My parents come from underprivileged neighborhoods in a Latin American developing country - Peru. Their parents taught them how to survive their environments with integrity and moral fortitude which drove them to do better and want more. When they arrived in New York in the 70s, they used those same tools to get them through new challenges they faced. Eventually, they had their own kids and cultivated those elements in both my sister and me. This is not to establish that Latin American means we necessarily come from low economic status, but it is to say that most of us have experienced our fair share of adversity - either socially, politically and/or economically. Stemming from a history like this, you can't help but channel all of that in who you become.
