Daniel Villanueva: Chairman and President, Bastion Capital Corporation: a philanthropist with the Latino community in his heart

Latino Leaders: The National Magazine of the Successful American Latino, June-July, 2004 by Wendy Pedrero

Philanthropy is usually a faceless feat. Its done from the heart, but it one that is done quietly, anonymously. Still, there are faces to the ones who make it happen. Daniel Villanueva is one of them. Here is a man who has reached the top, but who hasn't forgotten where he came from and refuses to stop remembering. For him, giving back to the community is not just a need; it is a moral obligation that never ends.

Daniel Villanueva is, by and large, an accomplished man who has achieved the quintessential American dream. Co-founder of the media giant known today as Univision and a senior partner of the Los Angeles-based Bastion Capital, Villanueva has plenty to be proud of, and plenty more to took forward to.

Villanueva was born in New Mexico and grew up in Calexico, California. He attended college at New Mexico State University, in Las Cruces and did journalistic work there as a student. Then he went on to play for the Los Angeles Rams football team as a kicker. He spent five years with the Rams before he was traded to Dallas, where he played his last years with the Dallas Cowboys. He retired from the Cowboys, and football, after the famous "Ice Bowl" game in 1968.

Talking to Latino Leaders about his journey, Villanueva reflects on his origins: "I started working for the LA Examiner when I was in high school, reporting on the high school games. That's where I got my first taste of journalism. Then, at NMSU I was editor of the NMSU paper, and I also used to work part time setting up the sports section for the local newspaper in Las Cruces, the Las Cruces Sun. So I had a journalism background. Then, one year, I helped a young man who wanted to learn how to kick during training camp, and later on he offered to introduce me to the manager of a little Spanish language station in LA that had just gotten started. There I did a spore show for a while. Later on I became station manager of KMEX in LA and then general manager. Then I became vice president and then president of KMEX, and finally, I became the corporate vice president of all the stations. In the beginning there were a lot of separate stations in LA San Antonio, and New York. When we bought (a station in) Miami in the early 70s, we merged all of our individual stations into Miami and that became Spanish International Communications Corporation (SICC). Then, along with the network division, the Spanish International Network (SIN), the two were combined and became Univision." Later on Villanueva and his partners successfully acquired a bankrupt Telemundo, recapitalized it, and then sold it to NBC.

Next in Villanueva's future is a new investment venture: a new fund called FONTIS. The fund is going to focus on minority investments, mainly in the southwest, in places like New Mexico, Texas, Nevada, and California. Villanueva explains, "In "Bastion we didn't like to do anything under $10 million or $15 million. So I just felt that we were missing a great opportunity one layer below that where we found hard working, honest people with good ides who didn't have access to capital. I decided that was an area I wanted to focus on. I think that, if our goal is to do well in our business and do well in our community, flint's where we need to be, because there is a really big need for access to capital in that particular market. And that's what we're going to focus on."

A philanthropist whose sense of commitment to his community remains unshaken after all of his achievements, Daniel Villanueva, Sr., is the epitome of success and an admirable driving force of the NAA today.

Wendy Pedrero

Plano, TX