When given the opportunity, Mexicans can contribute at the highest level

How Mexicans Are Contributing To The US Innovation Economy
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It's now been a full year since Donald Trump announced his candidacy for U.S. President and began dominating news cycles by claiming that the Mexican government is forcing its most unwanted people — criminals, rapists, and drug dealers — into the United States. Since then, not only he has he become the presumptive nominee of the Republican Party, he’s done so while repeating his false claims and doubling down on coded racism by calling into question a federal judge’s ability to do his job simply because of his Mexican heritage.

For Mexicans and other Hispanics in the United States and abroad, the U.S. might not seem like a particularly hospitable place right now. Trump’s rhetoric cannot easily be dismissed anymore. It has given cover to racist and xenophobic voices ranging from in-the-woodwork white supremacists to middle school bullies.

“Trump’s rhetoric cannot easily be dismissed anymore. It has given cover to racist and xenophobic voices.”

Yet, the United States stands to benefit much from a close relationship with Mexico. After all, Mexico is the second largest buyer in the world of US goods and services, and also home to 1 million U.S. citizens (more than any other foreign country — by far). However, not least among the benefits of this bilateral relationship is the skilled talent and hard work that Mexicans contribute to the US innovation engine.

“Mexico is the second largest buyer in the world of US goods and services, and also home to 1 million U.S. citizens.”

Mexican engineers and designers can be found in essentially all of the top technology companies in the US. Like Americans, Mexicans can come in many “colors,” so we may be hard to detect. Through SameCoast, an initiative to help connect top Mexican engineers with opportunity, we’ve come across engineers born and often educated in Mexico who are working at Apple, Google, Microsoft, Symantec, Accenture, Zillow, Twitter, Rackspace, Stripe, MyFitnessPal, Amazon, Uber, and Facebook — to give a few recognizable names.

A group of Mexican friends together at a San Francisco bar (June 2016)

Among those educated in Mexico, most were amongst the highest-ranked in their class, some had won regional or national recognitions, and others had been entrepreneurs before. Mexicans can also be found working on open source maps at Mapbox, designing award-winning games at Naughty Dog, helping increase the human lifespan through genomics at Human Longevity, digitizing health records at Gliimpse, building applications for Tesla electric vehicles, or working on the next generation AI at Viv Labs.

“Like Americans, Mexicans can come in many 'colors,' so we may be hard to detect.”

Not only are Mexican engineers and other professionals playing valuable roles in many of the most significant and upcoming technology companies in the country, many have started ventures and created new jobs as well. Domingo Guerra is Co-Founder and President at Appthority — a company with over $20M in funding that does mobile app risk management for Fortune 500 companies. Rodrigo Santibáñez is the founding CEO at EAT Club, a food logistics startup in the Bay Area serving meals to over 700 corporate clients each month.

Laura Gómez moved to the US at a young age (her mother was a farm worker) and lived with her family of six in a one bedroom apartment before working her way up to be a recognized leader in Twitter’s internationalization efforts. Today, she’s the founder of Atipica — a company that algorithmically matches candidates to job opportunities. The list goes on, and includes both recent immigrants and those whose families have been here for longer.

“Like other groups of immigrants, when given the opportunity, Mexicans can contribute at the highest level.”

Like other groups of immigrants — past and present — Mexicans are drawn to the United States by the promise of opportunity and the American Dream. And like other groups of immigrants, when given the opportunity Mexicans can contribute at the highest level. Despite Trump’s attacks and the calls for building walls — physical and metaphorical — Mexicans and those of Mexican heritage in the United States have reason to be proud of their contributions to the US innovation economy, and there’s a lot more to look forward to.

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