Meet Diana

I owe much of my success in life to my parents, my mom in particular. Hailing from Puerto Rico, my parents each moved to Brooklyn, New York and would meet when my mom was beginning her senior year of high school. They married a year later, and within another year started a family. They made it a point to instill a strong sense of financial independence and education into my sister and I. This translated into speaking English as a first language and ensuring that we had a private Catholic school education despite my dad’s factory-worker salary. During my teenage years growing up in the “concrete jungle” called NYC, I focused on my studies and started my first job at the age of 14 and have been working ever since.

For the importance my parents placed on financial literacy growing up, it’s no surprise that after graduating from New York University with a degree in Information Systems and Marketing, I started working in the financial sector. During my career I have worked for several investment banks including Santander Investment Securities Inc., where I held a variety of positions for over 15 years. Working for the Latin American product at a bank headquartered in Spain, gave me the opportunity to experience culture and different languages at work for the first time, which made me feel right at home.

After my departure from Santander, I became a stay-at-home mom. With an eight-year-old son and my mom recovering from cancer at the time, it ended up being the best decision. I was afforded the opportunity to have a few really good years with my mother before she passed and dedicate lots of time to my son.

When I decided to re-enter the workforce, I found a new home at BNY Mellon. As an Investor Relations Specialist in Depositary Receipts (DR), I work with publicly traded non-U.S. companies. Our clients represent a wide variety of nationalities, cultures and languages, which is reflected in our DR team. Working for BNY Mellon, was a transition back into the workforce, but one that also provided the same sense of belonging I felt in my prior position.

Getting involved with IMPACT, BNY Mellon’s multicultural E/BRG is important to me to help advance the firm’s broader DEI initiatives. I am proud and inspired to work with different Latinx leaders across the enterprise to ensure that our Hispanic Heritage Month programming is robust, timely and has meaning for our audience.

My Puerto Rican heritage is a great source of pride, for me and my family and throughout the year, but especially during this month, we love to share our culture with others. You don’t have to be Hispanic or Latinx to celebrate — you only need an appreciation of different perspectives and cultures.

That sharing goes both ways, too. I not only embrace my Puerto Rican heritage but at the same time love to experience other cultures. The fascinating part about this is that different cultures, religions and customs around the world, have lots of commonalities that unite humanity which is something I hope more people would embrace. Even within the U.S., there are very rich customs to explore. I recently travelled to Texas with my family for a varsity football game my son was playing in, and you better believe I made it a point to try and see what Texas has to offer. From rodeos and cowboys at the stockyards, to the delicious barbeque and steaks, we had an authentic Texas experience and felt truly welcomed by our hosts.

And speaking of family, that really is what life is all about, right? I come from a large family where my mom had 13 siblings which made the holiday’s quite hectic, but Iooking back, I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world. Having been the first person in my family to receive a four-year degree, I was a role model for my many cousins and now especially for my son. In the same way that my parents passed on certain important values to my sister and I, I find myself doing the same with him. Whether it’s supporting all his educational endeavors (and introducing my own financial literacy teachings), or simply teaching him street smarts and skills needed in everyday life, I’ve always been very open and honest with him. I’ve instilled in him a great sense of family, culture and community, and one day, I hope that he works to pass along those same  values to his children.