A Conversation with Sonia Pérez

Sonia M. Pérez is Chief Operating Officer at UnidosUS and is responsible for aligning UnidosUS’s major initiatives and core work across programs, policy, and Affiliate engagement with communications and fundraising efforts to advance UnidosUS’s mission. In addition, she oversees Human Resources, organizational strategy development, and board governance. 

During her three-decade career at UnidosUS, Sonia has held roles in policy, programs, affiliate engagement and now, organizational operations. Earlier in her career, she conducted and published research on Latino social policy and demographic issues, including editing Moving Up the Economic Ladder, a book that helped lay out UnidosUS’s major areas of focus on economic issues. She has guided the development of key programs in education, workforce development, and health, and has provided nonprofit management training and support to Hispanic community-based organizations on the U.S. mainland and in Puerto Rico. She also shaped UnidosUS’s regional office efforts including UnidosUS’s work in Puerto Rico, launching the KIDS COUNT – Puerto Rico project, which published the first databook on children in Puerto Rico. Sonia’s work has been cited in a range of English- and Spanish-language media. She has led several organization-wide strategic and business planning efforts, including most recently, the development of the organization’s strategic Directional Plan, which focuses on closing gaps to achieve equity and strengthening the overall organization to achieve impact. 

Sonia holds a master's degree in public administration from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and a bachelor's degree in English and American literature from Brown University. 

Gina Lázaro: Thank you so much for speaking with us. To start things off, could you please tell us about UnidosUS – what is the mission of the organization and who do you serve?

Sonia Pérez: We are the largest Latino civil rights and advocacy organization in the United States. UnidosUS has been around since 1968 and we have spent more than five decades expanding opportunities for the Latino community using a unique approach which focuses on three different elements: 1) the program side to understand what is happening in our community from a practical standpoint on education, health, and other issues, 2) the policy side and using program and policy to influence each other and to shape policy that affects Latinos in the best way, and 3) finally anchoring all of this work is our affiliate network of nearly 300 community-based organizations around the country and in Puerto Rico. These local organizations are the heart of what we do as they engage directly with families. Our affiliates help to inform us about the most pressing issues and what approaches work to help us to think about how to shape policy. Then, our policy work goes back to the communities, and we help to shape practice. This three-pronged approach is how we do our work.

Lázaro: Please tell us about the Latino community. What is the size of the Latino community in the United States? What are the major characteristics and statistics about the community?

Pérez: It is important to understand that about one in five Americans is Latino – it’s getting closer to one in four – that’s roughly 62 million Latinos in the U.S. and that typically does not include the over 3 million people in Puerto Rico who are American citizens, so we are a very significant community. We are also a diverse community – ethnically and racially – although about 60% of the community is Mexican American. UnidosUS’s mission was rooted in the Mexican American community in the Southwest. We used to be called the Southwest Council of La Raza, then became the National Council of La Raza, and then we changed our name to UnidosUS. We have evolved as the community has evolved and while the community is quite diverse, many of the challenges across the community are similar. There is a concentration of the community in about three states with one half of Latinos living in California, Texas, and Florida. We are also seeing a growing population in other states such as Nevada, Pennsylvania and North Carolina. Latinos are helping to fuel the economy of these states and are important to the future of these states because they are settling there, working and starting businesses, having children, and raising their families. Most people think of Latinos as immigrants. In fact, we include people who have deep roots and have called the U.S. home for several generations, like my previous boss, and others who arrived to the U.S. recently. 80% of Latinos are U.S. citizens and 95% of Latino children under eighteen are U.S. citizens, so our community is completely part of the fabric of the United States and critical to its future. 

The Latino community is young. About 6 in 10 Hispanics are millennials or younger, and a quarter are under the age of eighteen. That youthfulness is economically significant as you think about what that means for our country’s classrooms, workforce, and tax base of the future. Another notable issue is civic engagement as about one million Latinos turn eighteen every year. Latinos are significant contributors to our country’s history, are integral to strengthening our democracy, and it is crucial to make sure that Latinos have a voice. We are continuing to tell our story, even though our story has been part of this country since before its inception. It is important to have these conversations to spotlight how essential Latinos are today and to the future of the U.S.

Lázaro: Given the large number of young Latinos, the demographics of the United States are changing. Can you speak to the major issues facing Latinos which are now increasingly important issues for our country overall?

Pérez: Absolutely. From an education perspective, we have in the length of time that I’ve been with UnidosUS, which is about thirty years, helped to significantly close the gap of high school attainment rates. Education, and specifically increasing the quality of education at all levels, has always been a focus area for us. Now, our focus is also on college completion. We have had steady and consistent dedication of resources, energy, and attention to narrow the gap in high school graduation which worked, and now we need to do the same thing for both college attainment and for post-secondary employment. The idea being once you finish high school, there is a path for you and the path is not just for you and your family, it is also for the country and the city you live in. It is for the tax base that you are part of, and it is for the economy that you contribute to. We already know that more education translates into greater economic strength, so educating our young Latinos is critical.

Our Latino community has a lot of energy and a lot of hope, even in dark and difficult times like we have seen through COVID. When we do polling, Latinos have a sense that there is something better coming, and they are looking to the future, so the focus on education, particularly at the college level is crucial right now. Our young people also need a variety of paths to get to productive adulthood, such as apprenticeships and other ways to enter the workforce, and we need to do more in terms of investments there. Let us remember that the investments are not just for the young people, as we as a country will see those payoffs down the road. 

With COVID, we've seen significant impacts not just on the health of the community but also from an education standpoint. With remote schooling, the disparities in everything from connectivity to having devices to having parents or family members who could guide their child's education, have been a serious challenge. We modified our program called Padres Comprometidos or committed parents to help parents stay involved in their kids’ education as schooling went remote. We developed an ed tech curriculum and helped to reach parents through a Facebook group guiding them with everything from how to turn on a laptop to how to search for information. It was labor intensive, but this fundamental support is needed because it is not just about the children not having a digital device. It is about parents being able to have the support they need to fully engage in their children’s education. As with most children in the country, Latino children sadly have taken many steps backwards due to COVID and remote schooling. We are trying to catch up, so we have a significant emphasis on education at all levels. 

In terms of the impact of COVID overall, Latinos comprised a significant portion of the essential workforce that kept the U.S. economy going. When we ask how were people taken care of, how did we sustain families and communities, a big factor was the work of Latinos. How was it that the community had a big hand in everything from picking the food to preparing food to getting food delivered to your house, and yet sometimes faced food insecurity? Latinos were critical to the entire spectrum of helping this nation through COVID, so we must elevate and understand that there were many young Latinos out there in the workforce taking care of not just their own families, but our whole country’s families. There are many contributions made by the Latino community sustaining the country during this crisis, but Latinos were also disproportionately negatively affected by COVID in terms of cases and deaths. It is crucial that we as a country recognize these contributions and invest in ensuring that Latino families have a path forward as the nation recovers.

Lázaro: What progress has the Biden-Harris administration made in its first year towards addressing issues in the Latino community? What specific government policies or changes is UnidosUS advocating for?

Pérez: Socioeconomic issues are critical. We have been pushing the Earned Income Tax Credit for twenty-five years, and most recently the Child Tax Credit. Having the additional Child Tax Credit investment during 2021 resulted in about a million and a half Latino children being lifted out of poverty. Thus, we are advocating that the Child Tax Credit become permanent going forward. We think that is an important achievement not specifically for the administration, but in terms of the policies that benefited the Latino community and our country. Another is having more funding for remote schooling. We pushed for the E-Rate Program which put $7 billion into schools and libraries to assist with connectivity and devices, and has translated into about 8 million devices and the ability to connect these devices to poor and rural communities. 

Another key area we advocate for is higher representation within the administration given the changing demographics of the U.S. and government leadership needing to catch-up to reflect that change. UnidosUS led an initiative with several other Latino organizations, a coalition called Proyecto 20%, with the focus to get 20% of federal appointees to be Latino. It stands at about 15% currently, which is the highest of any administration, and includes four cabinet secretaries. It is critical to have Latino voices at the table to bring a broader perspective, share the lived experiences of our communities, and to facilitate obtaining the investments and the attention to the issues. 

Lázaro: Many of us were horrified by what happened at the border with children being separated from their families. What work is being done towards supporting the children and their families?

Pérez: Our affiliates on the border do the important on-the-ground work. We don't directly work on refugee issues rather we work on different domestic issues and on immigration policy in the U.S. Several of our affiliates in Texas, California and Arizona have been engaged as providers stepping in to help the families and children to undo the harms of the previous administration including setting up shelters or residences where children could be taken care of and working on reunifying families. The local organizations step in and provide incredible leadership. One of the myths about community organizations is that they are small with limited impact but, in fact, many are doing phenomenal work, and have quite sophisticated leadership and networks. These organizations are developing solutions at the local level and driving solutions to societal problems that can be translated to other communities as well. UnidosUS uses our platform to both elevate the solutions, scale practices, and try to get them replicated in other communities across the country, and that is the strength of our partnership with our affiliates.

Lázaro: Could you speak a bit more about the role that the private sector can play in addressing the big issues of education, housing, health, and the wealth gap in the Latino community?

Pérez: We use our knowledge of developing culturally-appropriate programming for Latino communities in different areas such as health, education, and housing. We believe that the way forward is to scale so that we are reaching many more people and we need partnerships, not just with the Federal Government and community organizations, but with the private sector. Everyone has a role to play in investing in programming that works, and it does not have to be only our programs that are the solution. It is taking the practices that work, for example housing counseling, and implementing the counseling in a culturally appropriate way. People who are counselled are more likely to buy a home, maintain the home, and keep it and not go into foreclosure. Housing counseling is a practice that works with our community and can be scaled, and this practice will help achieve our goal of increasing home ownership among Latinos.

Part of our success has been working closely with the private sector. We have a corporate board of advisors, and we engage with national and global companies that have a stake in the Latino community. Our relationship with them is not just about funding or developing programs and moving on. It is about understanding who we are as a community, understanding nationally what the issues are and how corporations can help shape those issues, and understanding locally what matters to the community and the organizations that serve them. For the corporate sector, there must be a willingness to engage and a willingness to learn, to come in and give deference to the expertise of national nonprofits and community-based organizations that know their communities and allow the decision makers to use the funding for what they need. We have a special initiative, which has continued during COVID, called the Esperanza/Hope Fund, where we fundraise to help our affiliate organizations respond to immediate needs. During the first year of COVID, for many Latinos it was about paying rent, and getting food on the table. People were in significant crisis, so our ability to have the trusting relationships with our affiliates, funders and corporate partners meant that our partners gave us funding and let us determine how to use it. We in turn provided funding to our affiliates and let them determine how to use the funds. We recently spoke to a few of our affiliates about the impact that this trust-based philanthropy had. One of them in Chicago said that the funding prevented homelessness and hunger in their community. Bottom line, our deep engagement and partnerships were critical to helping sustain families in this crisis. This ability to have the trusted relationship with a Walmart or with a PepsiCo through UnidosUS made all the difference in the world. It is cultivating these deep relationships and partnerships that allows us to get the results that everybody wants and that make a difference for the community.

Lázaro: Fast-forward 10 years in the future. What is UnidosUS's vision for the Latino community in the United States?

Pérez: Latinos have been here helping to build the U.S. for a very long time; we did not all just arrive recently. We want to see the contributions of the Latino community recognized. We want there to be real commitment to equity across all communities of color and across all Americans. We want everybody to have access to the same kinds of opportunities. Specifically, we want to see stronger communities in terms of home ownership, better health status, and higher levels of education. On the home ownership gap, we have a 10-year goal to get to 60% home ownership among Latinos. Right now, it is at 48% – we know we can close the gap with investments from the private sector, policy changes, and our own proven work. That would lead to more stable communities with economic power and being able to generate wealth for our children and the next generation, and home ownership is an anchor to how we live in this country. Our vision is all about closing gaps and achieving equity, which we have done, by the way, with the COVID vaccine. Through a multi-faceted initiative that included a culturally-appropriate public health information and education campaign; community-based outreach and vaccination; strategic partnerships, like with the COVID Collaborative; and engagement to shape policy responses, 76% of Latinos had received at least one dose of the vaccine by the end of 2021. We now have the highest rate of vaccinated Americans among Latinos, which is remarkable considering where we were a year ago. Reducing inequity and closing the gaps to get to equity is what we want to see across the board, and we can apply this multifaceted strategy to other issues.

Lázaro: Could you speak more to education since you mentioned increasing the numbers of post-secondary education enrollment toward college completion. We have seen the U.S. Census data showing high school completion rates among Latinos going up, but there are still significant gaps in college completion. What must be done to help the community continue to become more educated and graduate with college degrees?

Pérez: We need to continue to focus on education at all levels. Student debt is a big issue for post-secondary education. We have seen that many of our young people take on too much debt, or specifically cite not going to college because they do not want debt for themselves nor their families. Student debt should not be the reason for not going to college. There must be more pathways into higher education, such as through community colleges and other less expensive ways to get a college degree. Broadening access to those pathways is key. 

Another important approach is what we and some of our affiliates are doing, operating programs that take high school students to colleges and expose them to what happens at universities. We need partnerships and models to give students a greater understanding for what it takes to get into and succeed in college. UnidosUS runs a program called Escalera. It's a two-year model where we take high school students through the college process path and help them, and their families understand how to prepare. This type of orientation is essential, particularly for first generation students who may not have a context for college. We work with the private sector as Escalera is funded by a range of partners from UPS to State Farm and others interested in education. More investments like this are needed to support Latinos with their college dreams.

Lázaro: There are so many incredible and impactful programs that UnidosUS is doing. Are there any others that you would like to highlight?

Pérez: I would say our community health centers and our promotoras (community health workers) are so critical during this time of COVID. Not just in terms of getting the word out, but also in helping with getting vaccines in arms, educating the community in different languages about the importance of vaccines, and linking their clients to other services like nutrition support. We have seen issues with hunger in our community, which should not be the case for anyone in this country. Our community health workers are going way beyond the scope of health to focus on getting access for those in need to other services. I lift them up and say that they have been critical for the health and well-being of our communities.

Lázaro: What can the Advanced Leadership Initiative, with our fellows and coalition members from various sectors and from the U.S. and around the world, and others do to help advance some of the issues we discussed?

Pérez: Wherever people sit, the inclusion of Latino voices is critical. We are now almost 20% of the population in the U.S. We should have a voice on every single issue around the country. If someone is in a position of power or influence and looks around and does not see any Latinos at the table, they need to take steps to include Latinos. There are experts who can contribute on every issue, at every level. It is also important to understand the diversity of the Latino community, one quarter of whom identify as Afro-Latino. We must lift up that diversity,  that strength as a multiracial community in this moment in our country where leadership must be aware and sensitive to multiracial issues and concerns. People who understand a variety of communities and experiences will be the most effective leaders. To that extent, it is imperative to hear our voices because the diversity of the Latino community and what we bring represents the future of the country.

Lázaro: Thank you so much for educating our readers about the Latino community and the critical work of UnidosUS. We very much appreciate your perspective.

About the Author:

Gina Lázaro is a Harvard Advanced Leadership Initiative Senior Fellow. She has a background in global consumer products marketing with her last role as Chief Marketing Officer at FGX International, a subsidiary of Essilor. Gina serves on the advisory council of HighSight, a non-profit focused on educational opportunities for low-income African American and Latino youth, as well as on the board of The Canales Project, a non-profit arts and advocacy organization.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.