For Director Ángel Manuel Soto, Blue Beetle is for his younger self. As a kid growing up in Puerto Rico, Soto didn’t have the opportunity to see an Indiana Jones that looked like him—to see Latinos in heroic spaces of power on the big screen. Through Blue Beetle he set out to change that. His recent blockbuster not only highlights the truth that the Latino community is no monolith—and that it features everyday moments of superhero strength—it also shows how communities too often seen as ghettos are in fact full of rich, tight-knit relationships that span generations. Any young Angel Manuel Sot ..read more

“Latinos don’t play hockey.” It’s a phrase that Xavier Gutierrez has heard often since becoming the first Latino to lead an NHL team. As president and CEO of the Arizona Coyotes, Gutierrez sees the massive opportunity in welcoming Latinos to the hockey rink. It’s a vision he shares with friend and team owner Alex Meruelo, the first Latino owner in the NHL. With the Coyotes expanding its presence across Arizona, it’s the perfect place for Gutierrez to be. He leads with a passion for serving the Latino community, which makes up nearly one-third of the state’s population, because he knows firstha ..read more

The story of Siete Family Foods starts with a challenge: how to better manage an autoimmune disease through dietary transformation while staying connected to your culture. Miguel Garza watched his sister Veronica find a grain-free solution for tortillas by using almond flour, which she would then sell to family and friends in Laredo, Texas. Fresh out of law school and inspired by the entrepreneurial culture in Austin, Garza saw an opportunity to expand Veronica’s side hustle into a full-time business. Since 2015, Garza has led the family-owned company with the mission of catering to the Latino ..read more

For Orlando Bravo, the story always starts in Puerto Rico. Even today, as the billionaire founder and managing partner of private equity investment firm Thoma Bravo, he recognizes that where he came from will forever influence where he is.  Bravo attributes his meteoric rise in the early 2000s—when he made a name for himself in software acquisitions—to his upbringing in Puerto Rico. His unique journey instilled in him a confidence to think differently in the Wild West of Silicon Valley and to ultimately separate himself from other tech entrepreneurs. Bravo’s incredible success has since a ..read more

For most ten-year-olds, managing a grocery store would be daunting. For Teresa Barreira, it was a learning experience. Growing up in a small village where her parents ran three businesses, Barreira discovered what it meant to be entrepreneurial and scrappy. That background—in combination with an unflinching pride in her heritage—informs her today as a marketing and thought leader who sits as Global Chief Marketing Officer at Publicis Sapient. It also inspires her work with younger generations of Latinos who don’t see careers in marketing as viable options. Barreira knows that a diverse perspec ..read more

Guillermo Diaz isn’t shy about emphasizing the impact of his time in the Navy. It’s not only where he developed his competence in technology but where he began to truly understand the power in building relationships—the power in fostering a sense of community. As chairman of the Hispanic IT Executive Council and former CIO of Cisco Systems, Diaz can provide plenty of proof of his brilliance in technology. What has his focus today is leveraging that expertise to connect Latinos in the greater business community. He does that as the mastermind behind the digital platform Conectado ..read more

Camille Vasquez didn’t anticipate her fame. Raised by a Cuban mother and Colombian father who met while learning to speak English at a school in Los Angeles, Camille and her sister were given a simple directive early on: focus on your education. And so they did. According to Vasquez, that resulted in one of two options: doctor or lawyer. She chose the latter—her sister the former—and started down a path that led her to representing Johnny Depp in a highly publicized defamation trial against his ex-wife Amber Heard. It wasn’t a predictable route, but her parents had set her on a course to becom ..read more

Rosanna Durruthy recently celebrated six years at LinkedIn. Over the course of her tenure as VP of Global Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging, she’s not only led countless empowerment initiatives at the social media giant—she’s had a front-row seat to the multicultural evolution of a global workforce. That’s not something she could claim 30 years ago. When Durruthy began her career, the role of chief diversity officer wasn’t a certainty. Even at the most prominent corporations, in the most widespread industries, DEI was not a priority. Durruthy never saw that as a limitation. Instead, she saw ..read more

2-Part Episode: Recognizing the Latino impact on the American and global economy is nothing new for the audience of The Latino Majority podcast. According to studies by the Latino Donor Collaborative, if the Hispanic/Latino community was its own country, it would be the fifth largest economy in the world, ahead of the UK, India, and France. Having two finance experts on The Latino Majority allows us the opportunity to dig deeper into our effect on the economy and how we see the path forward for Latinos taking shape. Much of that path is laid out in an in-depth study that Merrill Lynch rec ..read more

Recognizing the Latino impact on the American and global economy is nothing new for the audience of The Latino Majority podcast. According to studies by the Latino Donor Collaborative, if the Hispanic/Latino community was its own country, it would be the fifth largest economy in the world, ahead of the UK, India, and France. Having two finance experts on The Latino Majority allows us the opportunity to dig deeper into our effect on the economy and how we see the path forward for Latinos taking shape. Much of that path is laid out in an in-depth study that Merrill Lynch recently conducted on ho ..read more