Cuban American Miami conference on emerging Hispanic leaders

    Former Mexican president Vicente Fox, a former Coca Cola executive, is scheduled to be keynote speaker Friday at the closing banquet of the two-day 14^th annual national conference of the Cuban American National Council in Miami. (Conference logo above).

   The council’s choice of Fox is perhaps symbolic of one of the meeting’s discussions Thursday: Hispanic executives are emerging as leaders of the increasingly-influential Latino community in the United States and could serve as role models in Latin America where an ideological struggle is unfolding between pro- and anti-globalization camps.

   Fox, the first president from an opposition party in Mexico in more than seven decades, promoted globalization and business integration of Latin America with the United States and Canada as one of the ways to reduce poverty in the hemisphere.

   But the values of globalization are now being challenged by an increasing number of leftist and populist leaders in the region including Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez and his allies – presidents Rafael Correa of Ecuador, Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua and Evo Morales of Bolivia.

   Some of the panelists at Thursday’s opening council session, titled New Generation of Latino Leaders, acknowledged the paradox of the growing clout of U.S. Hispanics while many Latin Americans reject U.S.-backed globalization.

   Julio A. Ramirez, a Cuban-American who is executive vice president of global operations for Burger King Corporation, said the reason populist leaders have gained influence in Latin America is because of the continuing disparity between rich and poor in the hemisphere.

   “Poverty is still a big issue in the region,’’ said Ramirez, “as long as that exists, as long as those issues aren’t resolved very visibly, you are going to have huge challenges that fester and foster the growth of Chavez, Correa, Ortega, Morales.’’

   Another speaker at the Latino leaders’ session was Andrew Manuel Crespo, 24, an emerging U.S. Hispanic leader who was the first Hispanic president of the Harvard Law Review. Crespo is of Puerto Rican origin.

   Fox’s speech is scheduled for the council’s gala banquet and awards presentation Friday at 7:30 pm at the Hilton Miami Downtown, 1601 Biscayne Boulevard. Price per person: $250. Council sessions in the daytime are free. Topics Friday include Latina Leaders in the 21^st Century and Literacy: the Key to Family Stability.

   Cuban-American Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J. is scheduled to be one of two keynote speakers at Friday’s corporate lunch. The other is Carlos Alvarez, the Miami-Dade mayor. Luncheon price: $75 per person.

   The Cuban American National Council is a nationally-recognized non-profit and non-political organization active in many national Hispanic coalitions.

-- Alfonso Chardy

Comments

[pete]

There Hispanics are obviously not interested in being American; they should go back to Cuba and be politicians there. www.goodoleboybumperstickers.com