Casanova, supervisor of operations at CBE Companies, shares the importance of remembering his family’s history and the Mexican culture he comes from during National Hispanic Heritage Month.
10/13/2022 12:15 P.M.
7 minute read
ACA International’s membership and the accounts receivable management (ARM) industry are becoming increasingly diverse. In recognition of that growth and National Hispanic Heritage Month, ACA is highlighting members’ and staff’s stories.
Each year, Americans observe National Hispanic American Heritage Month Sept. 15 through Oct. 15 by celebrating the histories, cultures and contributions of American citizens whose ancestors came from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean and Central and South America.
The observation started in 1968 as Hispanic Heritage Week under President Lyndon Johnson and was expanded by President Ronald Reagan in 1988 to cover a 30-day period starting on Sept. 15. It was enacted into law on Aug. 17, 1988, according to hispanicheritagemonth.gov.
Sept. 15 marks the anniversary of independence for Latin American countries Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. Mexico and Chile also celebrate their independence days on Sept. 16 and Sept. 18, respectively. Columbus Day, or Día de la Raza, celebrated on Oct. 12, falls within this 30-day period as well.
ACA represents a diverse industry. Hispanic workers have a high rate of representation at collection agencies, making up 17.2% of total collection agents in 2021, according to research from Kaulkin Ginsberg in partnership with ACA.
In this spotlight, Anthony Casanova, supervisor of operations at CBE Companies, shares the importance of remembering his family’s history and the Mexican culture he comes from.
How did you get started in your career?
Well, it’s kind of odd how I ended up here. This is my eighth year at CBE Companies, and I wish I had known about this place a long time ago, but they weren’t in Texas. My dad taught us a lot about responsibility and hard work when I was younger. I worked odd jobs at first, like working for the newspapers or with my uncle delivering fruit and other things on trucks. In high school, I received a scholarship to Texas Christian University, but I took a different path by getting married and starting a family.
I ended up working for a retail outfitter in San Antonio and I stayed there for 10 years. I learned the business and moved up to the shipping and receiving manager role. We had four stores in San Antonio, and I had to go through each one to do inventory and replenish anything that was missing or sold. Then I took a job for the local newspaper, where I worked for three years as a district manager. I also worked for a paging company and was ready to take over managing the customer service team but then that company was sold.
After working at Chase Bank in collections and then as a TSA agent, I ended up working at a call center for another collection company. I was looking to settle down in San Antonio when I heard that my application on Indeed was sent to CBE companies. Barbara Findley, who handled recruiting, asked if I’d like to come in to chat. I was single by then and raising a daughter by myself. The job was an opportunity to earn money to support my daughter to get her through high school and college. Working at CBE supported me through that whole process, so I love them for that.
Tell me about your heritage and where you and your family are from.
I’m of Mexican descent, so I’m Mexican American. I was born in California and raised a little bit of everywhere because my dad was in the U.S. Navy. We traveled all over the world. When my dad retired, we moved back to where my parents grew up in Texas. I’ve been in Texas ever since. I’m not much into traveling anymore. I think I’ve seen enough of the world and witnessed so many things. We even lived in Little Rock, Arkansas, during the riots when Martin Luther King Jr. was there.
My father was a little bit different. He was born into the culture, but he didn’t like it—he wanted to speak English so bad that he learned to get rid of his accent. Anytime he went somewhere, he only spoke English. But back in the day when I was going to school, you were forbidden to speak Spanish on campus. Because of that, my father did not teach me or my siblings Spanish because we could be expelled from school at that time. We grew up not learning the language, but we knew the culture. My mother was more involved in our culture, and my sister had her Quinceañera at age 15.
For me, I look at myself and I teach my kids to keep moving forward from our past hardships—just like my father taught me. We are U.S. citizens first—everything else is secondary, and that’s how we always looked at it. But I taught them to never forget their heritage and the foods and the culture that make us who we are today. We had to come from someplace—we just were born in the U.S. I always tell them to remember where they come from.
What brings you joy about your heritage and culture, and how has it shaped the person you are today?
I love Mexican food. My mother and my grandmother were great cooks. Everyone knew all about Spanish food. I learned how to cook a lot of it, and to this day I still cook when I can for myself and my daughter. She’s finally coming around to trying Spanish food and we’ve connected over those meals.
When I started working in San Antonio, I got to pick up more of the Spanish language. I can understand when somebody is telling me something, but I just can’t speak it back. As far as the culture and celebrations, 200 to 300 people may show up at family wedding. We all like to celebrate and most of the culture in those situations is just focused on being happy.
How do you celebrate and honor National Hispanic Heritage Month on a personal level and/or at your company?
My parents are gone, and my family is split—my brothers and sisters live in different states—so we don’t celebrate as much, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s been hard trying to get everybody back together again. Right now, all the culture and the histories are gone. The only thing we can celebrate is going to the different restaurants where we can talk and listen to the music because they play a lot of accordion music, podcasts and things of that nature at the restaurant, so we enjoy that.
At CBE, I can’t say what they do now in Clarksville, but they do celebrate. They’re having a chili contest coming up soon. When I was in the office in New Braunfels, they always hosted some kind of cook-off where they would bring in street tacos and decorate with posters. We celebrate every type of culture, and we’ve even celebrated and observed different religious holidays. I loved those times because you get to learn about different people’s cultures.
Do you have any suggestions for other companies working on cultural and educational opportunities in the industry?
The biggest thing would be the food. It’s kind of stopped because of the pandemic, but if they bring that back again and share the ideas with people, I think it would be great because you get to learn about other people through food. And if you can sit down at a table and eat and can speak with each other, you start to learn and share each other’s cultures. And that’s a wonderful thing.
Additional Resources
The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) is celebrating this month by recognizing the part Hispanic Americans play in influencing and contributing to the American society and workforce.
The SBA has a number of resources listed on its website to help Hispanic business owners and offer assistance to firms and entrepreneurs with access to capital, mentorship and business opportunities.
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