ACHIEVEMENTS & ACCOLADES

Understanding the Hispanic market has always been a challenge for many U.S. companies. For Mexican-born Concepción Lara, senior vice president of business development and marketing for Studio Latino, it has become her key to success. The Stanford graduate knows that every Hispanic nationality has its own unique customs, values and tastes. Lara has helped spur the mass distribution of quality Spanish-language programming on DVD to American retail outlets. Until recently, quality Spanish-language DVDs were not widely available to U.S. retailers. “I think Hispanics are the ideal consumers because they are on the fast track to success,” she says. “They work hard and they spend money.” And this is exactly what Lara and the team at Studio Latino have taught companies. Retailers like Best Buy and Blockbuster have increased the Spanish-language DVD sections to carry a wider selection, including films from Spain’s LolaFilms and Univisión’s UniCine. Recently, she landed another deal to bring Plaza Sesamo, the Spanish-language Sesame Street, and Argentina’s favorite mouse, Topo Gigio, to DVD. “We need our own heroes, our own stories, our own icons and our own inspirations.”

Pilar O’Leary, the new director for the Smithsonian Center for Latino Initiatives, believes that promoting Latino culture is of utmost importance for Hispanics, as well as the rest of the country. “It also encourages all American audiences to be exposed to the richness and complexity of Latino culture, says the Colombian American. The Center which launched in 1997, has organized Hispanic related exhibitions such as “Our Journeys/Our Stories: Portraits of Latino Achievement,” “Retratos: 2000 Years of Latin American Portraits,” and the recent “¡Azucar! The Life and Music of Celia Cruz.”

“Unlike a one-time event, collections and programs highlighting Latino culture become part of the nation’s permanent cultural patrimony,” she says. And that patrimony is exactly what O’Leary is looking to preserve. She feels that with so many cultures coexisting in the United States, many young Hispanic Americans feel a need to reject their roots for the sake of assimilation. “My hope is that through our work at the center, Latino families will be inspired to feel proud, embrace and continue to enhance American culture con el sabor Latino.”

For pitcher Rubén Granda, being in a wheelchair did not atrophy the athlete within. In 1980, he suffered a car accident that left him paraplegic in his native Ecuador, where he promptly helped form an athletic association of disabled people. When he arrived in the United States in 1995, he quickly took up wheelchair sports, including handcycling and basketball.

Recently, the United Spinal Association approached him and other fellow wheelchair basketball players about starting a wheelchair softball team, the USA’s New York Yankees. Despite the fact that he had never played softball, he managed to sweep up a Rookie of the Year award at the 29th annual National Wheelchair Softball Tournament, where he threw his first strikeout.

“I think sports make disabled people more competitive in social, athletic and job areas,” Granda says. H

Following in the footsteps of successful Hispanic leaders such as Raul Yzaguirre and Henry Cisneros is no pressure at all, says New America Alliance’s recently named CEO, Regina Montoya. Instead, it’s an honor. The premise behind her mission, and that of NAA, is that Hispanic business leaders have the responsibility to lead the process of Latino empowerment and wealth-building. “We are positioned perfectly to be a catalyst for change,” she says. The Mexican American previously led WORKRules, a community relations agency in Texas. Doing community service is something that has been a big part of her life; she is the national president of Girls Incorporated, where she is on the Latina Initiative Advisory Board. One of NAA’s top goals is to work closely with American corporations to help them do a better job catering to the Hispanic market. “I want to be sure that Corporate America knows the NAA is here to help,” says Montoya, 51. ”We want to be the voice [that reaches] Hispanics.” H