“I’m first-generation American, and my mom is from Mexico,” says Eva Behrend, Chime’s VP of Communications. “Growing up, we would spend every Christmas, Easter, and Summer with my great-grandmother in a Mexican town known as Cuarenta y Tres (since it was 43 kilometers from Mexicali). I remember wandering around the town’s dirt roads, eating carnitas from my uncle’s stand, seeing movies at my great-grandmother’s movie theater, and setting off (small) fireworks inside the house.”
Sebastian (Seb) Valdivia, a Senior Software Engineer originally from Peru who grew up in Colombia before coming to North America, boils his Latin American culture down to resilience and a welcoming nature. “I love the personality and values we hold in Colombia — we are resilient because of our history and welcoming at the same time,” he says. “Even if you don’t know someone, they will usually treat you as a friend — there is a warmth to culture in Colombia that can make you feel like you’re part of something without necessarily having to belong to it.”