Husband, wife bring rich Mexican culture to life at Continental
A brief history of our roles with Continental.
Gina: I’m currently Marketing Coordinator for he[a]t Research and Advanced Engineering in North America. I joined Continental in 2012 as a communications intern for Research and Development in Mexico.
Raymundo: I’m an Advanced Engineering Manager for Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) in North America. I started with Continental in 2009 in Guadalajara, Mexico, as a software developer for the Instrumentation Design business unit.
What motivates us to go to work each day.
Gina: What motivates me is to be able to promote (internally and externally) our different solutions and the impact they have on people's lives.
Raymundo: Working on ADAS is my big driver, my main motivation. I love having the opportunity to come to work to help create new products that save lives every day.
We’re especially proud of recent projects we’ve been involved with.
Gina: A recent Continental project I’m proud of is an internal communications app that we developed and displayed at CES in Las Vegas. Now, the Continental team has all the secure, up-to-date information for the best experience. It was a great challenge and fun to learn a new skill.
Raymundo: It’s tough to pick just one project, but the most recent one is Trailer Hitch Assist with Coupler Detection. This function simplifies the process of aligning the vehicle with a trailer.
Our time in Mexico and our move to the United States.
Raymundo: I was born and raised in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon. I moved to Guadalajara in 2009 and lived there until 2017, when I moved to Michigan.
Gina: I was born and raised in Guadalajara, Jalisco and left the city when I was 27 to move to Michigan. I loved growing up in Guadalajara, because it is a very culturally rich city.
Things we wish more people knew about our Hispanic heritage.
Raymundo: One thing I wish more people knew about our heritage is Mexico has one of the richest cultures in the world. Our history goes all the way back to the great Mesoamerican civilizations, to the Spanish conquest, to the identity we have forged today. We have all the landscapes you can imagine: desert, woods, rainforest, mountains.
Gina: Our cuisine is known and loved around the world. Guadalajara is the most cosmopolitan city in Latin America, with the best quality of life. You will always find a smile and helping hand. While there are certainly some challenges we face as a country, resilience is in our nature and we thrive against everything life throws at us.
Gina: Our heritage as Mexicans gives us a natural desire to work and prove ourselves to the world, and this attitude definitely impacts the day-to-day activities and attitude towards accountability in our work.
Why our move from Mexico to the U.S. with Continental has been such an enriching experience.
Raymundo: Having the experience of working for Continental in México has given us a lot of perspective on how people work and think in different regions of the world, like Germany, the United States, India and so on. Having the opportunity to interact with people from all these different places and backgrounds definitely opened our eyes to different ideas and approaches that enrich work every day.
Gina: We’ve learned to appreciate our culture, family and friends, while embracing new practices and creating new memories. We were also amazed to discover that both Detroit and Michigan are so cool and beautiful. There’s so much to see and experience, we have fallen in love with it.
This article was written by our employees
Gina Lomeli and Raymundo Magana
Marketing Coordinator for Holistic Engineering and Technologies and Advanced Engineering Manager for ADAS
