Petaluman builds bridges between cultures

Latina leader and Petaluma-based marketing maven Marcia Barahona said she’s been interested in bringing people together since she was a child.|

Latina leader and Petaluma-based marketing maven Marcia Barahona said she’s been interested in bringing people together since she was a child.

Barahona, who founded a cross-cultural marketing firm and a humanitarian nonprofit, was born in El Salvador and moved to the U.S. with her family when she was 12.

Though she said it was a challenge to get used to a foreign culture and a new language, Barahona quickly acclimated, excelling at schoolwork and embracing her new environment with great fervor. She credits her parents as her inspiration.

“They understand the value and joy of pursuing the American dream,” she said.

As a junior at Casa Grande High School, Barahona had decided on journalism as her field of choice and wrote both for her school’s newspaper and for the Argus-Courier.

Garnering scholarships and other support, Barahona entered Dominican University, where she switched from journalism to studying law before ultimately settling on obtaining her master’s in business administration.

In 2009, she distilled her many skills and interests into launching OrangeRio, a full-service cross-cultural marketing communications and strategy agency. She has worked with clients including Pacific Gas and Electric, The Berkeley Chess School and SPG Solar to develop cultural and language-sensitive marking communications, event and strategies to engage with Latinos, according to the business’ website.

Through her work, she serves many kinds of clients whose positive contributions to the world align with her values, she said.

“My life is guided by spiritual values,” she said. “I can’t market something that I can’t stand by what they have to offer.”

Barahona and two partners also founded Neighbors Without Borders, a volunteer-run nonprofit that works in Africa. After one of the founders visited Africa, the group went together on a trip to Uganda to identify sustainable projects in the community.

“We returned and did an assessment and decided to work with abandoned children and mothers with AIDS,” she said. “The orphans needed a school, so we started one in 2003. It became an official nonprofit in 2004 and still exists today, serving 50 to 100 kindergarten through eighth grade students. We rely on donations and people volunteering their time. See Profile, C9

We also sponsor children who are eligible to go on to higher education. Our banner project is the school.”

Fluent in four languages, Barahona also loves to express herself creatively in songs and poetry, and has published a variety of poetry in English and Spanish, she said. She also sang comic opera for many years.

The 43-year-old is also a founding board member of Creative Sonoma, which supports the local creative community, and serves on the board of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Sonoma, among a medley of other community involvement.

Building bridges, embracing multiculturalism and truly connecting with people are some of the things that fulfill Barahona.

“I adore what I do and could do it 24 hours a day,” she said. “No matter who comes to me, I can show them another way to connect and promote themselves.”(Contact Lynn Schnitzer at argus@arguscourier.com)

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