Three Latino Leadership Authors join forces to challenge Mainstream Media.

Three Latino entrepreneurs and authors of Latino leadership books are stepping forward to demand changes in the mostly negative images of Latinos that mainstream media shows America today, by offering positive images. As communities prepare to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month, Frank Carbajal, Laura Contreras-Rowe and Graciela Tiscareño-Sato, who collectively have written many compelling profiles of extraordinary Latino leaders and achievers, join forces to declare that it’s time for mainstream media to show us the real faces of educated, innovative, courageous and accomplished Latinos in leadership roles across the nation.

“The future isn’t tomorrow; the future is now. It’s time for Latinos to lead into the 21st Century and it’s time to be seen”,” offers Carbajal, author of Building the Latino Future: Success Stories for the Next Generation and its translated counterpart El Futuro Latino.  Carbajal is an entrepreneur, founder and President of Es Tiempo LLC, a business consulting firm in San Jose, California. Together with Tiscareño-Sato and venture capital firm Hispanic-Net, Carbajal produces the annual Silicon Valley Latino Leadership Summit at Stanford University.

“Looking at Latino youth statistics in America, you have to wonder where the positive role models are in the mainstream media. The stereotyping must end; in reality we are doctors, lawyers, educators, mayors of major cities, authors, chefs, entrepreneurs and very successful professionals around the country. We need these stories to be told and seen to change the stereotype. Latino youth are critical to the future of America.” states Contreras-Rowe, author of Aim High: Extraordinary Stories of Hispanic and Latina Women.

Graciela Tiscareño-Sato is the author of the recently launched book titled Latinnovating: Green American Jobs and the Latinos Creating Them, the first book showcasing Latino-led innovation and entrepreneurship in the green economy. Dr. Federico Subervi, Professor & Director, Center for the Study of Latino Media & Markets, Texas State University—San Marcos, provided an endorsement for Tiscareño-Sato’s book.

“In the midst of a landscape of public opinion that is saturated with weeds—that is, negative stereotypes about Hispanics, this book offers instead radiant flowers: the positive, creative, brilliant and extraordinary contributions that Latinos are making for the improvement of our society as a whole. The innovative entrepreneurs featured in Latinnovating are role models for all: Latinos and non-Latinos, young and old.”
“We know mainstream media will not come looking for our success stories; we must create them and actively showcase them in the mainstream, until we kill the stereotypes. That’s exactly what Frank, Laura and I are doing by providing the stories that can be shown immediately,” says Tiscareño-Sato.