Some people seem to carry an invisible map of relationships, effortlessly seeing bridges where others see isolated islands. They’re the ones who look around a room and instinctively know who should meet whom. They’re the reason old friends reconnect, why professional networks flourish, why communities form around shared interests that might otherwise remain scattered.

Leticia Latino van Splunteren recognizes this pattern in herself with striking clarity:

“I connect people. My friends, even from high school and elementary school when I go back home, they say we only see you when we are here because I’m the one planning, making everybody see each other. I’ve always been that person.”

What is it that natural connectors see that the rest of us miss?

It’s tempting to explain this as simply being more social or outgoing. But that’s not quite right. Plenty of social people remain focused on their own conversations, their own circles. Natural connectors operate with a different orientation entirely — they seem to hold multiple relationship maps simultaneously, constantly scanning for overlaps and possibilities.

There’s something almost curatorial about how they work. They notice when two people share an obscure interest, when someone’s challenge might be solved by another person’s expertise, when a conversation would be enriched by a particular perspective. They see connections not just between people, but between ideas, experiences, needs.

Latino describes this as her “superpower,” and the language is revealing. Superpowers, in stories, usually involve seeing or doing things that others can’t. But this particular superpower seems to be about seeing what’s already there — the latent connections that exist but remain invisible until someone points them out.

Consider what this requires. First, genuine curiosity about people beyond surface-level interactions. Natural connectors seem to remember not just what people do, but what animates them, what they’re struggling with, what they’re passionate about. They collect these details not for any strategic purpose, but because they find people genuinely interesting.

Second, they operate from abundance rather than scarcity. Instead of hoarding relationships or opportunities, they seem to believe that connection multiplies value rather than dividing it. When they introduce two people, they’re not losing something — they’re creating something.

Third, they possess a kind of systemic thinking about relationships. They don’t just think about individual connections, but about the larger web of relationships and how introducing new nodes strengthens the entire network.

But perhaps most intriguingly, natural connectors seem to understand that relationships have their own timing. Latino mentions how friends wait for her to plan gatherings, how people seek her out for introductions. She’s not pushing connections; she’s creating conditions where connections can happen naturally.

This raises an uncomfortable question: if some people are natural connectors, what does that make the rest of us? Are we simply relationship consumers, waiting for someone else to orchestrate our social lives?

Maybe the answer isn’t about becoming someone else, but about recognizing the architecture that’s always been there. Natural connectors don’t create the potential for connection — they simply see it more clearly. They notice when someone mentions a problem that reminds them of another person’s expertise. They remember that two people share a passion for the same obscure hobby. They pay attention to the subtext of what people are really looking for.

The invisible architecture of relationships exists whether we see it or not. Every conversation contains potential threads to other conversations. Every person we know knows other people who might enrich our understanding or solve our problems. Every community contains subcommunities that might benefit from awareness of each other.

Natural connectors have developed the habit of noticing this architecture. But habits can be learned. The question isn’t whether you have the superpower — it’s whether you’re paying attention to the connections that are already waiting to be made.

This field note references the Podtalk episode “Voices with Leticia Latino van Splunteren,” published March 22, 2024.