CIERP Alumni Perspectives: A Conversation with Diego Ortiz

By Alfredo Ramirez

From a bright sunlit room on a Friday afternoon, Diego Ortiz (F’14) joined me in a Zoom meeting to discuss his Latino heritage, Fletcher memories, and the prospects for Latino communities.

While his kids ran around the house in Mexico City, excited to join their parents on vacation, Diego explained how shared values among Latinos, no matter where they are from, are the lifeblood of our heritage. The strength of family, pride in hard work, creative thinking, a strong sense of perseverance, and communicating through a common language are all values that he is proud to share with Latinos and others during Hispanic Heritage Month.

Because that is what Hispanic Heritage Month is for Diego – a monthlong celebration of values and cultural expression that results in an exchange, not just in the United States but across Latin America. These values have deep and strong roots throughout Latino and Hispanic history, and they are reflected in our everyday lives, despite differences in dialect or nationality.

“Personally, in every country and setting I live in and travel to, I carry these values out and proudly share them with the people I interact with.”

Although Hispanic Heritage Month may not be celebrated in name across Latin America, it is a month of pride and festivities because of the numerous dates of independence. Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua all celebrate September 15, the start of Hispanic Heritage Month, as their Day of Independence. Mexico celebrates El Grito de Dolores (Cry of Dolores) on September 16, and Chile does the same two days later on September 18.

It’s one of the reasons Diego was heading out on vacation – it was a time to celebrate with friends, families, and loved ones. He makes it a point to do this in Mexico, just like when he was at Fletcher. Diego believes, “Only when you sit at a table filled with people of diverse backgrounds and experiences can you truly enrich yourself, both personally and culturally.” He believes this exchange is essential during Covid-19.

“During difficult times,” he explains, “we should not forget how to celebrate.” He notes that while El Grito de Dolores would usually entail a large celebration in the streets and plazas across Mexico, Covid-19 has required adaptation to smaller events and careful health protocols but with the same level of pride and joy.

This is a part of Diego that has belonged to him since his time at Fletcher. While living in Medford, he bonded and shared with his friends inside and outside of the classroom. Whether it was enjoying meals with his roommates at Oasis BBQ or Redbones, finalizing a project at Mugar Café, or organizing the first innovation symposium at Fletcher with Professor Kelly Gallagher, Diego fondly remembers sharing ideas, insights, and stories with people familiar and unfamiliar to him.

“Fletcher was not only a place where I learned new approaches and paradigms regarding business, strategy, and development, but it also expanded my vision to a global mindset.”

Diego credits Fletcher and its community with changing his mindset. “At Fletcher,” he says, “every problem is ‘Glocal’ and must be tackled with a global mindset, but understood for its local impacts and local avenues for solutions.” He encourages Fletcher students to be open to new experiences, both academic and social ones. “There’s a lot of things you can do, from projects and initiatives to people looking to do something different. It’s an ecosystem filled with opportunity.” He also reminds students about the Fletcher Mafia, which he calls a valuable asset because of the opportunities it can provide and the values that resonate among its members: working to make a meaningful impact on and address global issues.

He closes the interview with his thoughts on how innovation can elevate Latino communities and help solve society’s biggest challenges, from climate change to sustainable development. Diego talks with a smile about the various roles where he’s promoted creativity and innovation, “I’m very optimistic about the future because I’ve met a ton of young people who break paradigms and challenge conventional standards and solutions to long-standing problems with new approaches.”

“Creativity and Innovation are the engines that move societies towards prosperity, and entrepreneurship is the vehicle to promote creativity and innovation. Through entrepreneurship, Latinos can solve many of the challenges that we face.”

For Diego, we are all individuals with the power to achieve something great, starting at the most local level in our community or school, but with the potential for those achievements to reverberate much farther. And when we put our powers together to solve the challenges that we confront, the only limit that exists is the one we set for ourselves. ∎

Alfredo Ramirez is a second-year MALD student at The Fletcher School, Tufts University.

This is the first of three posts in CIERP and CPL’s Hispanic Heritage Month blog series.