Desde Los Angeles: The Hispanic Public Relations Association
By Brenda C. Mendoza, HPRA President

As president of the Hispanic Public Relations Association (HPRA), I am delighted at the opportunity to introduce our LA-based organization to the members of HMCA. Many of you are probably not familiar with HPRA, but as your president Elena del Valle and I have found, both our organizations have a lot in common.

So what is HPRA? Well, let me tell you a little about who we are and where we are heading. HPRA was founded in 1984 as a non-profit organization to establish a network for Hispanic public relations practitioners in the Southern California area. For more than 15 years, our volunteer-driven organization has worked diligently to provide the following benefits for our members:

• Unite Hispanic PR practitioners for the purpose of exchanging ideas and experiences

• Promote professional development through educational programs

• Provide financial assistance to students via our HPRA Scholarship Program

• Be a resource and link the to Hispanic market for not only our members, but also to corporations and the community at-large.

I am pleased to say that the HPRA Board of Directors continues to keep this organization’s legacy alive. Yet, we are also working to take it to another level. This year, our membership totaled 130 members, many of them are self-employed, or working for PR agencies, non-profit organizations, and corporations. What’s wonderful about our membership is that we know there are many more professionals in the Los Angeles area we need to recruit, and therefore, there is a lot of opportunity for our growth to continue. We are also working toward raising our visibility beyond LA and venturing into San Diego and the Bay Area, since we get many inquiries from all over the state.

Being an HPRA member gives you the opportunity to network and participate in some of the educational programs we put together. Some of this year’s events included a networking mixer at KMEX studios (Univision affiliate), and an educational program about the San Fernando Valley seceding from Los Angeles and the PR tactics being used.

However, HPRA could not be more proud of its annual HPRA Premio Awards & Scholarship event. Providing scholarships to aspiring communications professionals is what drives this organization. Over the last ten years, HPRA has awarded more than $150,000 in scholarships to Latino college students. This year, we held our 10 Annual Premio Awards and Scholarship Dinner &endash; one of the most successful events our organization has ever had &endash; with more than 250 people attending. We awarded 10 scholarships and honored the following individuals with a PREMIO Award: Jesus Chavarria, Hispanic Business; Ivelisse Estrada, Univision; Luis Valdez, El Teatro Campesino; and Washington Mutual (Corporation of the Year).

We are proud of these accomplishments, but we know there is more work that needs to be done. As we all know, the PR industry and consumer market has changed in recent years, and there has never been more of a demand for a talented Hispanic PR professional than today, especially in major markets like Los Angeles. As a result, HPRA realizes that the success of our organization is to continue to provide quality programs and events that will make the Hispanic PR professional even better at what they do, and in additionto that, serve as a resource to the Latino community .

In closing, I thank you for the opportunity to introduce our organization. I also ask that you keep HPRA in mind as a resource for those doing work or interested in learning more about the Los Angeles market or the entire state of California. You can always e-mail at Brenda.C.Mendoza@kp.org or you can check out our website at www.hprala.org which will be up and running as of January 2003.