Uplifting the Latinx community: Meet Mauricio Calvo, executive director of Latino Memphis

When Mauricio Calvo joined Latino Memphis as executive director in 2008, the organization was on the verge of closure.

Serving as a board member for the organization and volunteering at its annual festival, Calvo was offered the position and was tasked with rebuilding the nonprofit he described as "$4,000 to $5,000 away from closing."

Since then, Latino Memphis has become a key entity in delivering legal and social services to Latinx people in Memphis. Latino Memphis has two in-house attorneys, serves as a guide for external resources and advocates for Latinx and immigration rights in the U.S.

Over the last 14 years of Calvo's tenure, Latino Memphis has shifted to continue to serve the ever-evolving needs of the community from assisting with job searches and DACA application renewals and partnering with Memphis Fire Department to helping with COVID-19 vaccinations.

Calvo, 47, stressed the importance of these partnerships as well as the need for systemic change. "[Latino Memphis is] making friends and making allies in every room that looks more like this to hopefully advance very small, incremental progress," he said.

Partnerships like these have helped Latino Memphis in its most recent venture to reunify 351 migrant minors with their families in the area as part of the National Family Reunification Support Network program by Heartland Alliance in Chicago.

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Heartland Alliance reached out to Latino Memphis to reach children who needed services in the Mid-South. Latino Memphis is now a subcontractor for Heartland with eight case managers in Memphis and Nashville.

'Mexican by birth and Memphian by heart'

Calvo moved from his hometown of Mexico City toMemphis in 1997 to attend Christian Brothers University. In an attempt to stay in Memphis after his student visa expired, he spent years trying to build his own businesses in food distribution, cleaning and real estate.

"It was like getting an MBA on the streets, which helped me tremendously, not only to be able to understand a lot of these things," he said. "I didn't have cash. I didn't know what else to be, and I didn't have a network. If I had the access that I had today, it would probably be different, but I experienced just failing businesses a lot."

Calvo said he often minimizes the trials of his journey in the spirit of uplifting others.

But, as the father to three teenagers who prod about his past, he finds moments to truly reflect on the trials he's been through.

"I was showing them when I had a business, where my business was off Jackson Avenue, saying, 'Yeah, this was my warehouse, and I had lost my house to the bank, so I had my bedroom, inside the warehouse where I work.' So my oldest, she said, 'So you were homeless?'

"So it was just really an interesting conversation about sometimes you don't even recognize who you are and what you have done or what you have gone through. But all this to say is that I mean, I am very motivated, again, from my own personal story and from the stories of my clients," Calvo said. "Even though I had those experiences, even though I'm queer, even though I'm an immigrant, at the end of the day, I want to make sure that nobody on my team approaches this work as the saviors. Because we have to recognize that our clients and our community are so strong."

Representation matters

As a citizen, Calvo has used his platform to advocate for others achieving their version of the American dream.

Now, Latino Memphis' annual budget is $1.7 million, and Calvo hopes to continue to use the funds to benefit the Latinx community Memphis.

"A lot of times we just stumble into things where we're willing to jump into these things. And we've been fortunate to get the kind of funding that has allowed us to be flexible on some of these things," Calvo said. "We have been able to evolve as the community needs evolve."

According to the U.S. Census, from 2010 to 2020, the Hispanic population in Memphis grew almost 50% from 41,994 to 62,167, largely through migration, which has pushed Latino Memphis to take on the needs of the growing and increasingly diverse population. Specifically, Calvo said that the needs of a Guatemalan migrant may be different than that of a Venezuelan migrant, but Latino Memphis is equipped to help them both.

"I've seen how the organization has changed, I've seen how Latinx organizations can rise, and also I've also seen how non-Latinx led organizations like Church Health and even Shelby County Schools and others have been able to better serve this particular community," he said. "I'm also hyper frustrated like how some things have not changed right. In so many ways ..."

Having more Latinx representation on elected bodies is one change in particular that Calvo would like to see.

After 25 years of living in Memphis, Calvo ran for two government positions: a City Council seat representing Super District 9 Position 2 in 2019 and a school board seat in District 5 in 2020. He lost both but firmly believes that it's past time for more Latinx representation in government positions.

He serves on the boards of UnidosUS, Hope Credit Union, Shelby Farms Conservancy and WeAreMemphis.

"When is it going to finally click on us that it's going to take all of us to move this forward? That's why I thought that attempting to win a seat in the City Council could have been a game-changer not for me... but we need representation because until we get to that point, I don't think anybody is going to take us serious," he said.

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The future of Latino Memphis

In the immediate future, he hopes to develop programs to fuel economic growth and stability in the Latinx community.

"The next big project that I want to launch and explore is finding a pathway for economic wealth, development and prosperity for our community. How do we as a community begin to accumulate wealth? Because maybe then people will start paying more attention," he said. The organization is currently exploring ideas about what this looks like in practice.

Calvo said he hopes the services Latino Memphis currently provides won't be needed — that maybe the nonprofit could carry on as a cultural center.

"The ultimate goal of Latino Memphis is to be out of business," he said. "At some point, we just need to disappear, but we're not going to disappear until the work is done."

Astrid Kayembe covers South Memphis, Whitehaven and Westwood. She can be reached at astrid.kayembe@commercialappeal.com, (901) 304-7929 or on Twitter @astridkayembe_.

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Latino Memphis: How Mauricio Calvo works to uplift Latinx community