The group suggested that I speak about Hispanic Marketing and why it's so important for Iowa businesses to get on board and communicate directly with this most viable demographic segment.

Towards the end of the presentation, I opened the floor to questions and one of the Club's members askeded away. The question had nothing to do with marketing, but I've quickly learned that as a visible Latina in Iowa, most people will ask me to speak for the entire Latino population of the state, so I've learned to roll with things in certain situations.

The Club member asked for my impressions on Iowa's difficulty to mirror diversity in its governmental and community institutions. After taking a couple of seconds, I offered the best possible answer I could conjure at 7:30 in the morning, one that is largely based on my personal beliefs, which coincidentally, was exactly what he had requested.

I answered what I believe to be true. I believe that Iowa has been Iowa forever. What I mean by this is that it's a state that's traditionally been resistant to change. I believe that if we can't grow diversity organically, we should import it or transplant it, by actively and strategically recruiting "minority" talent from other parts of the country or the world. This was my short answer to his question

Here's my long answer. Let's be real. Iowa struggles to keep Iowa-born talent in state, so the odds of attracting and retaining "minority" populations are greatly challenged. But, look around you, Iowa's face is slowly changing. Just in the last three years, I've seen a number of things that I never thought I would see in Iowa, and they make me smile. Here's a short list of them: the East Grand Avenue Latino Corridor, which will revitalize downtown Des Moines and centralize our Latino-owned business community; the rapid rise of four 24-hour Spanish-language radio stations, serving the entire state; two weekly, full-color Spanish-language newspapers; a new Latino Business Association and a variety of events such as Iowa's Latino Heritage Festival and the Wells Fargo World Food Festival, to name a few.

My good friend Alba Pérez, Diversity Development Director for The Greater Des Moines Partnership and I keep throwing around the idea to recruit a group of talented Puerto Ricans to transplant to Iowa. Our rationale is that Puerto Ricans are highly educated, many of them are bilingual and are loyal to their employers and those that support their values. The unemployment rate in Puerto Rico is astronomical, whereas Iowa employers are desperate to recruit bilingual professionals. Puerto Rico's political status as a democratic commonwealth of the United States would ease the relocation process.

Perhaps this vision of ours will come true at some point. I greatly appreciated the opportunity to answer the question. It made me renew my commitment to making this vision more of a priority in the new year.