The rumor is that Jorge Mas, founder and Chairman of MasTec, a publicly traded construction and engineering company out of Coral Gables is the odds-on favorite to purchase the Florida Marlins of MLB. If successful, Mas would be the second Latino owner of a major league baseball team after Mexican- American, Arte Moreno purchased the LA Angels in 2003. In May, Raul Fernandez, the co-owner of the Washington Wizards of the NBA, joined NAHREP and the Hispanic Wealth Project at their annual Hispanic Wealth Symposium in La Jolla. I’d love to see more Latino athletes in professional sports, but seeing them in ownership is even more exciting.
Next week, I will be speaking at a Hispanic Leadership Summit at the United Nations. I was asked to speak on the topic of Unity. The following is a preview of my speech.
The image of Latinos is not just a nice thought; it affects everything from business opportunities and access to capital to how our children are treated at school. Latinos are among the hardest workers and most entrepreneurial of any group in America. However, negativity has dominated the narrative about Latinos for far too long. This one is on us.
We currently have 11 million unfilled jobs in America. Ending illegal immigration will either dramatically increase that number and have massive disruption to our economy, or we will have to...