A Celebration of Latino PR History

On September 12, along with the Hispanic Public Relations Association, NYC, The Museum presented our third annual celebration of LatinoPRHistory, featuring talks by leading PR professionals in the Latino community. This year we focused on the role of communications in political advocacy, past, present and future — a topic of critical significance for Latino communities today.

Our keynote speaker, Sindy Benavides, CEO of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC). As the nation's oldest and most prominent Latino civil rights organization, Lulac has been front and center in the crises faced by Latino communities today — from the mass shooting in El Paso to the ICE raids in Mississippi. Sindy believes that today's political environment presents unprecedented challenges for Latino communities throughout the country, and Communications has a huge role to play in helping advocate for social justice and equality.

The program also included Catherine Hernandez Blades, SVP, Chief ESG & Communications Officer, Aflac, and Mike Fernandez, CEO, Llorente & Cuenca.

The panelists included, in alphabetical order:

Sara Banda, Associate Director of Public Relations, United Technologies
Troy Blackwell Jr., Award winning publicist, Obama White House alum, and Senior Director, PRSA
Darcy Brito, Business PR Manager, Corporate Communications, Aflac
Alberto Canal, Vice President, Strategic Communications, Panasonic
Manny Cedeno, Senior Account Executive, Finn Partners
Andy Checo, Associate Vice President, Havas Formulatin; President, HPRA USA
Nicole Cueto, Esq., Head of Public Relations & Communications, North America, Revolut
Rosanna Fiske, Senior Vice President, Corporate Communications, Wells Fargo
Chantal Gomez, Senior Account Executive, Finn Partners
Berenice Gonzales, Senior Account Executive, Havas Formulatin
Oscar Suris, Executive Managing Director, C-Suite & Crisis Strategy, Zeno Group

The Celebrating Latino PR History event was sponsored in part by the Hispanic Public Relations Association (HPRA), Talkwalker, California State University Fullerton, Finn Partners, Aflac, Page, Ketchum, NYU School of Professional Studies, Bronxnet, Lehman College CUNY, and University of Georgia’s Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication.

This event was live streamed on our Facebook page, where you can still watch it if you were unable to attend the event live, and was also packaged for broadcast on Optimum and Verizon Fios by BronxNet and the Journalism Media Studies Department at CUNY Lehman College.