth that can only be generated by a diverse group.