Author Archive

Today we are celebrating Mexican American singer, Vikki Carr! She was born in El Paso, Texas, and has been actively making music for over 60 years! Vikki Carr was born Florencia Vicenta de Casillas-Martinez Cardona before changing to her stage name in 1962 when she signed on with Liberty Records. Carr is known for pushing to record in her native Spanish, something that wasn’t done for American markets. However, she found great success as she brought mainstream music to Spanish-speaking audiences.

Vikki has accumulated many awards throughout her singing career, including three Grammys, a Latin Grammy Lifetime Achievement award, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute’s Medallion of Excellence Award in 2011, and the President’s Award from Vietnam Veterans of America in 2010, among many more. She’s one of the most awarded and well-regarded Latin singers of all time.

Carmen Crenshaw was born in Lima, Peru, and came to America as an immigrant to pursue the American dream. She moved to Houston working with Oil and Gas companies as an accountant. After several years in the USA, she met and married Jim Crenshaw and moved back to South America for his work. In South America, she started working with local charities, orphanages, and other faith-based organizations, which provided her the opportunity to work with Presidents, Ambassadors, and Leaders of Industry in fundraising efforts.

After many years in South America, the family moved back to the USA. Several years later her stepson; Dan Crenshaw, ran for US Congress, and Carmen decided to get involved with the Republican Party as she saw how critical it was that we reach our Hispanic community with a positive and truthful message about the greatness of America.

She served as the Chairwoman for the RNHA (Republican National Hispanic Assembly) Texas Chapter for the last two years, where she worked tirelessly to engage the Texas Hispanic voters. Carmen is presently serving on the advisory board of “Beta Academy” a south Houston Charter school, and with the “Greater Houston Council of Federated Republican Women” board as Chair of Public Relations.

Carmen is passionate about her role with the Hispanic Leadership Alliance and committed to our great nation. She is an example of how those who immigrate to the USA properly and for the right reasons, can become a building block for our Countries future. Carmen’s drive and perseverance are now focused on giving back to the country she calls home.

Oscar Rosa was born and raised in the Valley, from an early age Oscar worked for his father at the family’s small tire shop to help make ends meet and to earn enough money for college.

When he entered the University of Houston, Oscar couldn’t even afford textbooks, but he worked hard, and fought through every challenge. After completing his education, Oscar opened his own pharmacy to provide jobs and healthcare for his community.

Oscar is a man of deep Christian faith with a generous heart for his community. As a pharmacist, Oscar made it a store policy that no person should go without critical medication and gave away prescriptions for free to those who could not pay.

For 16 years, Oscar has taught adult confirmation classes for those seeking to become members of the Catholic Church. He is a member of the Knights of Columbus and a member of the Holy Spirit Catholic Church in McAllen.

Oscar decided to run for office because he is tired of seeing poverty and crime hold back the people of the Rio Grande Valley and South Texas. Oscar believes it is time to end these cycles and work for prosperity and growth in our communities. South Texas should be a place where people want to come, not a place people want to leave.

As our next state representative Oscar will focus on common-sense, pro-growth, anti-crime policies to keep our families safe and allow the Valley to prosper.

Oscar and his wife Cynthia have been married for 27 years and have been blessed to have five children—Lauren, Matthew, Kayla, Joaquin, and Regina.

Cami Canales was born and raised in South Texas.  She grew up hunting on her family’s ranch with her father, Gus T. Canales and her younger brother, Marc A.R. Canales (now deceased).  She attended school at Texas A&I (now Texas A&M Kingsville) and San Antonio Community College.  Then she entered the world of travel, where she worked for almost 20 years;  finishing her travel career at American Express.  She has lived in San Antonio, Texas for over 37 years, she learned about the San Antonio’s colorful history and beautiful culture from her aunts:  Bebe Canales Inkley and Mary Canales Jary. 

Cami feels that she learned about hard work from her mother, Pat Canales, who patiently raised 5 children.  She is very proud of her three sisters:  Dawn Canales, Carla Canales and Wendy Canales who are all teachers in Houston, Texas.  Cami has been happily married to her husband, Travis McLeod, a mechanical engineer for 21 years.  She is in currently charge of the human resources and the social philanthropy at Travis’ engineering firm, Silber & Associates of San Antonio.  Previously Cami was on the Parent Teacher League at her children’s school when they were in grade school.  She served four years on the executive board, two years as vice president and two years as president.  Cami is currently serving as a member of ImactSA, which is a women’s nonprofit organization that uses a collective giving model to make significant grants to nonprofit organizations serving the Greater San Antonio area.

Cami and Travis are the proud parents of two teenagers:  Brock McLeod and Kristin McLeod, who attend a STEM high school in San Antonio.  They are members of Concordia Lutheran Church of San Antonio.  They enjoy spending time with her extended family at the family ranch in South Texas.  Cami’s hobbies include: hunting, cooking, wine tasting, yoga, and travel.

Willie Vasquez Ng is a business and community advocate and philanthropist, a small business owner since 2003 and a Master Peace Officer serving San Antonio and South Texas in Law Enforcement since 1993.

Willie served the Bexar County Criminal District Attorney’s Office from January 1, 2015 – December 31, 2018. Prior to joining the Bexar County District Attorney’s Office as Chief Criminal Investigator, Willie served the city of San Antonio with the San Antonio Police Department (SAPD) for 22 years. During his time with SAPD, Willie began as a Patrol Officer patrolling all areas of San Antonio, then served as a Detective Investigator where he investigated various criminal offenses in the Repeat Offenders Program (ROP) and Financial Crimes Unit. Prior to retirement from SAPD, Willie worked with the United States Secret Service where he was deputized as a Special Federal Deputy Marshal and served within the unit for over seven years. Willie’s in-depth training as a law enforcement professional range from Hand-to-Hand Combat & Self-Defense, Hand-Written Forgery, Counterfeit Currency & Credit Card Fraud, to Lie Detection, Narcotics and Emergency Management training by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Willie is a certified Trainer for Active Shooter and Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response from Texas State University. Willie has a Master Certification in Law Enforcement by the State of Texas. Willie was deputized Special Federal Deputy Marshal with the United States Secret Service.

In 2003, seeing the need to support local businesses and law enforcement, Willie established a security business that focuses on providing a variety of security services to all types of businesses, communities, and organizations, for profit and non-profit, providing over 2700 jobs throughout Texas.

In addition to public service and economic development, Willie is tireless in his efforts toward non-profit work. Willie provides community support and consulting to business leaders, entrepreneurs, law enforcement and various local and national organizations. Willie contributes his time serving on various boards. Willie is a member of the Criminal Justice Reform Committee of the Texas Associations of Business (TAB) with headquarters in Austin, Texas, where he worked in conjunction with the team to create and implement the initiative Texas House Bill 918 which went into effect in January 2020.

Willie has a Baccalaureate (Bachelor’s) in Criminal Justice from Wayland Baptist University, a Master’s in Public Administration (MPA) from St. Mary’s University, and Willie is currently working on his dissertation to finalize his Doctorate (PhD) in Organizational Leadership from the University of the Incarnate Word. Willie received the ASIS International Award for Exemplary Service to Business and Law Enforcement (2016), and in 2017, Willie received the award for Professional Achievement by the Texas Commission of Law Enforcement (TCOLE) for his service and accomplishments in law enforcement since his career began in1993. Willie is an award recipient at the University of the Incarnate Word (UIW) Dreeben School of Education in Recognition for Academic Excellence (April 2019).

As a consummate professional and public servant, Willie regularly speaks about education initiatives, business leadership, economic development and modern law enforcement throughout South Texas, to include assisting local Churches to improve their security detail for their congregations, and Willie is frequently invited to speak to students in local schools, colleges and universities, such as University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA), and St. Mary’s University in San Antonio, as well as multiple businesses where he provides Active Shooter training.

Willie and his wife, Ruby, established The Willie Ng Family Foundation, which is designed to provide a diversity of support to those in need. In 2017, Willie battled cancer, and today he is a cancer survivor because of his LORD and Savior Jesus Christ. Due to the life altering experience of battling cancer, Willie and Ruby devote their time to help those who must face the battle of cancer.

Willie’s devotion and tenacity as a public servant for 28 years is evident in his life’s work, and Willie is committed to the enhancement of the quality of life and prosperity for everyone for future generations.

Today we are celebrating the iconic Dr. Ellen Ochoa. She is an American engineer, former astronaut and former director of the Johnson Space Center.

Dr. Ochoa was born in La Mesa, California as a second generation Mexican American. She received her bachelor’s from San Diego State University, and her master’s and doctorate from Stanford. In 1993, Ochoa became the first Hispanic woman to go to space when she served on a nine-day mission aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery. Ochoa became director of the center upon the retirement of the previous director, Michael Coats, on December 31, 2012. She was the first Hispanic director and the second female director of Johnson Space Center.

Many know Lin-Manuel Miranda for his musicals and movies, so today we are highlighting this Puerto Rican playwright for Hispanic Heritage Month.

Born in New York City, Miranda began composing musicals while he was still in high school. During his time at Weslayan University, he would develop his first major musical, In the Heights. It would debut on broadway in 2008, and later would adapted to film in 2021. However, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton (2015) would sky rocket him into mainstream media. Since the success of Hamilton, Miranda has been a frequent collaborator of Disney (such as writing the music for Encanto) and expanded his projects to include film directing, acting, and activism. 

Lin-Manuel has been especially passionate about helping Puerto Rico through fundraising and speaking about assisting the country through natural disasters, erasing debt, and donating to the University of Puetro Rico. He has also dedicated time and money to organizations like Graham Windham, a nonprofit adoption agency.

State Rep. Liz Campos is a lifelong resident of her district HD 119, which covers San Antonio, Live Oak, Converse, and surrounding towns. She has a long reputation of service to her family and community, beginning with her supporting her family after the death of her father working shifts at her local H.E.B. 

In her career, Campos has spent 30 years as a legal administrator for major San Anotion law firms and worked her way up the Capitol ladder as a Constituent Coordinator, District Director, and Chief of Staff before running for office. All this time she was always serving HD 119. Campos’ major achievements in her freshman year as State representative include: authoring important legislation like certification of institutions that care for persons with Alzheimer’s disease; protection of personal funds of residents of long-term care facilities; and funding for support services provided by independent living programs. Campos also filed legislation to address homelessness and affordable housing in Bexar County. She pioneered transitional housing pilot programs; housing mobility investments; and the creation of an affordable housing trust fund to provide incentives for the construction and rehabilitation of affordable housing.

Today we honor Dr. Teresa Lozano Long, a Texan educator, and philanthropist. Teresa grew up on a dairy farm in Premont, TX. She graduated from high school as Valedictorian at just 16 years old and is the first Mexican American woman to hold a bachelor’s, master’s, and a doctorate in kinesiology. 

Lozano Long was renowned for her and her husband’s generosity. They began their philanthropy work in 2000 with their financial support of UT Health San Antonio so that the programs could better train physicians to serve South Texas. They continued to serve students through extensive donations for scholarships. She has received many high honors from her alma mater, UT Austin, such as its College of Liberal Arts Pro Bene Meritis Award, the UT School of Law’s Thurgood Marshall Legal Society for Commitment to Diversity Award, the recipient of the Texas Medal of Arts Award and an inductee into the Women’s Hall of Fame. She was honored by the Bullock State History Museum with its “Women Shaping Texas in the 20th Century” award and was the recipient of the inaugural Madeleine Rast Award from the National Museum of Women in the Arts.

Teresa also became the namesake for UT’s Teresa Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies (LLILAS) after her and her husband’s generous endowment of $10 million for the institute. 

The reason for Lozano Long’s dedication to expanding and funding all these programs?  “Joe and I never had children, so we decided that if we could make enough money, we would help as many children as we could.”

Teresa passed away recently in the spring of 2021 at the age of 92, but she is remembered very fondly by her family and the UT Austin community.

Today’s important figure for Hispanic Heritage Month is State Representative J.M. Lozano! He is the son of a doctor born and raised in Premont, TX. Lozano is one of the first Hispanic Republicans in legislation, adding to the political diversity of our community! His platform focuses on small business interests, access to higher education, and environmental regulation. As Chairman of the House Higher Education Committee, Lozano advocates for funding for colleges, universities, and trade schools.