L’ATTITUDE Leadership award
The L’ATTITUDE Leadership Award is presented to individuals who, in their life and work, have achieved exemplary personal success, which they have then leveraged by using their resources and influence to improve the lives of others. This award recognizes those who demonstrate the relentless U.S. Latino work ethic, and the community-minded U.S. Latino humanitarian spirit.
The recipient(s) receive the award at the annual L’ATTITUDE national event in San Diego, California, and this year virtually in the L’ATTITUDE 2020 live-streamed event.
Emilio Estefan was born in Santiago Cuba, Cuba, which at the age of 14, he was forced to flee with his father from the Castro regime. However, before leaving Cuba, it is said here is where he cultivated his musical sensibilities playing his accordion to earn enough tips to help him support his family.
Mike Fernandez was born in a small town in the eastern end of Cuba called Manzanillo. His father was an ambitious entrepreneur who by the age of 24 owned four sandwich shops, a cafeteria, a bar, and a jukebox business. When Mike was 12 years old, the Cuban communist militia seized his father’s shops and his family were forced to leave the country, arriving first in Mexico City, and then making their way to New York City.