HispanicBusiness

Jennifer Lopez Actress/Singer, Los Angeles, CA

The former "Flygirl" on the show "In Living Color" soared to the top of the Billboard charts with the release of her debut album, On the 6. Working with such producers as Emilio Estefan and Rodney Jerkins, she sought to incorporate the musical sounds of her youth - hip-hop, salsa, and disco - into the album. Prior to jumpstarting her singing career, she received critical acclaim for her starring role in Out of Sight, which was named Best Picture of 1998 by the National Society of Film Critics. In addition, she earned a 1998 Golden Globe nomination for her work in the title role of Selena.



Monica C. Lozano Associate Publisher/Vice-President La Opinion, Los Angeles, CA

She spearheads expansion plans at La Opinion, the nation's leading Spanish-language newspaper. Currently the company is airing a public affairs program on KMEX-TV, Univision's Los Angeles station. The paper also plans to open a series of business centers inside supermarkets. In January 1999, California Governor Gray Davis appointed Ms. Lozano to the California State Board of Education. She joined him on an official state visit to Mexico City to meet President Ernesto Zedillo. She holds a seat on the boards of the California Health Care Foundation and the Fannie Mae Foundation. She is a trustee for SunAmerica Asset Management Corporation and the University of Southern California.



Lavonne Luquis President and Co-Founder Latino.com, San Francisco, CA

Partnerships with Netscape and Yahoo! help to bring more than 400,000 visitors to the LatinoLink Web site (www.Latino.com) each month. Advertisers include AT&T, IBM, Compaq, Microsoft, and New Line Cinema. Last year, President Luquis received the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce 1998 National Hispanic Businesswoman of the Year award. She also won honors from the San Francisco Women on the Web organization, which named her one of the Top 25 Women of the Web.



Juan Maldacena Associate Professor of Physics Harvard University, Cambridge, MA

Mr. Maldacena recently secured a MacArthur Foundation "Genius" grant for his work on "string theory," a method for describing gravity in the same terms as other forces in the universe. A colleague from the University of Chicago was so taken by this theory that he penned a new version of "Macarena" called "Maldacena." Mr. Maldacena was hired as a tenure-track associate professor by Harvard's Physics Department just two years after earning his doctorate degree.



Ricky Martin Singer/Actor, San Juan, PR

The phenomenal success of his first English-language album, Ricky Martin, released by Sony in May, led to a cover story for Time magazine. Songs from the album topped music charts for much of the summer, making the Puerto Rican pop star one of the most recognized personalities in the world. Earlier this year he won a Grammy for his Spanish-language album Vuelve, and he was chosen to perform during the Grammy telecast.



Sara Martinez Tucker CEO Hispanic Scholarship Fund, San Francisco, CA

A single phone call from the Lilly Endowment Foundation rewarded Ms. Martinez-Tucker with a $50 million grant for her organization. The price tag makes it the largest gift ever pledged to a Hispanic organization. The nation's oldest provider of college scholarships to Hispanics, the HSF has a stated goal to double the percentage of Hispanics earning college degrees by early in the next century. Armed with adequate funding from Lilly, Ms. Martinez-Tucker's organization hopes to make hundreds of dreams come true.