DELMARVA-In light of Women's History Month, WRDE is highlighting four outstanding women on the Delmarva peninsula throughout the month of March. One of those women is Patricia Rivera, the founder of a multilingual and multicultural public relations group called 'Hook PR & Marketing' based in Lewes, Delaware.
"I think my universal sort of goal was always to serve as a bridge, right between groups of people," she said. "I did that in journalism, writing about marginalized communities or just different communities in the outskirts."
She said she felt more of a pull toward advocacy, so in 2007 she established her own communications company.
"With this, I work with nonprofits, trying to connect to different audiences with state agencies," Rivera said.
Patricia Rivera spearheads a staff, who meets virtually (even before the COVID-19 pandemic), since they are all dispersed across the United States and abroad in Latin America. She said there are various teams who focus on different aspects the client(s) might need help with--a video team, a web team, graphic designers, writers, editors, and translators.
Rivera was born in La Paz, Bolivia, and relocated to the U.S. at the age of 7. Unlike most people, she said her upbringing has allowed her to view the world from a very different perspective.
"I was very much surrounded by men all my life," she said. "My mother died when I was four; so I was raised solely by my father, and my older brother at that point, later in life, my dad had two other, you know, sons."
Though admiring both traditional parental roles, she said she understands that many countries like her own, still very much embody this 'machismo' culture, where males dominate and women are often treated as second-class citizens.
"What surprised me, is, I went back once when I was 24 and, [I] was reminded (by close friends and family) that I really needed to get married, and that it was time to start having children."
She said her father made it clear that, that choice would be left entirely up to her.
Moreover, following into her father's footsteps, Rivera aspired and became a print journalist, covering diverse businesses and communities in Dallas, Texas, and later moved to the state of Delaware. She said throughout the course of her journey, she's encountered people who've told her she would never make it as a reporter.
"I had a professor tell me that I wouldn't be able to make it because I had an accent, you know; so yes, you have that but does it stop you? No, it doesn't," Rivera said. "I figured out that broadcasting really wasn't for me, and went into print journalism, which was where I belonged at that point and then interned at the New York Times."
After giving birth to her two children, having a stable, more flexible job became a priority. As a result of the loss of her mother, she wanted to make sure she was always around for her kids.
So she incorporated her storytelling skills into marketing.
Rivera said it's been a journey, and sometimes, even as the head of her company, she often finds herself being overlooked by businessmen.
"I was working on a project, and was working with a municipality....I went into a meeting with eight men," she explained. "I brought one of one of our team members with me, who happened to be an older man and when I walked into the room, I think there was definitely the assumption that he was the head of the company and the questions were being addressed to him. So, so yes, you know, in 2019, 2020 you know, we shouldn't be making those assumptions. And I don't necessarily think we should be walking into a room with all men either, right?"
Having compassion and confidence has allowed Rivera to defy all sorts of gender stereotypes--and win multiple awards and recognition during the last few years.
Patricia Rivera was awarded '2018 Entrepreneurial Woman of the Year Award' from the New Castle County Chamber of Commerce; in 2019, her 'small business' was recognized as the top minority-owned business of the year in Delaware; and most recently, in 2020 she was recognized as one of 34 women chosen to be recognized in 'Delaware Today’s annual Top Women in Business' list.