Thursday
November 19,2009
 NEW YORK – Hispanics who have distinguished themselves in different fields such as music, politics, technology, banking, business and education were honored at the 8th Annual Latino Trendsetter Awards Gala, presented by Defining Trends Magazine at U.N. headquarters in New York.
Legendary musician and composer Willie Colon, Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. and author and activist Laura Posada, wife of the New York Yankees’ Jorge Posada, were among the recipients at Monday night’s event.
Other honorees included Jose Pinero, director of Communications for TV, Video, and Business at Microsoft; Richard Gonzalez, the New York District Manager of Capital One Bank, and Jenny Rivera, a professor at City University of New York School of Law and the director of the Law School’s Center on Latino and Latina Rights and Equality.
Other winners were the owner of Cibao Meat Products, Lutzi Vieluf; the director of Hispanic Brands at The Coca-Cola Company, Randall Berman; the president of Continental Food and Beverage, Inc., Elizabeth Chalas Berman; lawyer Miguel Pozo and pediatrician Angela Diaz, among others.
In a statement to Efe during the ceremony, Colon recalled working with the late singer Hector Lavoe when for the first time they fused typical Puerto Rican music with salsa, a genre that also integrates Brazilian and classical rhythms.
“For me it’s an honor I never expected. You do your work out of love for the cause and out of passion for helping the community. For me it’s a professional commitment to work so that more Hispanics achieve more success in the United States,” Pinero told Efe.
“We also have to thank those Puerto Rican pioneers who made efforts to improve the life of the Latino community in New York,” Ruben Diaz Jr. told Efe, giving as examples such personalities as Ramon Velez, Evelina Antonetti and Antonia Pantoja, and adding that “history is made every day, so we have to remind young people that there’s still a lot of work to do.” EFE
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