Get to Know Charlatinos, a City of Charlotte Employee Resource Network
Published on October 15, 2025
Every year, from September 15 to October 15, the United States celebrates Hispanic Heritage Month. This annual observance, first signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson in 1968 and later expanded to a full month by President Ronald Reagan in 1988, honors the contributions of Hispanic Americans to their local communities.
Although today is the last day of Hispanic Heritage Month 2025, we want to take a moment to highlight one of our Employee Resource Networks that celebrates Hispanic Heritage year-round: the Charlatinos.
This ERN provides our Latin American employees a chance to connect, network and celebrate their cultures. Earlier this month, we asked a few members of Charlatinos some questions about the ERN and how they honor their culture during Hispanic Heritage Month. See what they had to say below.
Tell us about yourself.
Stephanie Escobar:Victim Advocate & SART Relations Specialist, Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Department. Nicaraguan.
Crystal Figueroa: Training & Quality Assurance Analyst, Housing & Neighborhood Services (CharMeck 311). Costa Rican & Puerto Rican.
Erick Robles: Application Administrator, Innovation & Technology. Indigenous Indian (Incan). Born in Brazil. Father is Chilean. Mother is Chilean and Russian.
Frank Trujillo: Crew Chief, Charlotte Department of Transportation (Street Maintenance). Honduran.
What made you join Charlatinos?
Stephanie Escobar: It just started with a few of us having lunch together and just sharing our experiences as employees for the city. So, I was there from the very beginning. It wasn’t an ERN at the beginning; it was just a bunch of us going to Showmars, having lunch, and just talking about our experiences in the different departments.
Crystal Figueroa: I learned about it in a super casual way. I just kind of got a lunch invite and started to see what the whole purpose behind it was. I love to connect with other people who share my culture and who share my values. Together, we can support one another and make the city a greater place.
Erik Robles: I was helping someone with their computer, and they were in the group, and they said, "Hey, are you Latino?" and I’m like, "Yeah, I’m Latino." They invited me to the group, and I joined, and it’s been great. We go out and have fun and interact and see more like-minded people.
Frank Trujillo: I wanted to be part of a network that would connect different teams and different departments to actually learn about the culture and share experiences and also build relationships with coworkers and work together on meaningful projects that will highlight the Latino heritage.
Why is having this space so important?
Stephanie Escobar: I think that the city has so much talent, skills and diversity coming from different backgrounds, and so it was important for us to kind of show everybody what we bring to the table and how we are an asset to the city. I’ve made so many relationships, there’s been networking opportunities, even just like the socializing outside of the work hours, I think that’s very important. I’ve learned a lot from different people, and we’ve had an opportunity to collaborate in the community together.
Crystal Figueroa: I think that it values people’s heritage and culture, and together we just make it more uplifting for each other.
Erik Robles: It’s important because you get to see that there’s others that are like you. You also get to meet others. We often interact with other cultural groups, like we’ll have events where it’s both of us and then you can see multiple people from different countries. You really get to indulge in other cultures, especially your own, because even though I say I’m Latin or Spanish, there’s many variations.
Frank Trujillo: It is important because it actually gives a sense of community where actually we can celebrate culture and gives the members a platform where we can actually create awareness and diversity and culture and help everybody represent their own background.
What aspects of your heritage or culture are you most proud of?
Stephanie Escobar: I think the language itself. I love speaking another language, and I love helping the community because language barrier can be very difficult when you’re coming to a new country and you don’t know how to navigate things. Sometimes there’s resources available to you and you don’t know how to tap into that, so I think just speaking another language and being able to…using that decoding to help people, I really enjoy that.
Crystal Figueroa: I think that in Latin America, we treat everyone like family. There’s no strangers like we would say, we’re just warm and welcoming and there’s not like awkwardness. You just want to love on people, so I love that.
Erik Robles: I like that we’re very family-oriented, traditional and very hard workers. We can endure very hard hardships, and we still progress on because we’re very family-oriented. The men if you see them…. you’re like, wow, you guys work tirelessly. I like that about my culture. We have a strong work ethic, and we also like to party.
Frank Trujillo: Honduras is an influence of Afro-Caribbean rhythms with Spanish traditions, and it makes the whole culture so well, where it creates food, music, rhythms. It has created a rhythm that is called punta. You dance on your tippy toes, and it creates a hip sensation that actually gives a vibe and energy that creates happiness and positive attitude. A lot of people don’t know such a small country has such a rich and really fruitful heritage. From the Mayans coming from liberation from Spain and also from the influence of Spain coming into the country and infiltrate and enrich the country with the different kinds of natural beauties that the country has.
Who in your community or family has inspired you the most and why?
Stephanie Escobar: I think in the community, especially in Charlotte, there are a lot of community leaders, and I can’t name all of them but our very own Saira Estrada from the city. I mean people like her, they lead the community, and they try to open doors for others. I think that’s very inspiring to me. I think my children actually. They’re very proud of their heritage, and even though they struggle with the Spanish, they say, "Oh, I’m that no sabo kid," but they try, and they're very proud of it. Just recently for the Latin American festival, my youngest daughter went with me and she dressed up and she was there with me.
Crystal Figueroa: Definitely my mom. She’s a hardworking woman. She’s resilient, and she loves serving her community, and I think that she’s inspired me to be the person that I am today. I have gone into service now just serving my community and serving the city, and she’s my number one inspiration.
Erik Robles: I would say my father because he grew up in Valparaíso, Chile. Very poor, didn’t have much money, it was a very poor section. He became a master electrician, and we moved to Canada. He had to work hard to get to America, so we went from Chile to Canada and then from Canada to America. Anything he does, he does it 100 percent, and I always try to do it the same way and have the same work ethic.
Frank Trujillo: My mom. The things that life has thrown in her life, she has kept always a positive attitude. She has always been kind and generous and has shown me through my heritage how to always keep the family together, how to respect and treat each other equally and take one day at a time. I’m proud of my family. My wife, my children and my close friends, they have actually introduced me to different type of cultures that teach me how to navigate and learn different aspects of and different heritage and cultures that makes me the person that I am today.”
Is there a book, movie, or artist from your culture you think more people should know about?
Stephanie Escobar: Rubén Darío. He was a Spanish-language poet. Very influential in the 19th century. He’s known as the father of modernism for poetry and his journalism, and he was actually born in Nicaragua.
Crystal Figueroa: There’s an author from Costa Rica her name is Carmen Lyra. She’s fabulous. She wrote a book….that reflects the culture of Costa Rica so I think that if you want to experience some of Costa Rica’s culture you should definitely take a look at the book.
Erik Robles: Learning about the ancient history, that’s more what I like because I’m Incan. A lot of people are not familiar with the native indigenous in South America and like their stories there. Like the story of (Hernàn) Cortés. It’s like a whitewashed version of history that you read in the history books, but if you deep dive into it you learn that, wow, there was a lot of different circumstances Cortés had to deal with…. He had to deal with a bunch of situations. The natives, they were good, they were bad, just like the Spanish were. It’s very interesting how everything came together.
Frank Trujillo: His name is Pérez Prado. He’s a Cuban band leader. He’s a pianist and a composer. He’s actually known in Cuba as the mambo king. He actually created and popularized the mambo rhythm in the 1940s and 1950s, and he created this great massive piece that is called Mambo No. 5 that was an international sensation around the world.