EASTON, Pa. – A celebration kicked off in Easton on Monday to commemorate the Latino community and all its accomplishments.<\/p>\n
The 9th Annual Pennsylvania Latino Convention, a two-day event, aims to connect the community and friends for professional development while building up future generations.<\/p>\n
“You should be so proud of being bilingual and Latino,” Norman Bristol Col\u00f3n, PALC Chair and Founder, said to a large crowd inside Easton’s State Theater Center for the Arts.<\/p>\n
The event, encompassing the entire state, is now back in the Lehigh Valley for the third time, after first being held in Allentown and Bethlehem in previous years.<\/p>\n
This year it’s in Easton.<\/p>\n
“In the trifecta of the Lehigh Valley,” Bristol Col\u00f3n said. “I feel excited, I feel rejuvenated, because we are doing this right here in the Lehigh Valley where the Latino community is growing so fast, and it’s growing so much.<\/p>\n
Bristol Col\u00f3n says the event is about giving props to prominent and emerging members of the Latino community.<\/p>\n
“We are recognizing mayors that are under the age of 40 that happen to be Latino,” he said. “We are recognizing, you know, the entrepreneurs.”<\/p>\n
It’s also about preparing up-and-comers for the future.<\/p>\n
“We do this because we believe that the future is in your hands,” Bristol Col\u00f3n said to the crowd.<\/p>\n
The convention includes more than 20 workshops and seminars with opportunities for professional development, as well as making connections.<\/p>\n
“I was born in Argentina, so I come from a family that, it’s always been about this,” Enzo Severino, First Commonwealth Market Manager, said. “Seeing this in my hometown is even more incredible. I didn’t even know that there was this many Latino professionals in or around the Easton area, so it’s really incredible.”<\/p>\n
“It’s important because it brings leaders, it brings people from the community and people from all over Pennsylvania really, whether you are Latino or maybe just has a friend that’s Latino,” Estefania Alava, Highmark Blue Shield Senior Client Consultant, said. “I think it just brings people together with a common cause and that’s being together supporting each other, and just maybe learning from each other, really.\u201d<\/p>\n