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Hispanic Heritage Month Spotlight: How Elisa Rodriguez Furey Finds Power in Her Community

Hispanic Heritage Month Spotlight: How Elisa Rodriguez Furey Finds Power in Her Community
  • Donovan Gomez

As a Public Relations Officer for the Power Enterprise at the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC), Elisa Rodriguez Furey is committed to helping build awareness and educate about CleanPowerSF’s options for clean and affordable energy for all San Franciscans. She has teamed up with her colleagues on critical initiatives for the Power Enterprise such as the Our City Our Power Campaign, affordable housing customer engagement, and clean energy discount programs to residents.

“As a community developer, engagement, and communications professional, I find the utilities industry so interesting and a great opportunity to engage with our constituencies in so many different ways,” she said. 

Hispanic Heritage Month Spotlight: How Elisa Rodrigues Furey Finds Power in Her Community

Celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month
September 15 to October 15 is Hispanic Heritage Month, a time to celebrate the many contributions and accomplishments of the Hispanic and Latino/a/e/x community. Rodriguez Furey talked about the importance of celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month and what it means to her. “For me, Hispanic Heritage Month represents an acknowledgment of the hard work, cultural influence, and economic contributions that the Latino/a/e/x community brings to the table. It is an opportunity to celebrate our traditions, language, culture, hard work and strong roots,” she explained.

As an immigrant, she feels very proud of her roots and sense of belonging to a strong cultural identity – things that help keep her grounded every day in her personal life and at work. “What makes me most proud of my culture is the warmth and human side of Latinx people, the strong work ethic, our perseverance and resilience, the constant desire to help others, and our amazing gastronomy,” she said.

How the Latino/a/e/x Community is Stronger Together
Rodriguez Furey is an advocate for her community. As San Francisco recovers from the pandemic, she reflects on how that instance showed the resilience of her community. “The Latino/a/e/x community is stronger together when we seek and support each other professionally but also during difficult times,” she explained. 

“I want to give a shot out to the San Francisco Latino Task Force (LTF), who during the pandemic, along with many other community-based organizations, organized to advocate and support the Latino/a/e/x and other communities that were most affected and impacted by Covid-19. The LTF support was not only essential but life-changing. The LTF continues its advocacy for improving the Latino/a/e/x community in San Francisco.”