Our Team

Rudy Ruiz

Rudy Ruiz – Founding Editor & Syndicated Columnist

Published author, thinker and multicultural advocacy entrepreneur, Rudy Ruiz is the Founder of Red, Brown and Blue. He also writes the eponomously titled column and provides social, political and economic commentary for GLR Radio, a nationally syndicated Spanish-language radio network. Hailed as “a cultural visionary” by the National Hispanic Institute, Rudy is a native Spanish speaker, born and raised on the US-Mexico border. He earned his Bachelor’s degree in Government and his Master’s degree in Public Policy at Harvard University. His published works include Adelante (Random House, 2003) and Going Hungry (Anchor Books, 2008). He is currently working on a collection of short stories scheduled for publication in 2009.

In 1995, Rudy founded Interlex Communications, one of the leading multicultural advertising agencies in the nation, with a specific focus on Advocacy and Cause-Related Marketing. His unique blend of creativity, cultural insight and policy expertise has delivered measurable results for major government agencies, non-profits and Fortune 500 companies as well as garnered numerous awards and accolades. Hispanic Business Magazine has frequently ranked Rudy as one of the Top Hispanic Entrepreneurs in America. Read more about Rudy Ruiz here.

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Rolando Rodriguez

Rolando Rodriguez – Managing Editor & Columnist

Rolando Rodriguez is a Latino firebrand and pioneer of multicultural communications on the national advocacy front. A journalist at heart, he has written for numerous publications, including most recently CATALINA Magazine.

His professional career has included stints in Washington, DC as Director of Communications for the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute and the New America Alliance. As an entrepreneur he has headed his own public relations firm. Since 2007 he has served as Managing Director of Public Relations at Interlex Communications, an award-winning cause-related and social advocacy marketing agency. At Interlex he has spearheaded PR campaigns to boost support for Latino troops and their families, increase access by Latino and Black senior citizens to Medicare services, develop and launch a groundbreaking financial literacy program for Latino immigrants, increase participation of Latina and African American women entrepreneurs in the “Make Mine A Million $ Business” movement, and provide access to free wireless phones and service to eligible low-income families.

Rolando Rodriguez’s column, “Sincerely, Rolando Rodriguez,”grabs the bull by the horns in a brazen and incendiary style that personifies his fiery, genuine and charismatic personality.

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Jake Negovan

Jake Negovan – Editorial Board Member & Columnist

Irreverent and self-assured, Jake Negovan writes the way he thinks you need to think. Since the twelfth grade, when he would have daily mental sparring matches with his government teacher, Jake has taken an interest in the American political landscape and its service – or disservice – to the American people. Above all else, he strives to shine a light on truth and hypocrisy when the mainstream media overlooks those small details.

Writing is born of experience, and Jake can claim a mutt’s heritage for his words. The dirt beneath his fingernails comes from the ladders of various professions, where Jake carved his initials in the bottom rung and then raced everyone else to the top. He has earned paychecks working as a project manager for a steel manufacturing company, an operations officer for several financial institutions, an auto mechanic for a Dodge dealership, a radioman in the U.S. Navy, and many more. Now working as Media Coordinator at Interlex Communications, (recognized as one of the U.S.’s Top 500 Hispanic-American Owned Businesses), Jake assists in the company’s directive to affect social change through cause-related marketing.

For love over money, Jake also has been ghost-writing some form of copy for the businesses of family or friends since he was 13. When free-time is available, he is the writer and creator of the pseudo-fictional (he likes to call it “hyper-real”) basketball blog NBA on the Brain.

“…For the People,” Jake’s column, is his platform to address the issues that our country faces as we continue growing toward a society of equality, as well as to provide him a place to tell you that he’s always right.

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Ruben Navarrette Jr.

Ruben Navarrette Jr. – Contributor

Ruben Navarrette Jr., 42, is an editorial writer for The San Diego Union-Tribune and a nationally syndicated columnist with The Washington Post Writers Group whose twice-a-week column appears in nearly 200 newspapers.

He is a weekly commentator on National Public Radio’s “Tell Me More w/ Michel Martin” and a recovering radio talk show host who, in 1994, had a three-hour daily show in Los Angeles and who has since sat in as a guest radio talk show host in Phoenix, Dallas, San Diego, and his hometown of Fresno, CA. He has also served as a guest host for the nationally syndicated Michael Medved Show, which airs in 200 markets.

He also contributes regular commentary to CNN.COM. His freelance writing has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Texas Monthly, Hispanic Magazine, Latino Magazine, USA Today, & TIME.COM.

On television, he has appeared on “CNN’s Lou Dobbs Tonight,” “CNN’s Inside Politics,” “CNN’s Paula Zahn Now,” “CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360,” “The Chris Matthews Show," "The O'Reilly Factor,” “Hardball with Chris Matthews,” and "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer." He also served as a panelist on the PBS’ All-American Presidential Forum in June 2007, a primetime event where he joined other panelists in asking questions of eight Democratic presidential candidates.

On radio, he has appeared on nationally syndicated radio shows hosted by Bill Bennett, Michael Reagan, Linda Chavez, Michael Medved and Laura Ingraham. His work has been mentioned on the nationally syndicated radio show hosted by Rush Limbaugh, where the host read one of Navarrette's columns to the show’s 20 million listeners.

He is the author of "A Darker Shade of Crimson: Odyssey of a Harvard Chicano" (Bantam, 1993). He’s also a contributor to the popular "Chicken Soup for the Soul" series, having published essays in both “Chicken Soup for the Writer’s Soul” and “Chicken Soup for the Latino Soul.”

He’s a 1990 graduate of Harvard College and the John F. Kennedy School of Government, where he earned a Masters’ in Public Administration.

He’s also a popular speaker on the national lecture circuit, having addressed dozens of audiences at universities, conferences, and town halls.

In 2005, Hispanic Business Magazine named him one of “The 100 Most Influential Hispanics in the Country.” San Diego Magazine also named him one of “50 People to Watch in 2006.” Also in 2006 and 2007, PODER Magazine named him one of 100 Hispanic "poderosos" (powerful ones).

Navarrette lives near San Diego with his wife and three children.

Find out more at www.rubennavarrette.com.

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Randolph Gonzales

Randolph Gonzales – Editorial Board Member & Columnist

Randolph can't understand it when someone tells him they are not interested in politics. It's not just because he has been a fan since he was four years old, but the idea that someone would let a group of folks fight about their life and future without taking an interest just seems insane. Say you don't like politics, say you abhor them, but please take an interest in the debate that protects and at times limits your freedom.

He graduated from Galena Park High School on the East Side of Houston, and went on to earn a degree in International Politics from the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. During this time he started working at the National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts, which afforded him the opportunity to work with elected officials, community leaders, celebrities and trailblazers.

He hopes that his contributions provoke interest for republicans, democrats, libertarians, socialists, everyone; after all he comes from a mixed-partisan family.

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Enrique Cortez

Enrique Cortez – Editorial Board Member & Columnist

Enrique is the Director of Government Relations & Strategic Alliances at Interlex Communications, one of the nation’s only advertising firms dedicated to socially conscientious multicultural marketing. With a professional foundation in leading the operational, programmatic and marketing aspects of national nonprofits, Enrique’s passion has been community and political advocacy.

Benita Veliz

Benita Veliz – Contributor

Benita Veliz has become one of the most vocal advocates for the DREAM Act (Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act). Though undocumented, Benita has lived the American Dream, becoming valedictorian of her high school and double majoring in Biology and Sociology at St. Mary’s University, where she graduated with honors. Benita’s story has been at the center of national media attention, including the New York Times, San Antonio Express-News, Texas Monthly, and the national Univision network.

Dr. Jose Flores

Dr. Jose Flores – Contributor

A seasoned educator and community activist, Dr. Flores has been at the forefront of several movements to improve the treatment of Hispanics in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He has become a vocal advocate for greater funding for the education of children from limited English backgrounds as well as for bilingual personnel in the City of Grand Rapids’ Police, Fire and Emergency Response staff.

In 1996, Dr. Flores earned his Education Doctorate Degree from Wayne State University. His professional career has included serving as the President of the Michigan Association for Bilingual Education and founding the Hispanic Center for Western Michigan, and The Hispanic Festival of Grand Rapids. Dr. Flores is currently an active member of the National Council of La Raza as well as the publisher of the Community Voice/La Voz Bilingual Magazine, www.lavozweb.com in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

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Sonia Villar

Sonia Villar – Editorial Board Member & Columnist

Sonia’s passion for culture, customs and ethnicity grew when she realized her heart would always be in Mexico and her mind and body in the United States. She strives to build a bridge between her two most beloved countries in order to help other Latino’s cope with the changes and pressures they experience while adapting to a new way of life. Currently a graduate student at the School of Interactive Media and Design in the University of Incarnate Word, Sonia continues to pursue her ultimate goal: to create a world where gender, skin color, and ethnicity will never be a barrier.

Angelica Lopez

Angelica Lopez – Contributor

Angelica’s question has always been, why can’t people just be more compassionate and caring towards one another? A true believer in making this world a better place for us all, she strives to help others and assist those less fortunate than her to succeed.

She comes from a small Texas town where her schools were filled with diverse crowds. After graduating from Lamar Consolidated High School she went on to pursue a Sociology degree at Texas A&M University in College Station. While falling in love with the whole college experience she tutored and mentored migrant students at a local high school and did field research on undocumented workers in New Orleans. After working and learning more about this specific population her passion grew even more. Wanting to make a difference in people’s lives she found herself a place with Interlex, one of the nation’s only advertising firms dedicated to socially conscientious multicultural marketing.

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Callisto Griffith

Callisto Griffith – Contributor

Callisto Griffith is a student, free-spirit, model, and world-citizen striving to analyze as much information about the universe she resides in as possible. With an inquisitive take on people, places, culture, current events, history, nature, and the simple pleasures of living, Callisto is always one to share her thoughts, opinions and philosophies and converse with fellow contemporaries.

Callisto is a recent graduate from the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio, Texas. As a Dean’s List student for most of her college experience, she fell in love with journalism and philosophy. From there, she pursued a career in public relations to constantly be surrounded with people, to understand what drives people, to be a voice in under-represented causes and to inform the public of under-informed issues. San Antonio-based Interlex Communications welcomed Callisto into their socially conscientious, cause-related full-service advertising agency in February of 2009. Since then, she has passionately worked on the advocacy front and will continue to work avidly to bring unity and peace within the world.

As an accomplished high-fashion model, Callisto is also passionate in what drives the image-based culture. She believes high-fashion is fine art, and to present a picture “worth a thousand words” is perfection. The media, however, has taken beauty to a different level, and Callisto yearns to transform the negative into a positive. In any case, Callisto simply yearns to transform the negative into a positive.

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Jerry Ruiz

Jerry Ruiz – Contributor

Jerry Ruiz is a writer and theater director originally from Brownsville, Texas, and now based in NYC. He has directed and worked at respected NYC theater companies such as Repertorio Espanol, HERE Arts Center, Second Stage Theater and The Public, among others, and at regional theaters across the country. Along with his thriving directing career, he is the author of several plays and published short stories, as well as a novel. A two-time recipient of the prestigious Van Lier Fellowship for stage directors of color and a Drama League Directing Fellowship, Jerry holds a Masters in Fine Arts in Theater from UCSD and a BA in English Literature from Harvard University.

Marcos Cortez

Marcos Cotez – Contributor

After 15 years in his family’s restaurant business, Marcos joined the Army and was stationed in Washington, D.C. at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center as a Combat Medic. As well as his love for food, Marcos’ passion has always been community advancement and social equality. Currently, Marcos is a Public Relations Associate at Interlex Communications, one of the nation’s only advertising firms dedicated to socially conscientious multicultural marketing.

Michael Maine

Michael Maine – Contributor

Michael Maine is dedicated to global communication, collaboration, and cooperation. Originally planning on utilizing his problem solving and strategic strengths in the corporate sector, his eyes were opened and life changed after taking his first Sociology class at Southwestern University, where he graduated with a bachelor in Business and minors in both Sociology and Communications.

Creator of Global Mind Frame, http://www.globalmindframe, a website to discuss and solve global issues, collaborate on international projects and media, and serve as an outlet to learn from others, Michael has also installed computers in low-income elementary schools in Honduras, volunteered for several years, and has been active in cultural awareness events and initiatives. Currently Michael is trying to broaden his cultural capital by developing international marketing plans for socially conscious organizations around the world.

He believes that through communication and education we can move beyond the ethnocentric view of “tolerance” or “acceptance” of others and transcend towards “celebration.” Michael also maintains a personal blog at http://www.michaelbmaine.com.

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Maryna Benavides

Maryna Benavides – Translator

A wife, mother and grandmother, Maryna has held a management position in a world-class marketing company during the past 21 years in her hometown of Nuevo Laredo, Mexico. A lover of words and an avid reader since childhood, Maryna thoroughly enjoys using her bilingual skills to assist in the communication of ideas and ideals.