This #HispanicHeritageMonth, we are pleased to highlight Jon Caballero, an associate in the firm’s Real Estate & Transactional Finance Practice in Baltimore. Jon shares thoughts on how he incorporates his culture into his personal and professional life and what this year’s Hispanic Heritage Month theme – Unidos: Inclusivity for a Stronger Nation – means to him.

“I try to recognize and understand others’ world views and how and why people think the way that they do. Recognizing and studying “my culture” as a Latino has caused me to think about not just what someone has said, but why they might say something, what they mean by it and what their motivations might be. This has helped me professionally to try understand people better and appreciate their beliefs and motivations.

Building a stronger community starts with truly listening to other people and then going a step further and trying to understand their reasons, motivations and cultural frame of reference for what they say and believe. Just having a voice at a table isn’t really enough. There needs to be true engagement and empathic listening and this isn’t easy to do.”