Joaquín Blaya ‘National Hispanic Hero’.

One of Hispanic America’s highest honors was bestowed to Joaquín Blaya, Chairman and CEO of Miami-based Radio Unica Communications. Mr. Blaya received the National Hispanic Hero Award Sept. 21 before an audience of more than 8,000 Latinos from throughout the country gathered in Chicago to attend the U.S. Hispanic Leadership Institute’s (USHLI) annual conference.

The Chicago-based USHLI, which conducts nonpartisan voter registration and leadership development programs in 40 states, promotes the empowerment of Hispanics by “maximizing civic awareness and participation in the electoral process.” Its National Hispanic Hero Award honors outstanding Latinos who through their actions inspire others to stake their claim of the American Dream.

In accepting the award, Mr. Blaya said he was “humbled” to receive such a distinction from the nation’s premier Latino leadership organization, which he praised for “demonstrating that in America a single person can and does make a difference.”

Throughout his highly successful broadcasting career that has spanned more than 30 years, Mr. Blaya has received numerous prestigious awards including, the Theodore Herzl Award, the Ruben Salazar Award, and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Institute for Public Service. Born in Chile, Mr. Blaya, 56, long has been recognized as a visionary and pioneer of Spanish-language broadcasting in the United States. Having managed both the Univision Network and rival Telemundo, he was instrumental in developing some of the most popular programs and personalities on Hispanic television today, including the Univision network news, TV talk-show host Cristina and Don Francisco, of Sábado Gigante fame.

Ever the innovator, in 1996, Mr. Blaya established Radio Unica, Hispanic America’s first national radio network, based upon the belief that advertisers would support a national Spanish-language radio network with appealing, original programming reaching large numbers of Hispanics. They did — and today, Radio Unica is firmly entrenched in the country’s
broadcasting landscape.