Celebrating notable local leaders during Hispanic Heritage Month
Hispanic Heritage Month is traditionally celebrated from Sept. 15 through Oct. 15. In Manatee County, we estimate about 17 percent of our population is Hispanic or Latino. Hispanic Americans have had a unique influence on our community thanks to their strong commitment to family, faith, hard work and community service.
In late September, we reached out to Unidos Now’s Luz Corcuera to help us compile a list of Manatee County’s most prominent Hispanics and Latinos. We were thrilled with the response we had from individuals eager to share their stories, which you’ll read about in this post.
This list is by no means comprehensive. It is, however, a beginning and it features many of the faces and figures who own local businesses or work with us in the County Government to provide public service to our community. We would like for the list to grow over time in order to recognize even more of the Latinos who call Manatee County home.
If you’d like to be included in our list of notable Manatee Hispanics in 2021, please email nicholas.azzara@mymanatee.org with your name and a few biographical details that include contributions to our community. Feel free to include a picture of yourself if you’d like. Over time, we hope to create a more complete picture of individuals who make our community such a special place!
Evelyn Amodovar
Evelyn Amodovar is the program director at Healthy Teens Coalition. Evelyn has led initiatives around non-profit development, community organizing and understanding the systematic issues in communities that act as unintentional barriers to individuals accessing its resources.
She holds a BA from Post University in Human Services & Counseling and is currently completing a Master’s Degree in Public Administration. She is passionate about her work with Manatee County youth and works to empower teens to take an active leadership role in their community where they can help rectify social inequalities through education, mentorship, and advocacy.
Rovshan “Rov” Avila
Rov has been involved in the restaurant industry in Manatee County for the past 20 years as well as teaching culinary arts at Manatee Technical Institute for four years. He currently serves as the Chef de cuisine for the University of South Florida Sarasota/Manatee Campus. Over the years he has worked closely with Realize Bradenton and Local Farmers Markets through the Healthy Together Initiative which provides with assistance in creating, sharing and instruction in healthy habits and cooking tips for SNAP recipient families.
Laura Betancourt
Laura Betancourt is the owner of The Spot Tacos & More and Prestige Tile & Stone. She was born in Florida, the daughter of migrant workers from Mexico. She learned her hard work ethic from her parents, working on Florida farms picking fruits and vegetables. Soon she realized she could accomplish anything, and she was the first college graduate from her family.
After a couple of successful businesses, she has found her love and passion in her restaurant, transitioning from a food concession at a flea market to a brick and mortar Mexican restaurant. But nothing satisfies her more than helping and guiding other female entrepreneurs to start their businesses.
Luz Corcuera
Luz Corcuera is the executive director of UnidosNow, a nonprofit organization committed to empowering Hispanic/Latinos to achieve the American dream through education, integration, and civic engagement.
Luz was born in Peru and emigrated to Canada, where she practiced as a psychotherapist for 16 years and remains a Clinical Member of the Ontario Society of Registered Psychotherapists, before moving to Florida in 2000. She earned a BA in Clinical Psychology and a MA in Pastoral Ministry.
Luz has a proven track record in community-building and engagement. She previously served as Program Director for Healthy Start Manatee and as a Community Health Director for the Florida Department of Health in Manatee. Luz is passionate about education, health, and cultural competency. Her significant work includes developing and overseeing diverse community-based initiatives to empower underserved and at-promise communities via prevention and education.
Luz has been recognized with numerous awards for building strong relationships in the Manasota region with private, public, faith-based, and civic organizations to close the education achievement gap, reversing negative health trends and empowering people to civic integration.
CJ Czaia
Christopher John Czaia Centeno, better known as “CJ”, was born overseas. The son of a U.S. Foreign Service officer, CJ has traveled and lived around the world. Through his life experiences, he has developed a great respect towards minorities and a deep understanding of the importance of immigration.
CJ has practiced Personal Injury and Criminal Law for over 30 years and has dedicated his life to representing the hardworking, average person. He continues his fight to ensure everyone receives the benefits and justice they are entitled to under our democracy. It is CJ’s passion to ensure future generations reach their full potential and have the resources available to do so.
Debbie Deleon
Manatee County Neighborhood Services
Debbie Deleon has been an advocate of Latino families for the past 40 years. She was originally hired by Manatee County in 1978 to be a liaison to the Latino community. She served in a leadership role with the Latino Community Network. She continues to partner with many individuals and organizations to promote the needs of Latino Families in the county.
Jimmy Delgado
Jimmy Delgado was born in El Paso, Texas. After high school, he enlisted in the U.S. Air Force and was an Inertial Navigation Systems Specialist on F-4 Wild Weasels. He graduated Summa Cum Laude from the Inter-American University of Puerto Rico. He then graduated from Stetson College of Law and received a Masters in Business Administration from Stetson University. After law school, Mr. Delgado went to work for the Public Defender’s Office in Bradenton. He is past president of the Gulf Coast Latin Chamber of Commerce; past president of Manatee Educational Television; past president of Manatee Community Action Agency; current member of Legal Aid of Manasota; current chair of the Community Leadership Council for USF Sarasota-Manatee; past member of the 12th Judicial Circuit Florida Bar Grievance Committee. Jimmy has been practicing personal injury law for the past 20 years and is a Partner at Shapiro | Delgado.
Amalia Flores
Creative Director, Event/Design Concept & Brand Development at Manatee Children’s Services, Inc MCS Child Advocacy Center
Amalia Flores was born in Guadalajara, México. She has been living in the Sarasota-Manatee area since 2002. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Graphic Design by Universidad Autonoma de Guadalajara and also a Bachelor’s Degree in Culinary Arts (Chef Cordon D’Or) by Universidad Anahuac del Sur in Mexico City.
Amalia is the owner of Chef Amalia, Creative Gourmet Industry. She is the Creative Director, Event Planner and Director of Public Relations for Manatee Children’s Services; a private non-profit organization dedicated to breaking the cycle of child abuse in Manatee County. Amalia is the Director and founder of Alianzas Networking-Mujeres profesionales, a networking group for professional women 100% in Spanish, and Board member of CreArteLatino Cultural Center in Sarasota. She also served as President of the Board of Latinas of the Women’s Resource Center from 2018 to 2020. She is also the Vice President of BNI Circle of Success. Amalia was a contestant in Master Chef Latino in 2018.
Esperanza Gamboa
In the last three years Esperanza has been the Director of Outreach and Eligibility with MCR Health, educating and promoting health services to the uninsured and underserved population in Manatee County. Previously she was publisher of the first Spanish Language newspaper in the area “El Mensaje Latino” (1993), one of the original two founders of the Gulf Coast Latin Chamber of Commerce (1994) and architect and director of Radio Unidos, WUDN 101.1 FM, the only Spanish Language Community Radio in the region.
Esperanza was also instrumental in the development and implementation of careers for the farmworker population and Hispanic/Latino students in Manatee County. She was coordinator of the Farmworker Career Development Program with Manatee Technical College for more than twenty years. In any role that Esperanza has held she has being known for her passionate advocacy to provide access to education and health services to Hispanic/Latinos in the region.
Rosalia Holmlund
Rosalia Holmlund, born in Colombia, is an entrepreneur who began her business, El Mariachi Loco, with $100. She recognized the needs of Latinos who did not have access to affordable car insurance and were not accustomed to or unable to access the traditional banking services. She opened a one-stop business providing Latino workers and families with a place that they could find items from their own countries, produce, car insurance, and a service to cash checks and wire money to countries in Central and South America. In addition, she provided information related to other services in the community.
Geri Campos Lopez
Director, Manatee County Redevelopment and Economic Opportunity
Geri Lopez is a Certified Economic Developer with over 20 years of experience spanning the redevelopment, economic development, and affordable housing markets in the public, private, and non-profit sectors. Geri joined Manatee County in 2016 to create a new department focused on the redevelopment and revitalization of its urban areas and to create economic opportunities for residents and businesses by linking their housing, community and economic development projects and programs. Her focused efforts on affordable housing and inclusive economic development have led to new affordable units and jobs for disadvantaged residents.
Joan Mahon
Joan Mahon, originally from Lima Peru, is a retired social worker. Joan has been a volunteer for the past 18 years addressing pressing issues of “adultos mayores” — the senior Hispanic/Latino population in Manatee County — promoting access to services and empowering seniors to take control of their health and wellbeing.
Marc R. Masferrer
The son of former Cuban refugees, Marc R. Masferrer is president and editor of the Bradenton Herald and Bradenton.com.
Born and raised in Dallas, Marc is a graduate of the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., with a degree in world politics. He worked as a reporter and editor at newspapers in Maryland, Colorado and Texas, before joining the Bradenton Herald in July 2005 as the night metro editor. Subsequently, he was metro editor before being promoted in May 2018 to senior editor and in November 2019 to president and editor, the top position at the Bradenton Herald and Bradenton.com.
Marc has won awards for editorial and column writing, and the reporters and photographers he has supervised have won many more for their coverage of the communities where they work and live. Major stories he has covered include the Branch Davidian standoff in Waco, Texas, the Columbine High School shootings in Colorado, the space shuttle Columbia disaster and too many hurricanes to count. For more than 10 years, in his spare time, Marc ran one of the few English-language blogs dedicated to reporting on Cuban independent journalists, political prisoners and human rights.
Marc is married to Marie, a media specialist for the Hillsborough County School District, and is subject to the whims of their three rescued pets, dog Peaches and cats Minnie (adopted from Manatee County Animal Services) and Prince (adopted from Bishop Animal Shelter). A semi-accomplished guitar player, Marc is a member of the choir at Holy Cross Catholic Church in Palmetto.
He also is a member of the Mullet Wrappers bar trivia team.
Maria Matos
Maria Matos is recently retired from the School District in Manatee County. Maria was the past chair of the Latino Community Network and her many accomplishments include leading the Tillman Full Service Center, the only organization dedicated to serving the needs of the farmworker families in Manatee County. Maria collaborated on a variety of projects to advance the health and wellbeing of Hispanic/Latinos in the region.
Lisa Ramirez
Lisa Ramirez holds a BA in journalism, with a minor in Spanish, from Northern Illinois University and has 20+ years of experience working with Latino-serving national and community-based non-profits, including the National Council of La Raza (now UnidosUS), the largest Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization in the U.S. As a returned Peace Corps volunteer, having served in Paraguay and the Dominican Republic, she also has experience working with marginalized communities in Latin America.
Lisa has significant experience in nonprofit organizational development, strategic communications, civic engagement, public health and health disparities programming, coalition-building, and community engagement. Since moving to Southwest Central Florida in 2007, Lisa has served on the boards of Healthy Teens Coalition of Manatee County and Manatee Educational TV. She has also previously served on the Latino advisory committees of the School District of Manatee County and the Ringling Museum, was a member of the NAACP’s Cultural Competence Committee, and was a board member of Project Light Literacy Center.
Martha L. Ramirez
Martha L. Ramirez is the Healthy Start Care Coordinator. Martha has a passion and commitment for pregnant women and infants in Manatee County. Martha goes above and beyond to educate, advocate, and link Latino mothers and infants to services in Manatee County. Martha drew her strength from her personal struggles having worked in the fields without access to care and currently carrying back and knee injuries caused during her years working in the field. She was awarded the Community Health Worker Award for her advocacy and promotion of education to low-income, Hispanic-Latino families.
Dr. Xavier Sevilla, MD, MBA, FAAP
Dr. Xavier Sevilla was born in Ecuador and is a primary care pediatrician in Bradenton. In 2003, he was awarded the honorable mention of the Quality of Care Award from the American Academy of Pediatrics for his work on improving care for the medically underserved patients in Manatee County. The notion that patients should only get the best quality of care has been Dr. Sevilla’s professional passion.
Dr. Florentina Taylor, MD, FAAP
Dr. Florentina Taylor was born in Nicaragua and is a primary care pediatrician in Bradenton. Dr. Taylor has been recognized for her research work to improve the health of children. Her patients tell stories of children being undiagnosed for years until Dr. Taylor was able to look at other factors and offer the right treatment options. She has served on the board of Healthy Start Manatee and was a pioneer in addressing obesity in children.
Rubylinda Hernandez Zickafoose
Dr. Rubylinda Hernandez Zickafoose served the teachers, parents, and children of Manatee County Schools for over 30 years. Her passion and determination to serve her community come from her humble beginnings as a migrant field worker. As Director of Language and Literacy at Manatee School For the Arts, she is currently building the infrastructure for a potential K-5 Dual Language school. This work promises to unify the diverse community where the school resides and provides an accelerated academic path for students to become Bilingual, Biliterate, and Culturally Competent leaders so they can define their American Dream.
