Honoring Carlsbad’s hispanic heritage

Hispanic Heritage Month is celebrated annually in the United States from September 15 to October 15. If you are like me and are wondering, why do we celebrate this from the middle of September to the middle of October, there is a reason. Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua declared independence from Spain on September 15, 1821. In addition, Mexico’s day of independence is September 16, Chile is September 18 and Belize is September 21. Here in the US, celebrating Hispanic Heritage started as a weeklong celebration under President Johnson in 1968.  President Reagan expanded it to a full month in 1988. 

During this month of celebration, we want to recognize four of our Board Members with Hispanic heritage.

Miguel de Jesus – Miguel just recently ended a six-year stint at the College of Business Administration at Cal State San Marcos where he helped with the Executive in Residence Program, the Senior Experience Program and served as Director of Business Development. Miguel’s corporate experience is vast as he served as an Area Vice President for Paychex for over 18 years and a Manager at Xerox for over 17 years. Miguel still operates his own consulting firm called Purpose & Action. Miguel is a dynamo in management and leadership development and business processes. We have been blessed to have Miguel on our Board of Directors for five years.

Blanca Rincon – Blanca is the Founder and CEO of Apex 365 Workforce Solutions and Apex 365 Insurance Solutions. Apex is a comprehensive human resources company offering a full-service platform for payroll, time and attendance, training, and more.  Blanca started out serving as human resources liaison fo

r multiple restaurant locations at a very young age. By the time she was 20, she managed safety and operations for 15 locations for a popular Fortune 500 company.  She has not slowed down since.  Thanks to Blanca, Apex is the largest donor to our Carlsbad Chamber Community Foundation, which provides our Rising Star scholarships. She serves on multiple Board of Directors, including ours, where she has served for two years.

Chafic Rouhana – Chafic is a Premier Client Manager for Wells Fargo. Chafic has worked for Wells Fargo for over 19 years. Chafic transferred to North County in 2020 from New Jersey, where he served as a Board Member for the Statewide Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.  Chafic’s experience includes managing individual branches as well as overseeing entire regions for Wells Fargo. He is gifted at developing long-term successful teams.  Chafic has brought Wells Fargo corporate teams to our Green Business Expo the past two years, helping support our sustainability efforts. He has served on our Board of Directors for 5 years.

Ramon Oseguera – Ramon is the Senior General Manager for Retail at Brookfield Properties.  If you are not sure what means, it means he is the GM at The Shoppes at Carlsbad. Ramon has worked in retail management for over 17 years, including previously working for Westfield. Ramon recently got his Masters of Science at the Knauss School of Business at USD. Keeping a brick and mortar shopping mall relevant in the age of e-commerce is no easy task. But with Ramon’s leadership, the Shoppes continues to evolve with new restaurants (have you tried The Red Chickz or Mas Fuego yet), and new experiences (have you been to Escapology yet). Ramon has served on our Board of Directors for six years. 

This is just a small sample of how we have been blessed at the Carlsbad Chamber and in Carlsbad in general by great Hispanic leaders. Muchas Gracias!