Thirty Years of LATINA Style Shaping the World
By Gloria Romano-Barrera
For over 30 years, LATINA Style Magazine has established itself as the national magazine devoted to the needs and issues of the Latina professional working woman and the Latina business owner in the United States. Since 1994, LATINA Style Magazine has featured strong, ambitious women who have taken center stage. LATINA Style Magazine believes in the power of Latinas pursuing their passions and stands with them as they succeed in their journey. Meet Latinas who have supported LATINA Style over the past three decades and work tirelessly to make a difference every day: Anna Escobedo Cabral
Director, The Orange County Community Foundation; Major General Angela Salinas, CEO, (USMC, Retired), Girl Scouts of Southwest Texas; Silvia Karlsson, Aerodynamics Engineering Manager, General Motors; and Ines Gutzmer, Senior Vice President and Chief Communications Officer, Aflac.
The Foundation, based in Irvine, CA., is celebrating 35 years of amplifying the power of charitable giving in Orange County, across the country and around the world. In 2023, OCCF surpassed $1 billion in cumulative granting since its inception. She is also a partner in The Cabral Group, a firm dedicated to serving clients in need of government and public relations support, a motivational speaker, and she serves on a number of for-profit and nonprofit boards. Among her for-profit boards, she serves on the Board of Directors of Navient, which is the largest servicer of federal government loans to students and parents for college. The company also provides business processing solutions to a number of federal, state, and local government clients and various private companies.
Born in San Bernardino, CA, Escobedo Cabral is a third-generation Mexican-American who relocated to Washington, DC, during a period when Latinas were less common than they are today. Her advocacy for Latinas in the nation's capital began nearly 20 years ago. In her current role, she gives back just as she did while in D.C. By serving on nonprofit boards and advocating for the community, Escobedo Cabral contributes to her community in even more ways. Whether it's a community foundation or other nonprofit organizations in their community, Escobedo Cabral believes in the power of being philanthropically engaged.
“We can leverage our resources, both financial and experiential, and have an incredible impact in the same way that we've leveraged our growing political power,” she shares. “I would encourage Latinas of all ages to look for o pportunities to serve, including getting involved with their local community foundations. For me, the bottom line is to get involved and give back. I think that there's enough of us, Latino leaders and business owners, who've become successful, and who understand the importance of giving back. Becoming involved in charitable work helps build the foundation and expands opportunities in the future for others who are still making their way up and need a hand. And you can do that by being more involved with local and charities.”
Looking back on the previous 30 years of LATINA Style, Escobedo Cabral recalls many happy times spent with other Latinas in Washington, D.C. Especially at events honoring the accomplishments and empowerment of Latinas.
“LATINA Style has been instrumental because it puts those role models in front of us. There used to be a series of conferences that they would host for Latinas in Washington, DC, where you would have a room for like 300 women together, and they're sharing their stories, and they're talking about what's possible and listening to inspiring leaders,” she shares. “Every single one walked away feeling like they were empowered, that they could do it. They were excited about the future and they were going to be successful. I think those are always very memorable. The speakers were always phenomenal. And the energy in the room was palpable. And I loved that. I think they create for young girls and women a vision of what's possible in the future. And that's incredibly important. And I hope that you'll continue to keep doing that for many, many, many years to come. Because we still need that very much.”
Major General Angela Salinas, CEO, Girl Scouts of Southwest Texas (USMC, Retired)
Ines Gutzmer, Senior Vice President and Chief Communications Officer, Aflac
Anna Escobedo Cabral, Director, The Orange County Community Foundation
Serving as the 42nd Treasurer of the United States from 2005-2009, Anna Escobedo Cabral graced the cover of LATINA Style Magazine in 2005. Escobedo Cabral, one of the most influential Latinas in the Bush administration, helped carry out the president's economic agenda and provided opportunities for numerous other Latinas. After leaving office, she continued to serve the public as a public servant. From 2009 through May of 2018, she served as a Senior Principal Advisor within the External Relations department of the Inter-American Development Bank, the largest source of development financing for the Caribbean and Latin America, serving as the Bank’s principal liaison between senior management and parliamentary bodies, including the U.S. Congress.
Today, Escobedo Cabral serves on the Orange County Community Foundation (OCCF) Board of Governors.
“I wore my uniform for 39 years and I was 19 years old when I decided to raise my hand and say, ‘I do solemnly swear to support and defend the constitution of the United States,’ and I now get to be with an organization that at the age of five, we are teaching girls about patriotism by beginning with an oath and a promise that begins with On my honor,” shares Major General Angela Salinas, U.S. Marine Corps (Ret.) CEO, Girl Scouts of Southwest Texas. “It was such an organization that fits me. I bring in passion for leadership because our mission is building girls of courage, confidence, and character who make the world a better place. And I came from an organization known not only our core values of honor, courage, and commitment, but for leadership.”
Joining Girl Scouts of Southwest Texas as the CEO in July 2015, Major General Salinas served in the U.S. Marine Corps for 39 years.
A woman of many firsts, she made history as the first Latina selected and promoted to the general officer ranks in the Marine Corps and at the time of her retirement in September 2013, she was the senior ranking woman and the senior Hispanic in the Corps. She remains the only Latina selected and promoted to the General Officer ranks in the Marine Corps to date.
Transitioning on to an organization whose mission is to develop leaders seemed like the right move for her career. The longest tenured CEO so far,
Major General Salinas feels blessed to have the team she works with.
“I have a wonderful board of directors, an incredible C team and a talented staff,” she shares. “The community is incredibly supportive. You're building a community. You're building it because you're building the faith and offering an opportunity for a girl who's going to be tomorrow's leader.”
Building her support system with a network of people, peers and friends has been instrumental in her journey. She cherishes the moment when Robert Bard, CEO of LATINA Style, Inc., acknowledged her for her leadership and accomplishments. She realized then that she was a role model for a lot of Latinas.
“He introduced me into a world that I didn't know,” she shares. “For me, professionally, it was just up to my game because I just always stayed my own way. I always said I just wanted to be a good Marine. I just wanted to be known as a good Marine. Not a good woman Marine, not a good Latino Marine, just a good Marine. But Robert helped me recognize that there was so much more to being a Marine and a responsible Marine. It was a responsibility to others in my role as a leader, and I'll never forget that. He invited me to attend so many more events that it made me appreciate how much more there was to being a professional and to friendships.”
Inspired by each of the Girl Scouts in her community, she is excited for the future of Latinas. She is proud of the progress done and looks forward to seeing one of her Latina Girl Scouts achieve their dreams. A former Girl Scout, she serves as an inspiration for women and girls who want to shatter the glass ceiling or chip away at the concrete block because she never could see what was above her.
“Thanks to LATINA Style Magazine, I think there's more and more visibility,” she shares. “I think especially over the last 30 years, more women are willing to identify as Latina. I think 30 years ago, Latinas were Smiths and Jones and weren't willing to boldly say that they were Salinas or Guerrera or Rodriguez, because they were just trying to make it. Today we're standing up proudly, and I think this is the difference in 30 years because there have been more women who've stepped up, who've achieved, who become the role models. I think that is what we needed in these 30 years — for somebody to be there because we truly all know and have recognized that you have to see it. I'm proud that there's going to be a Latina that's going to figure out how to cure cancer. I hope someday that I'll be alive to see a woman in the White House and she will proudly say I’m a Girl Scout from San Antonio. Every day when I see one of my Girl Scouts, -- because I'm surrounded with brown eyes and dark brown skin -- that they know they're going to make the world a better place and make a difference because there are so many others like them rooting for them.”
Silvia Karlsson, Aerodynamics Engineering Manager, General Motors
“We (as girls and women) are really influenced by our parents or somebody that is really close to us. That's the main difference between how you inspire a girl versus how you inspire a boy,” shares Silvia Karlsson, Aerodynamics Engineering Manager, General Motors. “A boy could be inspired by Neil Armstrong or somebody that he has never met, but studies have showed us that for a girl or woman, it is usually somebody a lot closer to them.”
Growing up, Karlsson had no shortage of engineering role models in her family. From her father, an engineer, and a geophysicist in the oil industry (the most important industry at the time in Mexico), to her grandfather, a civil engineer building Mexico’s infrastructure, and three of her uncles, who were also engineers, Karlsson believes she had many role models to look up to as a child. Although she also considered pursuing an artistic endeavor, she could not give up her love for math and science.
“I was thinking about studying a pure science, like physics or chemistry,” she shares. “My father would say ‘Why don't you study applied science? And I asked, ‘What is that?’ He said, ‘engineering is applied science, it's not just the theoretical sciences, but it’s applying it to something that could benefit people right now.’ I thought that was really powerful, and I hope I carry that with me everywhere I go in terms of how engineers have a positive influence in the quality of life that we have.”
Today Karlsson manages a group of talented engineers in Aerodynamics at General Motors. In this position she is responsible for leading program execution, choice of the proper tool mix, global strategy, resource management and motorsports teams’ support (NASCAR, Formula 1 and Indy). Prior to GM, she worked for Rocketdyne (a division of Boeing at the time) on the Space Shuttle Main Engine in the Systems Dynamics Team.
For Karlsson, it was the physics aspect of that work that brought her to the auto industry, her love of fluid dynamics.
“I kind of came to the auto industry thinking I'm going to do this for five years. And then I'm going back to aerospace,” she shares. “And now it's been over 20 years. Because as long as I continue growing and learning and making a difference for the people that I work with, it keeps me going. I kind of joke that I went from Mach 40, which was the speed of the space shuttle, to 50 miles an hour. Now that we also have race cars we go faster. Either way, we are making a vehicle go through air as efficiently as we can within the given constrains.”
Karlsson’s technical expertise and passion lie in the fields of fluid dynamics and heat transfer. They serve as the unifying element in her varied job responsibilities. In her career, Karlsson has experience in the aerospace, automotive, business, quality, and instructional areas, including an international assignment with GM de Mexico in Toluca, Mexico.
Karlsson recognizes the significance of inclusive and diverse workplaces and the role of leadership and mentorship in guiding professional and personal
development. She is a Life and Fellow member of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE). She is currently in the Board of Directors of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE). “I think our power comes from being who we are,” she shares. “The amazing Latinas that we are, with our culture, with our passion, with our values as our foundation. With everything that makes us who we are, we demonstrate the value of diversity. Never forget where you came from, build on that and strive for excellence in all your endeavors.”
As LATINA Style celebrates its 30th anniversary, she shares: “LATINA Style has been providing a forum where we can tell our stories, celebrate our achievements, and inspire each other. This is how we learn and how we grow as a community. Thank you, LATINA Style, for providing that forum and in so doing empowering us.”
Elmy Bermejo, SBA Regional Administrator
“First of all, when I heard of LATINA Style and Robert Bard, and the work that he's done, I was very excited because it’s a magazine dedicated to the success of Latinas,” shares Elmy Bermejo, Regional Administrator, Region IX - Serving California, Arizona, Nevada, Hawaii and Guam, U.S. Small Business Administration. “You don't often see that Latinas’ successes are being celebrated or acknowledged.”
Bermejo has been a senior government official with more than 25 years of experience at the executive level and has established a successful record of collaboration with public and private stakeholders on a range of issues including workforce development, disaster relief, and small business support. A strategic thinker with excellent relationship management skills, she is committed to public service and is a tireless advocate for women’s rights. On November 2021 President Biden appointed Bermejo to serve as the Regional Administrator at SBA for Region IX. This region serves California, Arizona, Nevada and Guam.
As an SBA regional administrator, Bermejo has offered invaluable support to LATINA Style by acting as a voice for Latinas, particularly Latina business owners. Bermejo is pleased to witness the increasing number of Latinas starting businesses and gaining more exposure. She does, however, think more work can be done, and more doors may open if you have a sponsor or mentor along the way.
“Mentoring, and sponsorship is very, very important,” she shares. “It opens a lot of doors. And I think, for me, personally, it has been really helpful because sometimes you don't think you can do something, but other people see it in you. I am very happy at the Small Business Administration because what I find is that it's the American dream of entrepreneurship. I hope that I can also be a mentor or open doors to
opportunity or push them to think of things that they hadn't thought about doing.”
Bermejo also believes organizations such as LATINA Style serve as a resource to the community, especially Latinas.
“I think it's a great voice for Latinas, but especially professional Latinas,” she shares. “Continue to forge ahead, continue to bring other folks along with the great work and never leave any Latina behind or any woman behind for that matter. Because we are leaders in our families. Kids are looking to make sure that they also see good role models. And I think that's also a great thing that to celebrate the milestone, that a lot of models, also to understand that every single industry has a place for Latinas, no matter where you go. The sky is the limit and continues to be. Thirty years is an amazing milestone.”
“When I think about my career as a Latina in the United States, I am so grateful to have found a home at Aflac. It’s a company that truly appreciates the synergy of different energy and diverse ways of thinking,” shares Ines Gutzmer, Senior Vice President and Chief Communications Officer, Aflac.
With over 18 years of experience, Argentina-born Gutzmer is an award-winning global communications and public relations professional who leads Aflac’s Global corporate communications function. She oversees public and media relations, executive and employee communications, sales communications, crisis management, and corporate social responsibility initiatives. In addition, Gutzmer manages influencer campaigns and executive communications and is responsible for driving, along with her team, programs, and initiatives to maintain the company’s well-earned reputation.
Her role extends beyond communication, deeply aligning with Aflac's mission
to be a socially responsible company that makes meaningful contributions to the community. She is particularly moved by Aflac's longstanding support of those facing pediatric cancer and sickle cell disease. Gutzmer takes pride in the Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center in Atlanta, one of the largest pediatric cancer and blood disorders programs in the country.
Corporate social responsibility is deeply valued by Gutzmer, especially through initiatives like My Special Aflac Duck®.
“My Special Aflac Duck has a big place in my heart,” she shares. “It’s a hallmark example of our commitment to bring joy and companionship to children with cancer and sickle cell disease.”
This commitment, which started in 1995, is echoed by the entire Aflac family, executives, independent agents, and employees who have collectively donated more than $182 million to the research, treatment, and awareness of these conditions.
Growing up with a parent in the military provided Gutzmer with a unique
experience. Constant moves around the world, allowed her to understand diverse cultures, connect with different communities, and learn multiple languages. She also learned not to take anything for granted. One quote that stuck with Gutzmer was something her dad once told her: "The world is an open book. If you stay home, you just read the first page."
“When you leave your country and become a guest in another, you need to cope with the absence of your primary family and friends, and you are almost forced to build new relationships,” she shares. “I think that really strengthens you and helps you appreciate the present moment because you don't know what will happen next.”
This resilience, combined with the guidance of mentors like her dear Cuban friend, Juan Carlos Vals, and business colleagues, Jorge Ortega, and Barry Rafferty, gave Gutzmer the confidence to overcome obstacles. Today, she feels fortunate to have great individuals helping her develop as a professional in the United States.
Her advice for Latinas is to never give up. “Resist the temptation to blend in. Bring yourself to work as you are, celebrate your culture, and find ways to infuse it into your daily work.”
Gutzmer is no stranger to LATINA Style’s growth, having participated in events held in Washington D.C. As one of the successful Latinas featured in past editions of LATINA Style, she embodies the magazine’s mission of empowering Latinas. LATINA Style is proud of her achievements and looks forward to what lies ahead for her.
“I respect the work that you do,” she shares. “I think you’re doing an amazing job. LATINA Style is the premier publication for empowering and developing Latinas. Kudos to you for the work you’re doing, and congratulations on your anniversary.”
LATINAStyle Vol. 30, No. 3, 2024