La Movida Radio’s 12th annual Hispanic Heritage Luncheon Celebration on Oct. 14 at the Monona Terrace Community and Convention Center was a chance to hear from inspirational speakers and celebrate and honor many of the great Latinx leaders in Dane County. The date, Oct. 14, was very special for La Movida co-owners Luis and Lupita Montoto.
“Today we celebrate 20 years of turning on La Movida 24/7 at 1480 AM,” Luis Montoto told the crowd that had gathered for the annual luncheon. La Movida first launched as a 24/7 Spanish-language radio station on Oct. 14, 2002. “We wanted to make it a big celebration because it’s 20 years that we came on board with Mid-West Family Broadcasting for our Latino community, our Spanish-speaking community. I want to thank Tom Walker, president of Mid-West Family Broadcasting. He is a visionary. He had the guts to put us on air 20 years ago when there were no Spanish-language radio stations.”
Every year, this luncheon is a place where Dane County’s Latino community comes to celebrate including local business and non-profit leaders and political representatives of local Latino and non-Latino institutions. Madison-area politicians read Hispanic Heritage Proclamations including Dane County Executive Joe Parisi, Fitchburg Mayor Aaron Richardson, Emb. Consul Claudia Franco of the Mexico Consulate of Milwaukee, and Julia Arata-Fratta, Alder of the City of Fitchburg Common Council. Deputy Mayor Reuben Sanon represented the City of Madison on behalf of Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway.
Mario Mendoza, who emcees the event every year, told the crowd that the event’s keynote speaker is “one that perhaps at least 95 percent of those in attendance today have crossed paths with.”
“For that five remaining percent, you will cross paths with him someday because our keynote speaker has been everywhere and has done everything and we’re lucky to have him as a member of our community and our keynote speaker today,” Mendoza said. “I’m talking about, of course, Juan Jose Lopez.”
Lopez is the co-founder of The Latino Economic Development Foundation (WLEDF), co-founder of The Latino Chamber of Commerce and owner of López Consulting Services, LLC.
Lopez said that he wanted to talk about community and unity.
“We are a Latino population in Madison in a county, Dane County, that is extremely talented,” Lopez told the crowd. “We’re very talented, but we’re not always considered, we’re not always recognized. We’re not always given leadership roles that we deserved.
“We have 13 executive directors or CEOs here of nonprofits here in Madison, Wisconsin. Of a large corporation, we only have one Latino as a CEO of a company.”
He added that it is important that “Luis and Lupita and La Movida are recognizing some of the talent we have in Wisconsin today” but that, overall, Latinos need to do a better job of being recognized and seeking recognition.
“I love being up here and talking to you and telling you what the situation is. And I want to celebrate our successes. And I want to celebrate and recognize and acknowledge everything we’re doing,” Lopez said. “But we’re not anywhere near we should be. And we’re in 2022. We got to hold all the elected officials accountable. The city council, the county board, the school boards, they’re 16 school districts in Dane County, are kids achieving at the level where they should be? No, they’re not.
“I want to remind everybody, there’s a lot of [Latino] talent, and we need to take advantage of that,” he added.
After a brief pause for lunch, it was time for the awards. The Hispanic Entrepreneur of the Year was presented to Ode and Wensy Meléndez, owners of Amigo Construction, a Madison-area company that manufactures and installs cladding for large buildings. In addition, you must also take note that you can transform your building with cladding painting.
“This year marks 30 years in business at Amigo and there are three differentiators that set us apart from others,” Wensy Melendez, the president of Amigo, told the crowd as he accepted the award. “Number one, at Amigo, we welcome critical thinking within our organization and I want no part of any cookie-cutter project. We think outside the box, and we like to push our limits. At Amigo Construction, we also embrace cross-industry innovation. With an 80,000-square-foot facility, we’re able to build mockups to test our materials, train our staff, and work directly with clients to help better understand the products and the installation sequences while building our capacity and strengthening our client relations.
“And number three, at Amigo, we stay ahead of trends and we have an internal strategy to take advantage of that,” he added. “I’m looking to purchase steel goods directly from the Netherlands and India, as an example. These three differentiators are what keep me moving. It’s what motivates me. It’s what I believe that business is.”
Melendez added that he’s sharing all of this information because there are plenty of youth at the luncheon and plenty of talent in the city of Madison.
“Had it not been for a lot of pioneers here and had it not been for a lot of people standing up and willing to help me, I probably couldn’t be here without them,” Melendez said.
“So with that, I’d like for everyone here that has a leadership role to take time and to plant that seed into the youth,” he added. “In short, I am thankful for everybody that’s paid it forward guiding me through the ropes of business and helping me build client relations.”
The Amigo Award was presented to Dane County Executive Joe Parisi.
“Thank you, Luis and Lupita [Montoto]. I can tell that you are true friends because you used a pre-pandemic photo of me and my hair is a little different color now,” Parisi laughed. “I can’t think of a nicer thing to happen or a greater compliment than to be called a friend. So the feeling is mutual – right back at you. I appreciate you. I look forward to continuing our partnerships.”
(Photo by David Dahmer)
The award for Hispanic Achievement of the Year was presented to Norma A. Gallegos Valles, president of the Latino Professional Association and Centro Hispano Workforce & Career Pathways Manager
“What an honor to receive this award. There is a lot of responsibility to be receiving these awards, especially coming from two of the people that I admire the most who are pillars in this community and role models – Luis and Lupita,” Gallegos Valles said. “Thank you for creating the spaces that give voice to the people and celebrate each other.
“I am honored because many who have been here before me have positively shaped Dane County, and have inspired me in many ways,” she continued. “I look forward to seeing many of you sitting here today that are working to reshape how the future looks for all of us here in the years to come. In order to reshape, we need to reframe and innovate — reframe our narrative by embracing ourselves fully and authentically and innovate by looking out far and beyond what we know.”
The Community Leader of the Year Award was presented to Mario Garcia Sierra, Energy Equity and Innovation Manager at Madison Gas and Electric.
“It’s quite an honor to be here with you today. And thank you so much, Luis and Lupita, for this opportunity to be here today,” he said. “I was reflecting the other day and thinking about [La Movida’s] 20 years on the radio. I’ve been here in this community for 19 years, and a lot has changed and I believe most of it is for the good. There have been challenging times all over but I think we have overcome all of that. And that’s because of all the work that many of you have done. That work has really come from the heart to really uplift the lives, and the dignity, and all the passion that many people like me bring when we come to this country – when we decide to leave our families behind.”
(Photo by David Dahmer)
Other awards that were presented at the 12th annual Hispanic Heritage Luncheon Celebration included:
- Believe and Succeed Award: Jorge Antezana, vice president & COO of the Wisconsin Latino Chamber of Commerce
- Making a Difference Award: Roots4Change, Co-Op
- Community Institution of the Year: Consulado de México en Milwaukee
Luis Montoto closed out the luncheon by thanking all of the awardees and thanking everybody for coming, along with a little advice for entrepreneurs and young leaders in the crowd.
“Keep working towards your goals. There are opportunities just lying on the side of the street. You just have to have two things. One, a vision to recognize those opportunities and two, the strength to pick it up and run with it.”
