The Power of Latino Leadership, Second Edition, Revised and Updated, 2nd Edition

INTRODUCTION

Leading Latino Style

MY GREAT-GRANDMOTHER DOLORES WAS born on the remote northwest coast of Peru. Her straight hair, as black as charcoal, fell to her waist; she stood tall and proud like the algarrobo tree that grows in the Peruvian forests. Her mother knew the only future for her strong-willed daughter was submission to one of the arrogant men that left Spain solitos (alone). So she searched for a better life for her daughter. Dolores would go by boat to the Nicaragua coast, which was alive and thriving. She had cousins there who sold goods to the pueblos and haciendas.

In the 1840s, freight boats exported coffee, bananas, and sugar, and precious wood from the Nicaraguan jungle. A creative and inventive woman, Dolita became a ...