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The achievers
From a prize-winning writer to a university president, the significant
six who grace the next few pages have shown determination, a willingness to
take risks, dedication to excellence and an innovative spirit. Along the way, they
have not only made strides in their fields, but also paved the way for aspiring
Latinos to follow in their footsteps.
By Millie Acebal Rousseau
and Marissa Rodriguez
CONTROVERSIAL CARTOONIST
Michael Ramirez
In the span of 14 years Michael Ramirez has done what few edito
rial cartoonists do in a lifetime: bring home not one, but two Pulitzer Prizes. Currently, the senior editor and editorial cartoonist for
Investor’s Business Daily, Ramirez fi rst took home the prize in 1994
(when he worked with another publication), with the second follow
ing this year. One of the country’s most respected editorial cartoon
ists, Ramirez is quick to point out that he doesn’t work for awards.“In this Democratic republic, it’s a shame how many people are not
involved. I want to be a catalyst to get them involved. I want to be a
catalyst of thought,” he says. And his cartoons have done just that.
Ramirez, who is of Mexican, Spanish and Japanese descent, hasmade a name for himself in his fearless execution of works that often lampoon government and ideologues in print. “I don’t want to
mislead the people, my job is to direct people down the right road so
they have a journey to prosperity and happiness.,” he says. His cartoons might not always be mainstream, so his job, if done right, is far
from safe. “If you take a stand on any issue there is going to be half the
population that is going to disagree with you,” he says. And, death
threats, he adds, are just part of the job. Those interested in weighing
in, can see his syndicated cartoons in more than 450 newspapers. He
is also the author of Everyone has the Right to My Opinion, a collection of editorial cartoons, which comes out this month.
PRESCRIPTION FOR SUCCESS
Deidre Connelly
Since 2005, Connelly has been president of Lilly USA. She joined
Lilly, the world’s 10th largest pharmaceutical company, in 1984 as
a sales representative in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and worked her way
up to the top. Twice, Fortune named her one of the 50 most powerful women in business. She attributes her success to good people.
“I’m working in an environment that allows someone, regardless of
race, gender or lifestyle, to develop skills and collaborate.” She says
the company’s values of enterprise—respect for people, integrity
and excellence—are what attracted her to Lilly and have kept her
there for 24 years. Born in San Juan, Connelly earned her bachelor’s degree from Lycoming College in Pennsylvania. In 2000, she
graduated from the prestigious Harvard University’s Advanced
Management Program. Connelly measures achievement through
patient success. “All the work we do is geared to make patients’ lives
better.” She explains that as their quality of life and health are enhanced, “we” [at Lilly] celebrate. “Patients getting better, for us, is achieving our goal.” One of nine children, Connelly says she’s most
proud of her family. While she admits there was never a moment
she realized she had found success, she hopes to one day. “Hopefully, that success will be defined as a good sister, daughter, friend,
and having contributed to the success of this enterprise.” She’s focusing on the latter as her next professional achievement ... “mak-
ing the next generation of leaders [at Lilly] the best they can be.”
MASS MEDIA MAVEN
Alex Pels
For Alex Pels the key to doing anything successfully is to have
passion. It’s through passion that creativity and dedication
build. “I respond to things that excite me and I feel passionate about,” he says. “If we don’t feel passionate about it, we
know the audience won’t either.” And the formula seems to be
working well. As general manager for the bilingual music and
entertainment channel mun2, Pels has propelled the channel
to award-winning status and made the entertainment industry
sit up and take notice of a growing trend, and a growing demographic. Fueled by experience as a founding member, former executive producer and vice president of production and programming for MTV Networks Latin America, Pels came
to mun2 with a zeal for creativity and insight into the dynamic
and diverse viewership of young, hip, bilingual Hispanics.
Since then ratings have grown, as has the channel’s reputation
for ground-breaking programming and its following among
young Hispanics who see themselves in the channel’s vision.
Yet, he knows he can’t do it alone. One of the things Pels says
he is most proud of is his ability to team-build and having
that team succeed at its vision. “When I came in, the objective and the challenge was to relaunch [mun2] and elevate the
relevance and quality of it,” he says. “That’s what we wanted
to do and I was surprised at how fast we did it.”
REAL ENTREPRENEURIAL SPIRIT
Daniel Lubetzky
For Daniel Lubetzky, food leads to peace and profi t. While in Israel
researching economic cooperation between Arabs and Israelis, he
discovered a sun-dried tomato spread that sparked a global enterprise. “I got hungry and started eating a random product I got at
the store,” he says. When he returned to buy more, he was told the
company had gone out of business. He tracked down the manufacturer, Yoel Benesh, an Israeli, and they talked about an Arab trading
partnership to help lower costs. Rather than getting basil from Italy, he could get it from Palestinian farmers, and instead of relying on
glass jars from Portugal, he could import it for less from Egypt.
That initiative led, nearly 15 years ago, to the creation of PeaceWorks Holdings LLC, which sells healthy food products produced
by what the company calls neighbors on opposing sides of political or armed confl icts. Besides Israeli and Palestinians, PeaceWorks
has business relationships with Egyptians, Indonesians, Turks,
Sri Lankans and Australians. “Trading partners get to know each
other, break stereotypes and build relationships,” says Lubetzky, a
Stanford Law School graduate and the son of a Holocaust survivor
and a Mexican Jew. “By making money together, they start realizing
they should preserve those relationships.”
PeaceWorks’ brands, which includes KIND Fruit + Nut Bars,
Meditalia and Bali Spice, are found in 30,000 stores worldwide.
Five percent of profi ts go to the PeaceWorks Foundation, which
promotes tolerance and co-existence in confl ict regions. OneVoice
Movement, one of the foundation’s grassroots initiatives, brings
moderates together to combat extremism and promote civic involvement.
Lubetzky attributes his success to doing things he really believes in and is passionate about, but is quick to point out there’s
more to be done. “I never feel I’ve succeeded ... I’m always striving
to do more,” he says. “What drives me is confl ict resolution.” As for
what he’d like to achieve next, his aspirations are to “build a global
community of people dedicated to globally shared values of tolerance, respect, kindness and coexistence.
LEADING HIGHER LEARNING
Dr. Elsa A. Murano
This year marked not only a change in Dr. Elsa Murano’s career,
but also a landmark moment for Texas’ oldest institution of higher
learning. On January 3, Murano took office as president of Texas
A&M University, becoming the first Hispanic and the first woman
to run the enormous university. “It’s a tremendous reflection of what
is possible,” Murano told the Houston Chronicle. “Only in America
can a girl from Havana get to this point.” A native of Cuba, Muresided in Latin America before settling in Miami when she was a
teenager. There she would embark on an educational quest earning a bachelor’s degree from Florida International University and a
master’s degree and a doctorate from Virginia Tech University. Her
career began in 1990 at Iowa State University where she was an assistant professor. She began working with Texas A&M in 1995 as
the associate director of the Center for Food Safety at the Institute
for Food Science and Engineering and as an associate professor. She
flourished in the institution, rising through the ranks to become the
center’s director, full professorship and more. In 2001, she set her
sights on the government when President George W. Bush invited
her to serve as Under Secretary for Food Safety in the Department of
Agriculture, where she was to be responsible for a $1 billion budget
and 10,000 employees. In 2005, she returned to A&M’s hallowed
halls as Vice Chancellor and Dan of Agriculture and Life Sciences.
THE PRIZED WRITER
Oscar Hijuelos
The first Latino ever to win a Pulitzer Prize in fiction, the Cuban-American scribe Oscar Hijuelos made waves with his novel
The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love, released in 1990. It was
the first time a story of a Cuban family had been told that way.
Mixing music and literary techniques, Hijuelos is credited with
the integration of real people into a completely fictitious setting.
The combination of the powerful fiction narrative interwoven
with real personalities gave the novel heft. Readers paid attention, and before long hundreds of thousands of copies were
in print. “I remember being told, when the novel came out,
‘Minority novels don’t sell. Period,’ ” Hijuelos told Publishers
Weekly. “That’s what you hear if you’re Hispanic. ‘Punto. Forget it, baby.’” But it soon became apparent that publishers were
short-sighted. Readers couldn’t forget The Mambo Kings, and
his contemporaries and many scholars credit Hijuelos with the
commencement of a Latino literary renaissance. Soon, the film
industry took notice and The Mambo Kings was made into a
movie. He followed with several more noteworthy and prize-winning novels. Now, after a six-year hiatus, Hijuelos is back
with another novel, Dark Dude, turning his attention to young
adults and ensuring that the next generation of readers are privy
to his literary greatness. Plus, the Associated Press reports that
he is planning two new novels through 2010.
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