The speakers’ roster led off with the Honorable Nelson Díaz, former judge in Philadelphia’s Court of Common Pleas, now an attorney and builder, rose to the occasion of the 2020 Hispanic Heritage exercises, now in full swing, tracing the history of his own arrival in the U.S. mainland from his native Puerto Rico, to the pilgrimage of countless persons from Latino origins everywhere to the busy core of action in the U.S, Too few of these, persons of talent and skills, have seized the opportunity for directorships with US. corporations — a gap that Nelson Díaz seek to close. The resources and spiritual stamina of all are tried by the rigors of the dangerous contagion of the COVID pandemic. They have weathered the buffeting with a renewal of spiritual stamina. Some have experienced tough sledding, but of these very many are finding keys to entrepreneurial success Our Dialogue highlights their accomplishments and seeks to keep their creative spirits fresh and vigorous.

Luís Borunda, Maryland’s Deputy Secretary of State, recounting his Odyssey from California to the east coast, where he prospered in a graphic firm until his recent entry into Public Service. He is especially active in the International Division of the Office, which seeks to act as intermediary in the approach by local firms to international counterparts in a trade relationship.  Jeanette Hernandez Prenger, with perhaps the most engaging story, began life in a family of able refugees in the turmoil of the Iberian area, fleeing to France and ending soon thereafter in the U.S. Ms. Hernandez soon became Ms. Prenger , in a partnership, economic and familial, effective on more than a single front, eventuating in the successful ECCO computer company at Kansas City. Each of these panelists, from a quite distinct point of view, has seen close up, and in their own fortunes, the lot of Latinos in the vast intricacies of the economic world of the U.S. They have done well through persistence and keen business smarts.

Finally Suhail Khan, External Affairs Director for the Microsoft Innovation and Policy Center in Washington, recounted the systematic efforts his mega-firm is directing to the tasks of recruiting smaller companies and infusing unnumbered strands of business savvy in their operations, building a voluntary and technically enabled corps of rising economic powers nationwide. The cultivation of STEM studies in this sector is an integral part of the divisions’s efforts.

The session concluded with a greeting from Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, in an appearance by video from his office commending Dialogue on Diversity for its role in elevating the discourse within the country, newly engaging with the creativity of its broadly diverse Latino communities, unified in the annual Hispanic Heritage Month. Sen. Warner outlined a set of principles for sound social policy and economic practice to guide a muchshaken society upon emergence from the present pandemic.

A productive round-robin of questions, propounded by the co-moderator James Robb — recipient of the Innovator Award — zeroed in on the perplexing queries that all entrepreneurs face, eliciting intimate and moving stories related by each of the panelists, summing to a core of diligent operators making successful waves, in the best sense, in American economic and civic society.

A second half of the day’s program saw presentation of awards to three worthy figures in Dialogue on Diversity’s world. Nelson Díaz, received the Law and Justice Award. While the Jules Polonetsky, head of the Future of Privacy Forum, a leading think tank in the capital and beyond, was recognized in the Civic Privacy Award,  Finally the Award as Tribune of the Good Society went to Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard of California as Tribune of the Good Society. The Tribunes in ancient Rome were officers tasked with securing the interests of the poor and disfavored against the wealthy of the ancient society — a work to which Rep. Roybal-Allard, has turned with energy, for the good of twenty first century poor and oppressed.

Mr. Polonetsky in receiving the Civic Privacy Award, explored the sense of privacy as the key that can activate the complex structures of civic virtue. There is the notion, a powerful one, that without security of persons, which is the stuff of privacy, the actual exercise of a liberty of expression, movement, petition, cannot be effective.

The day concluded with the performance of the QuinTango mini orchestra of Tango aficionados, presented here in a COVID environment.  Joan Singer, as the ensemble’s long-time inspirer and organizer, greeted hearers and launched the group onto the gripping Tango strains, sprightly, subtle, and classic.

The Dialogue, looking ahead, sees the coming festive season with its Holiday Fair, set for Saturday, December 12th. where Santa Claus meets with his young clients and gifts are readied, harbinger of the coming holiday, for each of the children.