Hispanic Heritage Month is celebrated from September 15th – October 15th. The theme for 2022 is “Unidos. Inclusivity for a Stronger Nation.” The theme invites us to celebrate Hispanic Heritage and to reflect on how great our tomorrow can be if we hold onto our resilience and hope. It encourages us to reflect on all of the contributions Hispanics have made in the past and will continue to make in the future. It is also a reminder that we are stronger together.
Who knew Indira Perez spoke Dutch?
Vernis & Bowling prides itself on our diversity and we celebrate with our employees of Hispanic Heritage. As part of that recognition, we are spotlighting one of our own– Indira Perez.
Indira is an administrative assistant located in our Miami, FL office. She handles a variety of administrative projects, as well as assisting with HR and Client Services needs. In January 2023 she will celebrate 10 years with the firm.
Indira is a married mother of two; she has a son, Jose, who is currently attending Seton Hall University studying Marine Biology, and a daughter, Luna, who is a senior in high school. She previously worked with her husband, who owns a custom uniform business, while raising her kids. She was looking for a change and landed at Vernis & Bowling.
But how did she get here?
Indira was born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, where she was an only child, or so she thought. She would live in DR until she was 11 years old and was then uprooted from her tropical living to the cold of the Netherlands. Not only was the cold a big change, but also the demographics. Indira was the only Latina in her entire school.
She laughed as she recalled they thought “she was from the Amazon and wore no clothes.” Her classmates were intrigued by her. Indira’s challenge was not only the weather, but the language: she had to learn Dutch and subsequently English. In Holland, Dutch is their first language, and English is their second. She had not spoken either language before moving there. She also mentioned that in Holland, the TV shows were in English and the subtitles were in Dutch, which helped her to learn both languages.
Indira lived in the Netherlands until she was 21. She attended a couple years of college there and then made her move to the United States.
When asked about her perception of the United States, she thought it was like the TV show “Friends”.
Indira celebrates the usual US holidays and stated that one of the days that she and her family gather together for is December 24th, Christmas Eve. They celebrate and cook traditional Latin foods on that day to celebrate the birth of Jesus.
Like with her own family, she feels a kinship at Vernis & Bowling. She likes that she sees others like her. She describes her time at the firm and in the US as positive. She is not offended if someone calls her the wrong nationality, she just corrects them. She is positive about her life and she wakes up every day and thanks God.
Now back to the only child statement; Indira recently discovered that she has 17 half-siblings(!), most of whom are living in the US. She is excited to possibly meet many of them as they look to plan a family member’s 80th birthday party next year.
When not working, Indira likes to plant flowers. She is looking to plant a more hardy flower, because she recently planted roses and they all died, she laughed.