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Since its birth, rock music has been a sort of boys club with young men at the microphone in far greater frequency than women. That said, there are a few stand-out Latinas who can rock with the best of the guys and we want to celebrate them as they’re few and far between. Let’s take a moment to learn about the Latinas leaving a mark in rock music.

Andrea Echeverri

Andrea Echeverri is the lead singer of the Colombian rock band Aterciopelados. She rocks out hard in Spanish with her bandmates Mauricio Montenegro (guitar), Camilo Velazquez (drums), Hector Buitrago (bass guitar) and Urian Sarmiento (percussion). Aterciopelados, which in English means The Velvety, won a Latin Grammy Award in 2001 for Best Alternative Music Album for “Oye” and in 2007 a Latin Grammy Award for Best Rock Album by a Duo or Group with Vocal for their album “Gozo Poderoso.” READ MORE

So much is changing so fast in Latino media. What began with the launch of FOX News Latino in 2010 created a booming new ethnic media market, as Huffington Post, NBC, CNN, ESPN, and others quickly followed suit. Late last month, Univision joined ABC News to launch the most significant investment in Latino media to-date: Fusion, a 24-hour cable news channel with a target audience of English-speaking Hispanic millennials.

During the early years of this decade young Latinos have been arriving motivated and succeeding quickly in American newsrooms. It is now up to the rising class of young newsroom Latinos to keep moving in and moving up as mentors and facilitators for others. While there is still a lot of work to do, below are 13 top young Latinos in American newsrooms (listed alphabetically by first name) who are leading the way. READ MORE

At the forefront of this new effort is UC Berkeley’s Center for Latin American Studies (CLAS), where Director Harley Shaiken is providing the channel with access to CLAS events and promoting interviews with its affiliated faculty in fields that include political science, history, economics, law, architecture, business, public health, public policy and art.

The pioneering initiative is Univision’s first arrangement with a university in the United States. The network chose to collaborate with CLAS because of the center’s outstanding program, affiliated faculty and students. Univision is providing a full tuition scholarship for a UC Berkeley graduate student, who will work on Fusion projects from an office at the center. READ MORE

Born in Vienna in 1909, Peter Drucker had a childhood marked in large part by seriousness and sorrow.

As a boy, he was included in the weekly salons that his father and mother held with writers, musicians, economists, mathematicians and physicians. Playtime this was not. Meanwhile, World War I took a terribly heavy toll. Drucker and his friends “taught ourselves to read by scanning the casualty lists and the obituaries with the big black borders, looking for names we knew, names of people we loved and missed,” he later recalled.

Still, the mirth missing in Drucker’s early years wouldn’t have prevented him from admiring the savvy exhibited by the toy maker Mattel as it tries to boost sales this holiday season for its array of brands, including Barbie, Hot Wheels and Fisher-Price. READ MORE

The Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU) held its 27th Annual conference in Chicago on October 26-28, 2013, at the Hilton Chicago Hotel. On Sunday, October 27th, HACU honored St. Augustine College with the OUTSTANDING HISPANIC SERVING INSTITUTION HACU-MEMBER AWARD.

“This prestigious award recognizes the excellence in educational services provided by St. Augustine College to its students and the community it serves, and represents the mission of HACU,” stated Dr. Antonio Flores, HACU President and CEO. “It is an honor to receive this national recognition. It represents the work of many people who believe in making education accessible to the Latin community,” added Andrew C. Sund, President of St. Augustine College.

For more information about its programs, or to register to win a $9,120 scholarship call
773-878-8756 or visit staugustine.edu

When I was chosen to be in Goldman Sachs's first Philadelphia cohort of their 10,000 Small Businesses Program I was cynical about the peer learning component. I figured this was just something to which I had to pay lip service. Sure, I can collaborate with the best of them; I can be a team player, but frankly, I was just interested in building my business. What I really needed was the secret sauce: the formula to take my company from the leader in its niche to a replicable business model which I could franchise. You probably already know the punch line: What I learned was that the secret sauce is the peer learning.

While a few of us were pretty adept at networking--and guess what--those were the people who owned the companies that seemed to be doing really well--most of us were slogging through our day to day tasks. We were doing our skill sets really well, but we were not making time to make connections. Like so many small business owners, we were hoeing our own rows, some of us down in trenches so deep that we could not see who was laboring next to us. READ MORE

Latinas are a growing and influential constituency in the United States. The Latina share of the female population in the United States will increase from 16.4 percent today to 25.7 percent in 2050. Latinas are making significant strides in education, participation, health, and other areas, but there is a long way to go to fully close racial and ethnic disparities.

New policies such as the Affordable Care Act, or ACA, and other proposed policies such as immigration reform can greatly improve the lives of Latina women and their families. For example, under the ACA, around 4.9 million Latinas are receiving expanded preventive service coverage, and an estimated 4.6 million Latinas will gain access to affordable or subsidized health insurance, which may help close some of the health disparities Latina women face.

This fact sheet provides a snapshot of statistics about health, education, entrepreneurship, economic security, and political leadership that should guide our choices to enact sensible policies to unleash the potential of this growing demographic and benefit our economy.

The founder of South Florida based clothing line Color Latino says he creates clothes that define the culture, fashion and lifestyle of Hispanics in the U.S.

“We wanted to be the ambassadors of Latin culture in fashion,” founder Alvaro De Jesus said. “Our culture is one that perhaps is best described by colorfulness.”

De Jesus began working on the clothing line in his native Venezuela and finally brought Color Latino to Miami last year.

“Due to the number of Latinos in the States, we decided to open for business in Miami,” De Jesus said.

Color Latino clothes consist of numerous t-shirts with prints from Mexico, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guatemala, Brazil and other Latin American Countries. The shirts vary in colors and come in different designs for men and women. READ MORE

Ready for a new job? Most career experts would tell you to start looking while you’re still employed. But when you do—you must tread carefully.

“When you’re working, your professional network is working for you because you’re constantly interacting with your industry contacts,” says Andy Teach, a corporate veteran and author of From Graduation to Corporation: The Practical Guide to Climbing the Corporate Ladder One Rung at a Time. “They can inform you about jobs you may not be aware of. If you’re not working, you’re out of sight and out of mind.”

Sara Menke, the founder and chief executive of Premier, a boutique staffing firm in San Francisco, says having a job while looking for a job makes you that much more attractive to a potential employer. “Companies want to hire the best of the best and [those people] are usually employed,” she says. READ MORE

Ten years ago, when journalist Alisa Valdes published her first book, The Dirty Girls Social Club, she couldn’t find any novels that spoke to women like her—well-educated and well-heeled Latinas. Now, more than a dozen books later, Valdes is looking to connect with those women on Rica (Rich), an online lifestyle magazine.

While the importance of the U.S. Hispanic population is no secret to marketers, the power of upscale Hispanics—defined as people in households making between $50,000 and $100,000 a year—is only beginning to receive attention. A recent report from Nielsen called wealthy Hispanics “the most influential segment since the baby boomers,” controlling $4 out of every $10 spent by the demo, while the U.S. Census Bureau reported that the percentage of Latinas earning over $50,000 has grown more than 200 percent over the past 10 years. READ MORE

Recent studies reveal the growing incidence of women heading businesses in Latin America. According to the World Bank, over 70 million women have joined the labor force in Latin America over the past 20 years, playing pivotal roles in both micro and small enterprises – indeed women are huge participants in both the formal and informal economies across the region, to key positions in the corporate world.

This is not limited to the business world. Latin American women have been empowered for decades, playing critical roles in reducing poverty and influencing decision-making at every level. Latin America, for example, elected female presidents long before other regions did –nine since 1974. The ‘feminization’ of business has also taken place in the past few years in the region, with a flurry of female CEOs and among the top management of both local and multinational corporations in South and Central American countries.

Gains in women’s involvement in society, politics, and business can be attributed to better access to education, especially at a tertiary and graduate level; maturing democratic processes, and the cultural changes of the role of women. This has offset, to a large extent, the region’s traditional culture of ‘machismo’, especially among the middle and upper income segments. However, there are still many challenges to overcome through the region in order to narrow the gender gap in all things business. READ MORE

When you’re applying for a job, you don’t just want to get noticed: You want to stand out as the best applicant the hiring committee has ever seen. You know you’re the perfect person for the job—and you want them to know that, too.

But how, exactly, do you do that? We pulled together a roundup of our all-time best job search advice, from getting noticed before you apply to acing the interview, plus tips from our favorite career experts—to bring you 35 ways to put yourself ahead of the pack.

Get Noticed (Before You Even Apply!)

1. “The fastest way to an interview is when someone I know makes a referral or recommendation,” says Raj Aggarwal, founder and CEO of Localytics. So, if you have contacts who can refer you to a job or introduce you to a hiring manager, by all means, spend your time and energy there—it will have the greatest payoff! READ MORE

There are lots of networking tips available, but we don’t often get tips on what to avoid. For a variety of reasons, it is important to be well networked, maintain your network, stay top of mind, treat others like you would want to be treated, and avoid mistakes. Not doing the right thing often happens unconsciously and can lead to lost future business. Below are some networking tips to to keep in mind.

1. Don’t lose touch with your important contacts.
Here’s a scenario – you used to be in touch with a past client but that relationship fell off your radar screen and then one day you learn that past client hired a competitor of yours. More likely than not you were not top of mind when a need arose, because you weren’t managing the relationship, but a competitor was. That situation can also happen with referral sources, and you could lose out on referrals for the same reasons. To minimize that happening, create a follow-up system and follow it regularly.

Go through your contacts and prioritize them. Then put a weekly reminder on your calendar to reach out to your contacts. Choose a manageable amount of contacts to reach out to per week, and then call or email them. READ MORE

During harvest season in the Napa and Sonoma valleys, the fields are filled with Latinos of all ages, working under the hot sun as they move through row after row of grapes on the vine that will eventually produce some of the greatest wines in the region.

But increasingly, Latinos are not just in the fields. For the members who make up the Napa Sonoma Mexican-American Vintners Association (NSMAVA), the fruits of their labor are doubly sweet. For most of these Latino winemakers, their family roots are planted as thick as the vines that grow in their fields.

Reynaldo Robledo was just 16 years old when he made the trek from Michoacan, Mexico to the Northern California wine region in 1968. He followed the lead of his uncles, who decades earlier had come to harvest the untended fields due to an American worker shortage. READ MORE

Hiring managers and HR pros will often close out a job interview by asking an applicant if he or she has any questions themselves. This is a great opportunity to find out more about the job and the company's expectations, but you can't forget that the interviewer hasn't stopped judging YOU. Here are 5 questions that can make a bad impression on your interviewer, scuttling your chances for getting the job.

1. "When will I be promoted?:
This is one of the most common questions that applicants come up with, and it should be avoided, says Rebecca Woods, Vice President of Human Resources at Doherty Employer Services in Minneapolis. "It's inappropriate because it puts the cart before the horse." Instead of asking when the promotion will occur, Woods says a better approach is to ask what you would need to do to get a promotion.

2. "What's the salary for this position?"
Asking about salary and benefits in the first interview "always turns me off," says Norma Beasant, founder of Talento Human Resources Consulting and an HR consultant at the University of Minnesota. "I'm always disappointed when they ask this, especially in the first interview." Beasant says the first interview is more about selling yourself to the interviewer, and that questions about salary and benefits should really wait until a later interview. READ MORE

Sitting in a conference room with about 150 other women, Park City restaurateur Blanca Gohary took notes while listening intently to speakers discussing the importance of making personal connections in the local business community.

Gohary was among the scores of women attending the Latina Style Inc. Business Series on Thursday at the Maverik Center.

The one-day development conference seeks to empower Latina professionals and business owners by bringing them together with key corporations and educational leaders that provide information most needed by today’s entrepreneurs, explained Robert Bard, Latina Style's president and CEO. READ MORE

As the demographic makeup of the United States continues to change, so too does the key target for marketers. Rising to the forefront are Hispanic sports fans.

"With growing consumer clout, Hispanic audiences represent a huge opportunity for the sports industry in the U.S.," said Stephen Master, senior vice president of sports at Nielsen. "Considering that 94 percent of Hispanic males say they're sports fans and 56 percent of Hispanic males consider themselves avid fans, we felt the need to look more closely at Hispanic audiences."

A recent Nielsen study looked deeper into the Hispanic sports fan and found that they're highly engaged, perpetually connected and enjoy buying sports-related merchandise. Key highlights from the study include... READ MORE

Hispanics are way ahead of the general market for social and mobile usage. The more acculturated the Latino, the more likely they are to use these technologies. That has huge implications for your marketing plans, regardless of whether Hispanics are in your target market.
Latinos Lead Mobile Usage

Hispanics are no more likely than the rest of the population to own a cell phone or a smartphone. However, they are more “cell phone focused” than other demographics. Over 50% live in cell phone only households. Plus, they are twice as likely as Anglos to go online primarily via their mobile.

That’s only the beginning. Hispanics are early adopters of virtually all mobile activities. They are three times as likely as the general market to check into locations. Two thirds of Latinos listen to music on their phone vs. 42% of Anglos. And cell based video chat is used by one third of Hispanics compared to less than one fifth of the general population.

Hispanics’ affinity for mobile usage extends to shopping. Latinas index at 156 vs white women for making a mobile purchase in the past thirty days. They also do more pre-shopping research via their phone. READ MORE

Professionals in Non-Profit Networking Forum, Thursday, October 24

Feature Guests: 

Alicia Gonzalez, Executive Director, Chicago Run

Alicia is the Executive Director of Chicago Run, a local non-profit that provides free running programs to Chicago Public School students as a means of promoting health and wellness, digital learning, and cross-community collaboration. She helped launch Chicago Run as the first staff member in 2008 and has led the organization to serve 15,600 students in 55 Chicago Public Schools in 33 neighborhoods across the city. Prior to Chicago Run, Alicia served as the head of Hispanic Business Development for First American Bank, where she oversaw the expansion of private-public partnerships in the Latino community. Alicia’s roots are in the community and prior to working in the private sector, she held positions as a community organizer and youth development program director in both Chicago and Boston. In addition to Chicago Run, she serves as the Vice President of the Board of Directors for the Instituto Justice and Leadership Academy, and is also on the Board of the Chicago Life Science Consortium and the Enlace Legacy Board. Alicia is a recipient of the “Latina Entrepreneur of the Year (2012)” from the Chicago Latino Network, the "35 Under 35 Chicago Leadership" Award (2009) from the Community Renewal Society, and the "2009 Emerging Health Leader" from the Health and Medicine Policy Research Group. Alicia is currently an American Express NGEN Fellow with the Independent Sector and was a Fellow in the 2011 Leadership Greater Chicago Class and in the 2012 Latino Leadership Academy with the Latino Policy Forum. Alicia graduated with honors in Latin American History from Brown University.

Jaime Guzman, Senior Director, Outreach, Big Shoulders Fund

Jaime Guzman is the Senior Director for Outreach at the Big Shoulders Fund where he is on the senior leadership team and manages next generation boards, targeted fundraising, and programs. Previously, Jaime held senior leadership positions as Chief Advisor to the Board of Trustees at the City Colleges of Chicago and as Officer of the Office of New Schools at the Chicago Public Schools. Jaime also served as the Midwest Regional Director for Education for the National Council of La Raza (NCLR) and as a regional Program Director of Teach For America. Jaime began his career as a bilingual teacher through Teach For America.
Jaime was a 2012 Leadership Greater Chicago Fellow and serves on the Illinois State Charter School Commission. Jaime holds a Bachelor’s degree from Dartmouth College and a Master’s degree in Education Policy from Harvard University. A native Chicagoan, Jaime lives in the Pilsen neighborhood with his wife.

Neli Vazquez Rowland, Co-Founder & President, A Safe Haven Foundation

Neli Vazquez Rowland is the Co-Founder & President of A Safe Haven Foundation. A Safe Haven is a world class, unique, vertically integrated ‘eco- system’ non for profit that is successfully rebuilding lives from poverty and homelessness.

A Safe Haven’s model is a public/private collaboration that assesses and addresses the root causes of poverty and homelessness with an individualized, integrated, comprehensive approach to social and economic crisis. The model is the subject of dozens of national and international tours by top government delegations from across the country and around the world including Japan, China, Holland, and others.
Neli has been recognized by the White House, Rotary International and other groups as a social business enterprise leader. She is a thought leader on the topic of poverty and homelessness and serves as an expert speaker, keynote speaker and panelist for many government, academic and business forums. She has also been a frequent guest on many of the local, national and international media stories featuring the topics of sustainable solutions for poverty, homelessness, veterans and reentry populations.

Audeni Rojas, HR Consultant & Founder, Women-Empowerment.net

Audeni Rojas has over 15 years in the Human Resources world. She has worked for companies such as Molex Incorporated, McDonald's Corporation, Harrah's Casino and Hotel, Jays Foods, etc. Serving the Corporate world for so many years, in the areas of employee relations, learning and development and workforce planning, Audeni wanted to create a platform to develop, promote and support women leaders and future ones. In 2012, she founded Women-Empowerment.net a social network for women. The network provides social events and communication to inspire women's ambitions through the power of Collaboration, Engagement and Growth in Chicago. She also partners and supports the mission of several non for profits such as HEART Promoting Humane Education, teachhumane.org and Women with Drive, womenwithdrive.org. Audeni presently is a Human Resources and Business Consultant for small businesses.

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Hispanic-owned businesses contribute more than 650,000 jobs and more than $100 billion annually to the California economy, which makes them fundamental to the prosperity of one of the nation's largest states.

"Hispanic businesses are vital for the California economy," Hugo Merida, president of the Los Angeles Metropolitan Hispanic Chambers of Commerce, told Efe.

California, with some 38 million inhabitants, of whom 39 percent are of Hispanic origin - the same percentage as Anglos - is among the world's top economic powers, ahead of countries like Mexico and Spain and at the same level as Italy and Russia, according to figures provided by the Center for Continuing Study of the California Economy.

Merida noted the importance of money spent with Latino businesses by the approximately 14 million Latino consumers. READ MORE