Gary Acosta is an entrepreneur, public policy advocate, investor, and thought leader passionate about advancing prosperity for Latinos and other underserved communities.

March Madness is coming soon

Next weekend the most exciting spectacle in all of sports begins. I love the NCAA Tourney and expect this year to be just as good as it usually is. The emotion of March Madness is what makes it so special. Every year there is at least one team that defies all odds and advances much…

LDC Hosts Steve Forbes

I’ve been a board member of the Latino Donor Collaborative for two years. The organization is chaired by Sol Trujillo and is governed by an impressive board of many of the top Latino business leaders and entrepreneurs in the country. The organization produces research reports and hosts twice annual convenings where LDC board members interview…

Hispanic Homeownership Surges in 2018

Last week, the U.S. Census Bureau released the final homeownership numbers for 2018 and indicated that Hispanic homeownership rose for the fourth consecutive year, and the gain was the largest since 2005. Hispanics are the only demographic to have its homeownership rate increase for four consecutive years. The increase is even more impressive if you…

Is Going Keto Healthy?

I have been skeptical of the keto diet. How can a diet that says you can eat pig fat but not an orange be good for you? I don’t think it can be, but most studies show that the health benefits of a lower body mass index offset any possible negatives. I recently had my…

Breakfast with a Billionaire

Last week, my friend Earl Watson arranged a breakfast meeting for me to meet with Starbucks founder, Howard Schultz. Watson and Armando Tam were also in attendance. Earl Watson’s relationship with Schultz goes back to when Schultz owned the Seattle Supersonics, the NBA team that drafted him out of UCLA. Schultz later sold the team…

Alita: Battle Angel – Surges at the Box Office

NAHREP’s national president, Daisy Lopez-Cid was in town last week, and Marisa Calderon and I decided to take the afternoon off and take Daisy and the NAHREP staff to watch the Robert Rodriguez directed film Alita: Battle Angel. I got the chance to interview Rodriguez on stage last September at the L’ATTITDUE event, and could…

Roma

Famed Mexican director, Alfonso Cuarón’s semi-autobiographical story about a year in the life of the maid that helped raise him and his siblings. Cuarón who won the Oscar for Best Director for his 2013 film, Gravity, addresses several timely issues in Roma, including race, class and idiot fathers. Without being too preachy, the film subtly…

Manny Machado

The twenty-six-year-old third-baseman from Hialeah, Florida signed the biggest free agency contract ($300,000,000) in MLB history to play for the San Diego Padres. As someone who lives in San Diego, I was as shocked as anyone because I always viewed the Padres as a sort of farm team for the bigger market teams. Maybe that’s…

Whose economy is it?

Unemployment is low and the stock market is rising. Two of our primary indicators of how the economy is faring. Trump supporters say that it is the result of the president’s tax policy and curtailment of governmental regulations. Obama supporters say it is just the continuation of eight straight years of growth that began in…

Is college worth it?

A few business authors and online personalities including Peter Thiel, Grant Cardone, and Gary Vaynerchuk, have challenged the general notion that a college degree is necessary to having a successful career. I also have a few friends in the real estate industry who also believe that college is unnecessary at best and a total waste…