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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Joseph Rendeiro
(202) 776-1566
jrendeiro@nclr.org
Concluding four days of thought-provoking dialogue among the nation’s most influential Latino activists, NCLR (National Council of La Raza) President and CEO Janet Murguía recognized the winners of the institution’s national awards at its annual Awards Gala. The Gala was the closing event of the 2013 NCLR Annual Conference, which ran from July 20 to July 23 at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans. Six awards were presented in honor of individuals and organizations that have demonstrated exemplary accomplishments, both in their fields and in service to the U.S. Hispanic community.
This year’s winners include NCLR Affiliate Southwest Key Programs, a nonprofit community organization based in Austin, Texas; Anna Maria Chávez, CEO of Girl Scouts of the USA; Salvador Longoria, New Orleans attorney and community activist, as well as Founder and Board Chair of Puentes New Orleans, an NCLR Affiliate; Rocsi Diaz of Entertainment Tonight and Founder of the RocStar Foundation; Minnie Miñoso, baseball legend and former Chicago White Sox player; and Luis Ubiñas, President of the Ford Foundation.
“We congratulate this year’s awardees and thank them for their vision, hard work and dedication. They stand as a testament to the diverse, rich contributions of Latinos to this great nation. I look forward to the opportunity each year at the NCLR Awards Gala to honor and highlight the achievements of outstanding leaders serving the Latino community,” said Murguía.
This year’s awardees:
Southwest Key Programs, the recipient of NCLR’s Affiliate of the Year Award, is a private, nonprofit organization that provides transformative education, innovative safe shelters and alternatives to incarceration for youth while creating opportunities for their families to become self-sufficient in Arizona, California, Georgia, New York, Texas and Wisconsin. Southwest Key Programs’ El Centro de Familia—a 30,000-square-foot facility in the heart of East Austin—is home to programs and initiatives that include advocacy efforts, voter registration, workforce development, health and wellness initiatives, social business enterprises, a community technology center, East Austin College Prep (an NCLR Affiliate), a Boys & Girls Club, adult literacy and education programs, youth empowerment services and cultural arts programs.
For 25 years, Southwest Key Programs has demonstrated exemplary progress in fulfilling the needs of Latinos and ensuring their access to the American Dream. The Affiliate of the Year Award is the highest honor bestowed upon an Affiliate for exemplary nonprofit management, service to its community and active engagement in and promotion of NCLR’s programmatic and advocacy initiatives.
Anna Maria Chávez, a lifetime member of the Girl Scouts of the United States of America and its first Latina CEO, received the Graciela Olivarez La Raza Award. As CEO of Girl Scouts of the USA, Chávez leads the largest organization for girls in the world, with 3.2 million members who take pride in the 100-year-old organization’s commitment to developing leadership potential for its girls. Chávez embodies the courage, confidence and character that girl scouting builds through activities in science and technology, business and economic literacy and outdoor and environmental awareness. She holds a Juris Doctor from the James E. Rogers College of Law at the University of Arizona and a bachelor’s degree in American history from Yale University. Before joining the Girl Scouts, Chávez was Deputy Chief of Staff for Urban Relations and Community Development under Janet Napolitano, former governor of Arizona and current U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security.
NCLR presents the Graciela Olivarez La Raza Award annually to an individual or organization that has made significant contributions to promoting the interests of Hispanic Americans. From her humble beginnings in the small town of Eloy, Ariz., to a lifetime of public service, Anna Maria Chávez is a leader that the entire Hispanic community can be proud of. Just as Graciela Olivarez was a trailblazer not only for Latinas but also for women at large, Chávez’s lifelong work has helped to empower young women to maximize their potential.
The Maclovio Barraza Award for Leadership was presented to Salvador Longoria, an attorney and community activist in New Orleans and Founder and Board Chair of the local nonprofit organization Puentes New Orleans, NCLR’s only Affiliate in Louisiana. While Longoria has led a successful private law practice as a partner in Gaudin & Longoria, he has also lent his talents to Latino families interested in opening small businesses or completing immigration paperwork, enabling them to pursue the same American Dream that he began when he arrived from Havana during the Aerial Bridge phase of the Cuban Migration to the U.S. A graduate of the Loyola University College of Law, he continues to serve his alma mater as a member of its president’s council and alumni association board of directors.
Salvador Longoria has passionately and energetically served the Hispanic community and New Orleans metropolitan area for decades, working on behalf of the elderly, refugees, prisoners and immigration detainees. Shortly after Hurricane Katrina, he helped fuel the growth and success of Puentes New Orleans by uniting leaders around the needs of the Latino community and the new immigrants who arrived to help rebuild the city. The Maclovio Barraza Award for Leadership recognizes those who have worked for the betterment of the Hispanic community at the grassroots level and whose leadership has served as a source of strength and support to the Hispanic community.
Raquel “Rocsi” Diaz, the weekend co-host and daily correspondent for the CBS show Entertainment Tonight, received the Ruben Salazar Award for Communications. Born in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, and raised in New Orleans, Rocsi is recognizable to television audiences in 85 countries around the globe who have enjoyed BET’s flagship show, 106 & Park, which Rocsi co-anchored after winning BET’s “New Faces” contest in 2006.
Rocsi’s career has skyrocketed since she left New Orleans, but she has never forgotten the Crescent City where she was raised. In 2005, when Hurricane Katrina devastated her hometown, she used her network, resources and popularity to help the victims of the storm and founded the RocStar Foundation when she learned that the schools in which she had grown up and learned were destroyed. She collaborated with other stars on a charity benefit to raise money for her alma mater, West Jefferson High School, and hopes to expand the RocStar Foundation to help build schools around the world, especially in third-world countries such as Honduras and throughout Africa.
New generations look to Rocsi as a role model. By opening doors for Latinas in spaces like 106 & Park and Entertainment Tonight, where Latino faces have not always been dominant, she is breaking down walls and carving new opportunities for aspiring journalists of all backgrounds. The Ruben Salazar Award for Communications is given to an individual who has dedicated his or her professional life to portraying issues, concerns, and/or news relevant to contemporary Hispanic America and promoting the positive contributions that Latinos have made to U.S. society.
The Roberto Clemente Award for Sports Excellence went to Minnie Miñoso, baseball legend and former Chicago White Sox player. Born in Cuba, Miñoso changed history in 1949 when he became the first black Latino in Major League Baseball (MLB) when he joined the Cleveland Indians. He is considered by many to be the Latin American Jackie Robinson. While 54 Latinos had played in the league before him, Miñoso was the first Afro-Latino to earn a spot on an MLB team. He remains one of two people in history to have played in the MLB for five decades, spanning from the first time he picked up a bat as a Cleveland Indian in 1949 to his last game with the White Sox on October 5, 1980.
His mark on Cuban history is indisputable, and his legend still inspires young beisbolistas. In the spirit of Roberto Clemente, Mike Cuellar and other Latino baseball greats, Miñoso opened the doors of opportunity for communities of color in American professional sports, and he continues to be a role model for generations of baseball lovers throughout the nation. Beyond the field, Miñoso gave his time and name to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and became a worldwide ambassador for the White Sox, supporting charities and team philanthropic efforts. The Roberto Clemente Award for Sports Excellence is presented to an individual renowned in the world of sports and committed to the advancement of Hispanic Americans.
The Raul Yzaguirre President’s Award was given to Luis Ubiñas, President of the Ford Foundation, the second-largest philanthropy in the United States with over $10.5 billion in assets and $500 million in annual giving. Ubiñas has supported the work of nonprofits all over the world and has built a program strategy focused on increasing the participation of poor and marginalized individuals and communities in society’s economic, social and political opportunities.
The collaboration between the Ford Foundation and NCLR began in 1968 when the Southwest Council of La Raza—which would eventually become NCLR—was founded with the support of a $150,000 Ford Foundation planning grant. Since then, the Foundation has been one of NCLR’s most ardent supporters and a committed ally in advancing the Latino community economically and socially. Ubiñas recognized early on how demographic growth was changing our country and understood the importance of Latino institutions helping to lead the way in this new America. He also understood how vital it was for Latinos to seize this special moment in time, engage in civic life, take leadership positions, raise their voices and vote. Under Ubiñas’s stewardship, NCLR was able to boost civic empowerment among Latinos, expand its reach into key states and sustain its public policy projects that cover issues such as civil rights, criminal justice, economic mobility, education, health, immigration and wealth-building.
The Ford Foundation has supported NCLR from its humble beginnings to its empowered present. Its belief in NCLR and the Latino community has been steadfast, and with Luis Ubiñas as the Foundation’s leader, NCLR will securely remain at the forefront of the issues that matter to Hispanic Americans. The Raul Yzaguirre President’s Award is presented each year to an individual or organization that has shown outstanding support for NCLR’s mission, goals and philosophy.
The NCLR Awards Gala was cosponsored this year by Amtrak, Ford Motor Company, Southwest Airlines, UPS and Walmart.
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