Arturo Hilario
El Observador
It starts with sports and family.
Vanessa Gonzalez started her career in sports business with the idea of impressing her brothers and proving to them and herself that she could work within the world of their favorite teams, a space traditionally dominated by men and a space where in the past it was not typical to see Latinos working in.
Thankfully for people like Gonzalez, representation has been on the way up.
As the Senior Manager of Public Affairs for the Golden State Warriors, Gonzalez and her department work to build bridges between local communities, businesses and politicians to form strong bonds that benefit the local neighborhoods and attempt to nourish each facet of the working relationships.
Just like fans and admirers keep sports teams afloat, teams in turn attempt to give back to their hometowns. In her role Gonzalez is managing how the team connects with their local environments in the Bay Area and how to best keep that relationship solid, positive and beneficial.
Gonzalez has been with the Warriors organization for eight years, and in that time has worked her way up from a part time role to a full-time member of the Bay Area basketball dynasty.
A first generation Mexican-American, Gonzalez, like many first generation kids, had to be a trailblazer in navigating college, graduation, and the perils of employment searching and career contemplation.
Then, much like the gritty resolve of the Golden State Warriors, she built a career defying the odds and setting up connections in the Bay Area as she pursued a trail that had never been imagined by herself nor her family. Gonzalez set out to challenge herself in the world of sports business, and did that and more. By bridging her love of family, sports, community and culture she can help all of these aspects of herself flourish.
It Starts With Family
If not for family, Gonzalez might have never had such a deep interest in sports to pursue work within an organization, saying she really did want to work in sports because of her family’s history with sports.
“I always laugh when I admit this, but my parents are both from Mexico. One of my mom’s brothers was a huge Dallas Cowboys fan. And there was a lot of hand me downs out there in Mexico with the ‘vaqueros de Dallas’ out there. My uncle would wear and rock it. My brothers both admired him. And we started to watch football because of that, because the love they had for my uncle, and then they wanted to show it for him.”
As that interest in football and American sports in general spread, it took hold of Gonzalez’s brothers and then herself. “How I came upon it was just a curiosity for sports and what sports can do for our community because we see it, we like it watching on the screen. But to be behind it, I just wanted to prove to myself that we belonged in that space. So that’s what gave me curiosity, what was first an interest to impress my brothers became mine in this process.”
Graduating from UC Santa Cruz in 2013, Gonzalez earned a Bachelor’s degree in Film and Digital Media as well as Psychology, and despite setting out to pursue film she found job hunting after college a maze, and the comfort of home in the Bay Area went against the pull of the job nexus of Hollywood.
“I didn’t know what to do next or [have] anyone to help me out. Coming out of college, trying to understand what my next step was and realizing real quick that it wasn’t as easy as it made it seem, of getting a bachelor’s and finding a job easily.”
As she contemplated what to do with a degree in one hand but a question mark as to her future career, she thought back to family and sports.
“I enjoyed being here in the Bay, where I just took a chance, to be honest. There were a lot of sports teams that had part-time jobs. I really left the ego to the side. ‘Yes, I have a degree, but I need to start from the bottom and work my way to the top.’”
Putting in the Work
After deciding to gravitate towards sports media and comms, Gonzalez worked part time for teams like Cal Athletics, and then added one part time job for a team after another.
At one point in her foray into sports employment, Gonzalez was working for up to five organizations. “It’s possible because every season is different. Every Saturday and Sunday was NFL. Then we had basketball, and then there was soccer, the San Francisco Deltas, then the Giants. I was able to make it work, but it was insane. I will say that it came to a point where I said, ‘All right, I’ve got to put my eggs in one basket and just commit to one team,’ and having faith that it was going to work out.”
There’s a day-to-day job, the things that we’ve got to do, but when you’re able to inspire for a moment and what that leaves in, an imprint for a future, for that week making someone feel better, those are the things that really keep me going.
-Vanessa Gonzalez
When she first entered her role with the Warriors, Gonzalez was asked plainly, “What do you want to do within the Warriors?” She responded with, “I want to be out in the community to tell people the good work the Warriors doing, because within my process of being part-time, I could see the work sports teams were doing, but it wasn’t, to my perspective, being shown or spoken in different communities.”
From Communities to the Court
In her role, Gonzalez sees the opportunity to bridge the gap of information between communities and the work teams do in the real world which has actual impact on lives beyond sports fandom. As much as it may seem obvious, a professional sports team isn’t just the players and the product on the court, but a system with many employees off the court, and all of that combined needs to reflect its local people and identity for the symbiotic relationship to work.
Gonzalez adds, “Particularly, I felt like I never saw the community work sports teams were doing until I actually entered. So I wanted to be a voice externally. So the fulfillment that I get is I’ve been here for over eight years, and I’ve been able to connect the organizations that have never been seen before because of the research that I’ve done and the connections. And the organization has given me a platform allowing me to make those connections and integrate them into the programming that we are existing or creating new programming as we’re thinking in the future. What that is just connecting the dots, specifically with the Latino community, for sure. And is there more work to be done? For sure, always more work to be done.”
Part of her role includes reaching out to businesses and politicians, and looking for opportunities in those avenues. One program the Warriors have is a business accelerator called Alley-Oop Accelerator, which helps local entrepreneurs get certified to work with the corporate world and gives them resources, mentorship, and the knowledge to use in their pursuits.
There are other parts like working with cities to identify what laws and regulations need to be followed, how they can create programs with schools, and generally how to be understanding of their surroundings and neighborhood communities.
Being a Latina in a role that can help open opportunities and the simple fun of working in the same building as Stephen Curry and the storied franchise of the Bay Area is fulfilling to Gonzalez, especially because she’s a representative to her heritage.
“To create experiences for people of color and bring them into games, giving them experiences and seeing people feel like we belong in these spaces, that brings me joy. And a reminder every time where I’m like, ‘All right, this is what I do.’”
And being Latina in a male dominated field provides extra inspiration to continue to push for diversity and bring in new perspectives.
“There’s a day-to-day job, the things that we’ve got to do, but when you’re able to inspire for a moment and what that leaves in, an imprint for a future, for that week making someone feel better, those are the things that really keep me going.”
All-Stars, Championships, and Family Heritage
I ask Gonzalez about all-time favorite moments in working for a professional basketball team, unsurprisingly there are many.
As she thinks about favorite moments working with the Warriors, a few surface within seconds. One is definitely that of assisting the organization in hosting their first NBA All-Star Game this past February, the first back in the Bay Area since 2000. Gonzalez says that the planning and executing process was grueling but very rewarding.
“There was a lot behind the scenes, a lot of coordination, a lot of project managing, a lot of arts and culture that we had to connect the dots and making sure that we had the right folks that we were working with and involving nonprofits as well. How are we showing up in the community in Oakland and San Francisco? What schools were we going to reach out to?”
“We see probably three days of work in All-Star in just the three events that happened. But there’s so much, it was a yearlong process to get where we’re at and do it correctly, safely, make an impact, bring an economic development.”
Yet even planning the All-Star experience wasn’t her top moment. The most important time to her was a moment that connects back to her own family.
That most treasured memory would be shortly after the Dubs won their 7th title in 2022, when the first NBA player of Mexican heritage had been part of a championship team. Juan Toscano-Anderson, a half-Mexican Oakland native, was part of that Warriors squad that beat the Celtics in six games, cementing a dynasty that began with the young Curry-led 2015 team.
“When we won the 2022 Championship, I had the opportunity to take the trophy to Mexico with Juan Toscano-Anderson. I was able to communicate with the Mexican government, carry logistics, work with their secret service over there, making sure everything was fine, if Juan was ready.”
For Gonzalez, nothing was as important in that moment as the realization that she was taking this trophy to her family’s homeland, to the highest leader in the land, and creating an unbelievable moment for an athlete that was the first of his heritage to reach this level of competitive achievement.
“Our videographers had access to this big moment that was going to happen. Being able to, of course, be in your parents’ motherland and bring your work out there and making a difference because of what that moment meant.”
For herself, thinking back to how her family reacted that she had ventured out and helped organize this trip of a world championship trophy to then
“My grandparents who live here seeing that, and my cousin recording that moment and [them] saying, pointing out, ‘that’s my granddaughter,’ I will say, is something that I never thought – that I could touch them to understand what I do.”
Gonzalez admits that despite attempts to explain her role, some of her family members don’t completely comprehend the role of a Senior Manager of Public Affairs.
“I explained it to my parents; I explain it to my grandparents. But I think that moment, my grandparents, at least, and my parents, but my grandparents in particular, were very proud Mexicans. They were like, ‘Oh, shoot, she’s doing something. She did something that I would never imagine that we would ever do.’ And I say ‘we’ because I represent my family. So, I would say that was the biggest moment. And it was less about the NBA and everything. It was more because I felt seen by my family.”
Final Buzzer
As we wrap up the talk on family, careers, basketball and all things Bay Area, I ask Gonzalez if there’s any other pressing thought she might like to get out before the interview concludes. One consensus was that sports are fun, and it’s even better when your culture and traditions are highlighted.
“Sports has definitely a power to it. You already got everyone’s attention on what’s on the court. But I think when you’re able to be seen as a fan, when your culture is being celebrated, I think that’s the more even more powerful thing.”
And another opinion is that there needs to be more focus around the diverse people in these office spaces that are helping create these experiences and turning the cogs of the big companies and sports teams. Letting people and kids who might not know that they could be what Gonzalez is.
“I will say that there needs to be more stories around Latinos in these spaces because there is so many talented people in sports and Latinos that are doing it. I think there needs to be more paths in saying that this is actually outside of just being on the court, what are the roles behind the scenes?”
Gonzalez continues, “I’m not the only Latina/o here that is doing some great work and amazing work. The Warriors have created such a great platform to allow us to really come together and hear our voices internally and externally. I just say that there should be more of this because there’s paths to get in circles. It’s always going to be a struggle, but it’s all worth it, I’ll say. It’s been all worth it for me.”
For more information on the incentives the Golden State Warriors and Gonzalez are working on, visit https://community.warriors.com/community/.
