HispanicBusiness

Kenny Ortega
Choreographer and Director
High School Musical
Emmy winner Mr. Ortega is the choreographer and director of "High School Musical," the highest-rated movie in Disney Channel's history. But it's his feature-film and music video work that put the former actor on the map -- his energetic choreography shaped the way teens moved in 1980s films, from "Xanadu" to "Dirty Dancing." He is also an accomplished director of dramatic television programs that include "The Gilmore Girls" and "Chicago Hope." He is currently overseeing a production for Steve Wynn, the mastermind behind Bellagio, Mirage, and other Las Vegas resorts.

Eduardo Sotelo
Radio Host
El Piolin de la Manana
Whose radio show outpolls Howard Stern and Rush Limbaugh in 17 key markets with large Spanish-speaking communities? Tweety Bird, as Mr. Sotelo is nicknamed (in Spanish) for his morning-drive talk show. This year, the Mexican immigrant led a team of four competing DJs who put aside the red-eye pranks and woke up a larger community. Their on-air persuasiveness supersized Los Angeles' March 26 immigration rally, drawing almost a half million demonstrators to the powerful, yet peaceful, political statement that foreshadowed the national immigration rallies on May 1.

Hector Tobar
Writer/Journalist
Los Angeles Times
Mr. Tobar, Mexico City bureau chief for the Los Angeles Times, gained national prominence last year with the publication of his Translation Nation: Defining a New American Identity in the Spanish-Speaking United States. It wasn't his first book -- his 1998 novel Tattooed Soldier, set in L.A. before the 1992 riots, was a finalist for the PEN Center USA West Award for Fiction. The Los Angeles-born son of Guatemalan immigrants, Mr. Tobar's career has taken him around the world, from Baghdad to Easter Island. He is a graduate of the University of California at Santa Cruz and UC Irvine.

Jesus Salvador Trevino
Writer/Director
Having cut his teeth as a student activist with a Super 8 camera documenting el movimiento, as the Chicano civil rights movement of the 1960s and 70s was known, Mr. Trevino has established himself as a top-flight television director and writer. His credits range from popular science fiction series to "Prison Break," "Bones" and "Crossing Jordan," and he was recently co-executive producer of Showtime's "Resurrection Blvd." He published "Eyewitness -- A Filmmaker's Memoir of the Chicano Movement" in 2001 and his latest collection of short stories, "The Skyscraper that Flew," came out last year.

Eduardo Xol
Designer
ABC's Extreme Makeover: Home Edition
Mr. Xol's career dreams blossomed in East Los Angeles where he admired his grandmother's roses and his father's bonsai trees. But he was also a piano prodigy, and at age 11 played with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra under Zubin Mehta. In college he became involved in theater, appearing in films like "Zoot Suit" before heading to Mexico and becoming a teen singing sensation (and telenovela star) Edi Xol. Returning to L.A., he began working with community outreach programs and regained his love of gardening, eventually founding his own landscaping firm, Xol Creative.

Val Zavala
Anchor, Life and Times
VP of News and Public Affairs-KCET