Today feels as if we were back in 2002 when we first thought of a simple idea that —as all the ideas that led later to tangible realities throughout AL DÍA’s evolution— was made possible by resolve and discipline.

The simple idea was bring by the thousands to downtown Philadelphia members of the Hispanic community, then isolated in our neighborhoods, to meet the larger employers of our city at the Pennsylvania Convention Center, in the heart of Center City.

Over 20 years, this city has evidently progressed: Today, 2023, the Hispanic community is gradually becoming a quarter of the city’s population, from the 6.8% it was when we founded AL DÍA in 1994.

This city’s population has become, under the influence of the new residents, one of the most diverse cities in the country, thanks to immigrants coming from neighboring states, from Central and South America, and also from all over the world.

Not a single racial group is majority anymore in Philadelphia, as the U.S. Census found out in 2020.

In its third century of its existence, the city of Philadelphia is a wonderful mosaic of all the races and ethnicities, creatures of God that arrived here from all our planet.

They are now congregated here to make our city a hub of diverse labor in volumes Philadelphia had not seen in the past 341 years of its existence— and today is not aware of and/or has not yet taken full advantage of.

As we prepare ourselves for the 250 anniversary of the Declaration of Independence in 2026, and remember our humble origins and envision our common destiny, we can say we can see the promised land from here, the vantage point of 2023.

A land where all the races and ethnicities, fully included, and working together, can fulfill the promise our founding fathers passed down to us of bringing us all together, the Pluribus Unum (“out of many, one”, in Latin) of our national Great Seal, and propel our beloved city forward into the 21st Century to produce the miracle of a true Philadelphia Renaissance.

There is only one obstacle we all must honestly acknowledge and call out— loud but sincerely:

Our city is still one the most segregated in the country across all its neighborhoods, and along the invisible walls of racial division the new and diverse labor force of our new residents is yet to be fully included proportionally on the payrolls of our main corporations, public institutions, and government offices.

20 years ago, AL DÍA dared to imagine a modest gathering that would expose the top employers in our city to the Hispanic segment, the fastest growing over the past 30 years.

Today we need to dare something bolder:

To bring everybody else in this Diverse City —and that is why we call it the “AL DIA DiverseCity Career Fair”— to the opportunities for the best paying jobs in our city.

And, in the process, give Philadelphia a chance to become a modern and prosperous urban center on the Eastern Seaboard of our nation. Better to live in to raise a family than Boston or Baltimore, more affordable and better organized than New York, with way a richer and nobler history than Washington D.C., and a permanent destination for tourists from all over the world, and eventually temporary residents who may choose to prolong their stay here, as was the case for my now departed wife and me.

To achieve that we need first to bring the children of those who were first-generation immigrants yesterday, but today are the new and promising Americans, born, raised and educated here, to contribute to the city’s economic and cultural fabric.

We need everybody’s participation to take this bolder and yet simple step forward.

All the CEOs of this town, and the top executives of our City and State government, need to make a commitment —the fulfillment of their responsibility as top leaders of their organizations—  that paradoxically, in the long run, will benefit these corporations and those governments by providing them with more competence as they incorporate within its ranks Philadelphia’s new, diverse residents who mirror the new marketplace and society they are mandated to serve. 

This is not anymore about Equal Employment Opportunity or the Equity and Inclusion Policy delegated to a lower rank Diversity Officer.

This is not anymore about Equal Employment Opportunity or the Equity and Inclusion Policy delegated to a lower rank Diversity Officer. It is an urgent necessity of our times, indeed and emergency and actual crisis; but as all crises, in the hands of enlightened and creative leaders, is also once-in-a-century opportunity. Genuine CEOs can’t shy away from this core duty of the high office entrusted to them, as few of them, to their credit, are beginning to do it.

The race for competitiveness in the 21st century is on, and we can’t afford to squander our best resources: our very diverse people already here.

We need to bring them from the front lines of labor to the middle and top executive offices, the c-suite and, ultimately, to the board room.

Could it be possible that one day we could see representation of Philadelphia rich diversity across the board? Wouldn’t that be beautiful sight to see?   A new and blessed cosmopolitan Philadelphia?

Could it be possible that one day we could see representation of Philadelphia rich diversity across the board? Wouldn’t that be beautiful sight to see? A new and blessed cosmopolitan Philadelphia?

A city that is privileged to have been enriched by children from almost every nation from this continent —the Americas to the South— and almost all nations in the world?

Many have given up along the way in this effort to bring true diversity into the labor force, but it is our decision 20 years later to dare to imagine what we believe is not only possible but the natural destiny of our beloved city.