¡VIVA! Honoring Hispanic and Latino/x/e Heritage Month
Latinx Heritage Month is recognized from September 15 through October 15, 2025. This month and beyond, Metta Fund is honoring the history, achievements, leadership, and resilience of Latinx leaders and communities. We are proud to highlight Board member Roberto Vargas.
What does Latino Heritage Month mean to you personally, and how does it shape your perspective on community and leadership?
My identity and relationship to the term “Latino” has changed over the years. While I once identified “Latino”, that term no longer captures the totality of how I identify, because it primarily refers to my European ancestors, but not my Native (to the Americas) or African ancestors. However, I still identify with Latino America, and with people who identify Latino. So, I look forward to the music, the dancing and food associated with celebrations during this month. I appreciate the lifting up of our stories, contributions and accomplishments. My perspectives on Latino community and leadership are deeply connected to the Mission District and San Francisco, where I feel very connected to community, and where I have also been called to leadership. My parents raised me with an obligation to be of service to community, and the elders of my community have groomed me and others to be ready for leadership– to struggle toward meeting the needs of our community, and especially the most vulnerable.
How do you see issues of aging, caregiving, and intergenerational connection showing up in Latino communities?
As an American-born Latino who didn’t grow up with grandparents, my grand uncles held an important role in my life. For example, I made sure to have them present when I proposed to my wife 29 years ago. I think elders hold more prominent roles in our families in Latin America, given the more intergenerational nature of homes, at least in my family. In my Native spiritual community where we practice Native traditional dance and ceremony from Mexico, we hold our elders in high esteem. Our ceremonies– for example on Day of the Dead– often begin and end with words from our elders. We make sure to serve our elders before the rest of us eat, and elders are empowered to do things in ceremony that others of us are not, like showing up late, leaving early, or taking naps during ceremony.
Now in my 50’s, some of my peers have begun to take on caregiving responsibilities with their elder parents. While I make time to check on my elders in person and by phone, I don’t think we make enough time– as a community or society– to spend quality time with our elders. I am thankful for the intentional efforts we make in my spiritual community to provide transportation and assistance to our elders to help them participate with us in our community events and ceremonies. I really treasure my relationships with my adopted aunts and uncles in the community.
As you join Metta Fund’s board, what inspires you most about advancing equity and dignity for older adults across California?
As a new board member with Metta, I am still learning how best to contribute my expertise, networks and time to help advance equity and dignity for older adults. What currently inspired me most is learning about the work with elders that is supported by Metta’s investments and support. Learning about how elders are engaged and supported to stay in community at Booker T Washington Community Center, or at Mission Language and Vocational School, for example, helps me understand some of the impacts of Metta’s good work. I hope to help us invest our support in services that address the needs of communities that are vulnerable to the structural and intersectional challenges that threaten us in this moment. I am deeply inspired by the framework Metta leadership has introduced me to of Trust-Based Philanthropy, which I believe is a liberatory approach toward leveraging resources in partnership with those who know the work best.