This Hispanic Heritage Month - which runs from September 15 - October 15 - Up2Us Sports will honor and celebrate our Hispanic and Latinx coaches, VISTAs, staff, and host sites. Each week we will feature members of the Up2Us Sports family who proudly represent their Hispanic heritage and who all wanted to share a bit more about themselves, their culture and how it has shaped who they are and the work they do in the SBYD field.
Up2Us Sports Chief Marketing Officer Mario Argote pictured with his grandparents in the mountains of Puerto Rico, December, 1993.
NAME: MARIO ARGOTE
POSITION: CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER, UP2US SPORTS
LOCATION: NEW YORK, NY
What do you love most about your culture?
With the holidays rolling around, I can't help but mention the unparalleled beauty and soulfulness of Puerto Rican folk music. If you don't know what I am talking about, make sure to go to Spotify and check out our heavenly traditional music.
The food. Not just the rice and beans, though those are always great. I'm talking about Bacalaítos, which are salted cod fritters, Alcapurria, typically made with green banana, yautia, achiote and meat, Sancocho, which is a Puerto Rican beef stew and slow roasted Lechón (again the holidays). Then there is all the fruit: Quenepas, Tamarindo and Acerolas. There is the Café con Leche. Frankly, there isn't enough space for me to list all of the deliciousness that is Puerto Rico.
The sea.
The sky.
The mountains.
The sun.
Old San Juan: there is nothing like it in the world.
The people: what a creative, strong, and beautiful people Puerto Ricans are.
Is there a Hispanic figure that has inspired you in your life?
My grandparents (pictured above with me in the mountains of Puerto Rico, December, 1993). My grandmother, loving, kind, with a sense of humor that I still miss to this day--how I loved to make her laugh. My grandfather was often seen as the tough one, but she had a toughness that was more subtle and no less effective. She raised some formidable children, including my mom. And those days I spent alone with her watching telenovelas and eating flan were some of the happiest days of my life. My grandfather was creative, visionary and a force of nature. He started a school in Puerto Rico 57 years ago that still stands today. The school started out as a little preschool called Tot Town which I attended and he and my mom's older sister, Annie, grew that preschool into one of finest K-12 private schools in all of Puerto Rico and I dare say, the world. My grandfather would wait for me every morning so I could hand him his newspaper on my early morning newspaper route. So, to Bienvenida and Faustino, thank you for your love. That's all the inspiration your grandson needed to keep moving forward ("Sigue pa'lante Mario Juan!").
“In the end then, what I’d like to say to those who don’t already know is that being Hispanic, and in my case, Puerto Rican, can mean many different things. A rich and diverse history and culture and all that that brings; pride and joy; and a life experience that will often challenge narrow ideas about culture and ethnicity.”
What would you like others to know about what it means to be Hispanic/about your Hispanic culture?
When Hispanic Heritage Month rolls around I often find myself thinking less about what being Hispanic means to me and more about how much it seems to mean to others, especially once I left Puerto Rico for the United States. I never thought about what it meant to be Hispanic when I lived in Puerto Rico, but when I moved to the States, suddenly my Puerto Rican-ness was the thing everyone seemed to want to talk about. Often, they got it all wrong. When I was 10, we moved to a Westchester suburb where I was called a "Spic." I had no clue what these people were talking about--after all, I spoke English as well as they did. My 5th grade teacher informed the class that "Mario comes from a little island in the Caribbean where they have no phones or cars. They ride around on horses." I was left to explain to this teacher that we indeed had phones and cars in addition to horses, and that my family owned a school that was bigger than the one in which she was currently teaching (that's the toughness my grandparents modeled for me). When we moved to New York City, some of my so-called Nuyorican friends would never tire of telling me I wasn't a true Puerto Rican, this despite the fact that I was actually born on the island and spoke the language. And then there are the too-many-to-count instances in which some of my fellow human beings who I've encountered along the way have evinced an ignorance so astonishing regarding Puerto Ricans (like that 5th grade teacher) that they've left me wondering if they need to be institutionalized.
I was born and raised in Puerto Rico, but I spoke English at home, and Spanish with my friends, cousins and grandparents. I grew up watching Zoom, Sesame Street and the Electric Company in addition to those telenovelas I'd watch with my abuela. My mom would put us to bed by playing Moon River! My father would more often than not play jazz or classical music in the house, in addition to that transcendent Puerto Rican folk music I mentioned above. My friends and I would go from house to house during the holidays singing Parranda's (caroling). This is all to say that I never really thought about my Puerto Rican-ness until others raised it. I was just me.
In the end then, what I'd like to say to those who don't already know is that being Hispanic, and in my case, Puerto Rican, can mean many different things. A rich and diverse history and culture and all that that brings; pride and joy; and a life experience that will often challenge narrow ideas about culture and ethnicity. In the end, we are all human beings first. As the French writer Montesquieu wrote: "If I knew of something that could serve my nation but would ruin another, I would not propose it to my prince, for I am first a man and only then a Frenchman...because I am necessarily a man, and only accidentally am I French."
