From Reader to Flyer
When I was a little girl, I fell in love with books.
I read classics. I read business books. I devoured them, I studied them, I questioned them, applied the principles, and they become part of my daily life. I knew that one day I was going to write a book.
Fast forward to my teenage years. I arrived in America with a dream of being an entrepreneur, as I had back in Mexico, selling the figs that grew in my backyard. I worked hard and started a marketing company at the age of 23. Three years later, I decided to write a book that would encapsulate the experiences of my first three years in the land of dreams. It was called the Little Book of Business Secrets. It was a personal missive after surviving cancer twice, which activated my sense of service, and my ability to help other people land on their dreams.
Soon my publishing company, Fig Factor Media, was born. I began helping more people tell their own stories. I have since published 29 more books, including a wildly successful series called Today’s Inspired Latina, which has curated the largest collection of personal stories from 232 Latina authors within 10 volumes. The success of that anthology sparked many more from Latinas in various industries such as social work, health care, real estate, and human resources.
Then in 2015, I visited a flight school and was instantly captivated by the world of aviation. As I pursued my private pilot’s license, I felt the glow of aviation shifting my worldview. I assumed a new vision of the world, and the way I operate on the Earth. Soaring above the clouds allowed me to see a three-dimensional space where we were so small, but yet we could accomplish mighty things if we only took our dreams from the ground to the sky.
The Divine Download
Working in marketing for years, I love to activate hearts and minds by creating environments that allow people to feel something. It’s what moves me. So I began wondering how I could combine my passion for marketing and aviation to create an environment that allows me to facilitate a process of inspiration with words, and multi-sensory experiences to create an emotional connection.
From this desire, and an inspiration I like to call a “divine download,” Latinas in Aviation was born.
I embarked on a quest to find Latinas from around the world, the rarest of those within the smallest percentage of women who worked in this male-dominated industry. I scoured my networks and connected with aviation professionals far and wide, locally and globally. I spoke with air traffic controllers, airframe mechanics, aeronautical engineers and pilots from the military and general aviation.
It took me seven months and countless emails and conversations to gather those special 22 women, including a former NASA engineer and the first Latina fighter pilot, whose inspirational stories would grace the pages of Latinas in Aviation. It was an honor to help them write their amazing and captivating stories. Many of them shared about how they to swim against the grain of society, their culture, and their profession to steadfastly follow their dream of working in aviation.
The project was launched in August 2020, right in the middle of the pandemic. Who knew that in such a climate, another type of history would be born. Latinas in Aviation was the first book of its kind to share the stories of Latinas throughout different sectors of aviation in the 100-year history of the industry. My initial spark (a “divine download” as I call it) to create Latinas in Aviation led to a fruitful relationship with the College Park Aviation Museum in College Park, Maryland and the “Field of Firsts” Foundation. On their historic field, they hosted another “first”–the launch of the first volume of Latinas in Aviation at the inaugural International Latinas in Aviation Global Festival in October of 2021.
We now have a scholarship fund for Latinas wishing to pursue careers in aviation, courtesy of the proceeds from the sale of the book and products. We have already given away two major awards—one for $5,000 in the United States and one for $2,500 in Brazil. Latinas in Aviation also sparked the publication of Latinas in Aviation magazine with the help of my team, Juan Pablo Ruiz, Priscilla Alarcon, Karen Dix, Manuel Serna and Irene Anzola. They were launched nationwide in both digital and print format.
In October 2022, we celebrated the launch of Volume II of Latinas in Aviation, once again at the Latinas in Aviation Global Festival held at the College Park Museum. This volume was specifically dedicated to Latinas in the DMV (Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia) area and featured 15 new authors. We were honored with the presence of FAA Deputy Administrator Bradley Mims at the event, as well as many other museum and aviation dignitaries and enthusiasts. We also received a citation from the Secretary of State in the State of Maryland as a permanent testament to our contribution to the State of Maryland with our launch of Latinas in Aviation Volume II.
Now, with a permanent exhibit at the museum there, we leave our legacy in a brand new way. Yet, there’s so much more we want to accomplish. We continue to gather interest from FAA, Airbus, NASA, Volaris, and other major organizations who want to align with our mission in different ways. For example, we are currently working with the FAA to bring aviation programs to schools in 2023 as well as additional products and publications related to the Latinas in Aviation brand. Truly, Latinas in Aviation has taken its place within the industry.
I stand in a magical nook in the College Park Museum in College Park, Maryland, in complete awe. Encased in glass, displayed on walls, and cradled in casements, I see artifacts of my aviation days. I see my teddy bear, Amelia, who accompanied me on my first solo flight and has now been reproduced and given away to hundreds of aviators aspiring to their dreams. I see the logo for a once simple idea that has grown into an entity– Latinas in Aviation–in sunshine yellow on the main wall before me. Fashioned from a heart, wings, and a propeller, it represents the purpose, dreams and inspiration of the small slice of women of Latin descent that have succeeded in the aviation industry. Latinas in Aviation is a creation that keeps on creating.
In the exhibit, I also see contributions from other women in aviation like me—uniforms and hats, medals, and personal effects. These special ladies all join me today to celebrate this historic, permanent testament to their part in aviation and they are rightfully proud to be part of it.
Together, we are Latinas in Aviation. And today, you can visit a piece of our legacy in museum in College Park, Maryland.
You may be wondering, how did such a small, disparate group become immortalized in an exhibit like this? Looking back, I can see it was a long journey that began, like so many things in my life, with a dream.
Jacqueline Ruiz is the CEO of JJR Marketing (www.jjrmarketing.com) and Fig Factor Media LLC international book publishing company (www.figfactormedia.com), founder of The Fig Factor Foundation (www.thefigfactor.org), creator of Today’s Inspired Latina book series and international movement (http://www.todayslatina.com), author of 29 books (www.jackiecamacho.com), international speaker, and sports airplane pilot. Jacqueline speaks to hundreds of audiences about marketing, servant leadership, finding your passion, and achieving success in business. She has addressed the United States Army, Airbus, BP International, United Airlines, Allstate, Northern Trust US + Europe and Farmers Insurance among other corporations to share her inspiration. She has been featured in Forbes, INC Magazine, ABC 7, WTTW, NBC 5, Univision, Telemundo, among others. She is one of the few Latina sports airplane pilots in the United States.