Hispanics underrepresented in CRE industry

“I would say there’s probably two points of advice that I would want give myself and give future generation of Hispanics that are looking to do potentially the same thing that I’m doing now,” he said. “The first one is, most important is, get yourself a mentor. Get yourself a mentor early in your career. I’ve had several mentors at different stages of my careers that have helped me grow both professionally and personally. And having someone in your corner that can give you advice, that can give you guidance, and sometimes criticism, that can walk you back or tell you, hey, you’re doing something wrong. That could be very important.”

He recalled climbing the ranks when he first entered the CRE industry: “You know, when I first started my career, I started as a research coordinator. And at the time, I was sort of most entry level within research, within the team, but I still built the courage to ask one of our senior directors if they could be my mentor. And when I moved to San Antonio, I did the same with a senior industrial broker. And to this day, I’ve benefited so much from our relationships and what we’ve learned together. And then the second part of that is, don’t be afraid. Don’t be afraid to put yourself in uncomfortable situations, because those situations will help you grow. You know, raise your hand to participate in a bigger project, sit in big, important meetings, even if you’re the only Hispanic there, right. And if you get stuck doing something you don’t like, do it and do it well. And chances are if you do it very well, you won’t do it for long.”

Nestled between Cruz and Niño, generationally speaking, is Gen Xer Nuñez, a New York-based senior vice president who’s been at CBRE for 30 years. He specializes in portfolio management as part of Global Workplace Solutions.

“I am in my seventh inning stretch right now, but for me, I think the voice of, if I could say, my generation, really, if I had to share some advice, would be the folks that have been here for a while, I think they have a lot of wisdom and more importantly, a lot of contacts,” Nuñez said. “And I think that’s important that we share those as we develop, because there’s a lot of young people that I get involved with and being a leader of the Hispanic Scholarship Fund and also leading HOLA has been tremendous,” he said, referring to CBRE’s Business Resource Group that has nearly 900 employees.

Asked from an audience member how she overcame being the “quiet woman” – La mas quieta – in a field dominated by white males, Cruz said. “Our culture is for generations and still today has to be one of the most conservative ones. Our parents were brought up with the ideals that the women have to be in the household, and they have to be well-behaved, which is all good. And it teaches you morals and it teaches you how to be a great person, but I largely attribute how I was able to get outside of that box of being the quiet one, thanks to my own mom. She was the leader of our family and she just always got out there and would negotiate with all of the people that she’d be negotiating with, in part because of their business, and she’d be leading the conversation the entire time. Gosh, I wasn’t even 10 years old. I was probably between five and 10 years old when she picked me up from school and we’d go door to door and drop off brochures of their business in order to gain new clients. I think her example really broke out of that cultural bias and she was never afraid to have those obstacles.”