Latino Business Speakers Bureau: Octavio Hinojosa
story by: David Gomez
In the mountains of the Sierra Madre in the northern part of Mexico, one of the local mining companies had a young man working for a year. Unbeknownst to him,that year working those mines would be theformative experience that would provide him a path for the great things he would accomplish.The name of that man is Octavio Hinojosa Mier and although that year in the mines is just a memory of years goneby,he still has a very strong foundation of whathe learned there. “It was my bootcamp” he says,as he narrates the details of this developmental adventure.
Octavio wasn’t born in Mexico, he was born in LA and raised in the Midwest region of the US. As first child of the Hinojosa family, his father hada strong opinion of what Octavio should pursue after he completed his high school education. Octavio’s father was a welder and believed the best course for Octavio was to get a trade education. However, because his birthday falls at the beginning of the school year, his high school completion gave him a gap year. He went to his family in Mexico and decided to work at his uncle’s mining company. Octavio joined the miners with a pick and shovel and became familiarized with more than the pain from the extremely hard work. Those miners taught him invaluable lessons that would lead him to pursue a master’s degree in public administrationwith an emphasis in International development from Syracuse University. For the first time, Octavio had met a person who was truly illiterate and could not sign his pay stub. He also realized that most of his coworkers’fathers, who had been miners themselves, hadn’t lived past the age of 40. Most of them died of lung disease. The wages were $3.00 usd a day (not hour), and an idea became to formulate as to why some countries experience full economic development.
When Octavio returned to the US, he had a clear idea of what to do to be of service to others. With the support of his mother, he pursueda college education and made his way to Washington once his studies were completed. In that new environment, Octavio began to make his mark. He worked for the US Department of State and other government agencies. He also started the Congressional Hispanic Leadership mission and has served in numerous organizations providing strategic consulting focusing on government affairs and Hispanic leadership. His goal is to bring resources to other Latin American nations that will help them with their growth and development. He knows that his work can translate into real help to the lives of people living under similar conditions to the miners.
Another way that Octavio helps Latinos is in the form of demonstrating that their goals are within reach. As he was growing in the Midwest, he was the first Latinoto achieve a lot of things. Unlike other Latinos in places with a larger population proportion of Latinos (Los Angeles, for example), Octavio was usually the first one in the Latino category. At home, he was the first one to complete a college education. That role as a trailblazer became a calling to be a positive influence. He feels it’s a great privilege to share his story with others. He was once inspired by the achievements of other Latino leaders he followed, and he knows that now it’s his time to inspire others to better themselves and pursue their dreams.