From my desk

Latino Leaders: The National Magazine of the Successful American Latino, April, 2008 by Wendy Pedrero

Dear Latina Leaders:

I was talking the other day to my friend Nora Comstock, president and CEO of the wonderful leadership and networking organization called Las Comadres para Las Americas about this special edition, and she mentioned to me how she loves to share this particular edition with all of the "Comadres" because of the high inspirational value and the excellent contents it traditionally has. After expressing my gratitude for the compliment, I told her I was glad that the magazine had such an impact among them.

In the three years that this special edition has been offered, it has managed to create tremendous amount of recognition for the magazine. From the various colleges and universities that have incorporated it to their curricula as an anthology of sorts of female Latino Leadership to the many organizations that have sung its praise and clamored for more, the Women's Edition of Latino Leaders Magazine has established itself not only as a respectable vehicle for the true leaders to share their stories, but more significantly as a reference guide to the truly leading Latinas in our communities across the country. It is a feat that we are very proud of, especially because it is a difficult one to achieve every year.

You may be asking yourself why it would be so difficult to do this edition, and you may be so bold as to assume that the reason is that there are very few women out there who are making notable contributions to the community. If you did, you would be terribly wrong, because the reason why it is so difficult to put this edition together is exactly the opposite. The truth is, there are so many of you out there doing such a spectacular job at fostering, promoting and performing top leadership endeavors that it makes it sometimes painfully hard for us to have to select a precious few for each edition. In reality, I wish I had countless pages in this edition, so that I could recognize all off you at once. The only downside of that, and I hope you will agree, is that we would then not have the opportunity to continue this much needed effort every year to let the rest of the world know that you are all out there, working tirelessly, juggling the exhausting demands of careers and family, putting forth the blood sweat and tears that come from your passion for excellence so that others may follow in your steps, so that this country can become better.

I know there are still many, many more of you out there, and it is my promise and commitment to you that I will work just as hard as you do to not only discover the precious ones who remain neatly tucked away in their everyday efforts and away from the hoopla of the national media, but also to revisit the ones that are out there on the forefront of the trenches making sure that not a single one of you remains forgotten. Here then, I present to you the women of 2008.

To borrow from a famous beer commercial, this one's for you ... and I hope that you enjoy it.

Wendy Pedrero

Editor

editors@latinoleaders.com