The Three Marias

Three of the five women selected to receive awards from Hispanic Business Magazine are Cuban; Maria Elena Lagomasino, from Asset Management Advisors LLC; Maria Martinez, from Microsoft; and Maria Azua, from IBM. The three Marias have made a decided dent in the contemporary business world, and I tip my hat to them as a celebratory symbol of their hard work, accomplishments, and ensuing broken stereotypes.

It can’t be easy to achieve such success in what is, traditionally, a man’s world, but these women have knocked down walls and made all of us take a new look at old conventions and bad habits that have traditionally passed for reason and logic.

Generally speaking, I’m not always a fan of Hispanic Business Magazine’s pandering to what is, essentially, the white/oppressive/conquering business world. They’ve rarely featured a “Latino” that opposes the embargo against Cuba, and I can only imagine boardroom meetings in which White (Hispanics) still use phrases like “being tough on Communism” and “the Red scare…” and where “traditional values” are seen as a good thing… As far as I can tell, they’ve never opposed the use of terrorism against Cuba.

But even I was happy to see Maria Elena Lagomasino’s smiling face on the cover of the April 2007 issue as the 2007 Hispanic Business Woman of the Year.

The magazine also honors 15 other women, which will be honored with the three Marias at the Fifth Annual Hispanic Business Woman of the Year Gala in Las Vegas, on April 26.

My congratulations to all the women mentioned. I’ve always believed that if we had more women participating in government and business, we would have a more humane society.

Peace.