Latino Success

Failde, a developer of Latino media, writing with freelancer Doyle, contends that the entrepreneurship of the nation's Hispanic population goes largely unnoticed by the general public, which prefers a derogatory stereotype. To spur Latinos-the largest minority population in the U.S.-to still greater efforts and counteract stereotypes, the authors interviewed 100 successful Latinos. We learn that Jellybean Benitez dropped out of high school in the South Bronx because he wanted an education and knew he'd never get one there. He went to college anyway and became a record producer. Antonio Rodriguez graduated from Princeton because his father, a longshoreman, worked hard to send him there. Ten years later, as vice president of finance for Seagram Europe, he bought his dad a car with his bonus check. As a whole, the inspiring first-person narratives reveal dogged determination, originality, courage and forbearance. (June)