​This Hispanic Heritage Month, we are pleased to highlight Raquel Nee, a legal practice assistant in the firm’s Corporate & Securities Practice in Washington, D.C. Raquel shares thoughts on what her culture means to her and how she incorporates her culture into her personal and professional life.

“I identify being Hispanic, Latino, Latina and Latinx due to the knowledge of my heritage being a great “mezcla” (blending-mixture) of different people and cultures—a mezcla of ethnic groups from all over the world. I grew up bi-lingual, speaking Castilian Spanish and English at home with my family.

My father would tell stories about his Spanish ancestors arriving to Corpus Christie and the San Antonio area in Texas during the great migration of Spanish settlers in the 1680s. He was very proud of his heritage and his surname of Gonzalez. His family was even able to research and find their ancestors’ coat of arms in central Spain.

As a person with a mezcla of three different cultures, which includes the Indigenous Opata People of the Southwest ancestry, I try to be aware of the many other cultures in my personal life and at work. I was born in San Diego, raised in the United States and learned to speak English, which I consider my third culture.”