Latina Power

Our Latina issue every June keeps getting more difficult because of the hard task of coming up with only five Hispanic women to profile. There are so many out there who have made it big in their fields, and we insist on doing full-fledged profiles of a few, as opposed to writing many blurbs on a list that can hardly do justice to these women’s outstanding achievements. Nothing against lists, of course. We do list our annual Top 100 Latinas, but we begin telling more lengthy success stories of singer/actress/performer Thalía, who adorns our cover; motivational speaker Yasmin Davidds; White House spokeswoman Mercedes Viana; Air Force Brig. Gen. María I. Cribbs; and NASA astronaut Ellen Ochoa.

On our short list this year we also had fashion designer Carolina Herrera. Yet, after many attempts to interview and photograph her, we were finally turned down because “Mrs. Herrera hates the word Hispanic,” according to her publicity director Kimberly Flaster. Mrs. Herrera believes that Hispanic “is a made-up word that should not even exist. Mrs. Herrera has no problem with the word Latina and she describes herself as Latina, but she hates the word Hispanic and, therefore, will never agree to an interview with your publication.”

Thank you.

I guess we owe Mrs. Herrera an apology for daring to highlight her truly significant accomplishments as one of the top designers in this country while our masthead carries the “wrong” name. We’re just trying to do our job here of sharing the essential elements that make a role model. Sorry.
Playwright Nilo Cruz, the first Hispanic to win a drama Pulitzer Prize, didn’t have problems talking to our contributing writer Gigi Anders about his “shock” when he heard that he had won the coveted award.

The fifth entry in our Crisis in Education series addresses the issue of Affirmative Action, apropos of the U.S. Supreme Court’s upcoming debate and ruling on the University of Michigan controversial case.

In our fashion pages, contributing writer Linda Pliagas previews the swimsuits you will be seeing this summer. This year, she says, “sexy suits are riding high and stirring up tidal waves at even the calmest of beaches.” Don’t miss that.

Enjoy your summer!

Carlos Verdecia