Her closest friends:
Janice, Rosemary; Lisa, Robbin , Tiffany, Tam Tam,
Austie Mary and Linda.
Robbin
concurs. "She was extremely strong. I never saw
her get pooped out, even after the ten-hour shopping
marathons we used to go on." One of those
marathons produced Anna Maria’s pride and joy, her
cocker spaniel Federico.
Impressed
by her friend’s tenacity, Robbin remembers Anna
Maria’s consistent advice: ‘If I got distracted or
upset by some little thing she would always tell me,
"Don’t sweat the small stuff, get over
it!"’
As the
managing editor for Hispanic magazine, she had
established friendships with executives who would be
the first advertisers to commit to advertise in the
magazine - Nordstrom, Coca-Cola, and General Motors.
"We appreciated the positive images LATINA Style
presented of the professional Latina and that it
celebrated the best and the brightest [of our
community]," says Orlando Padilla, director of
the General Motors Public Policy Center.
Once the
magazine was launched, Anna Maria decided that it
needed to do more than just publish articles about
successful Latinas, it needed to get out and give back
to its readers. So, in 1998, she created the LATINA
Style Business Series, a series of events presenting
seminars and workshops for Latinas on a variety of
different topics, such as how to start a business,
where to find investors, and how to market your
company. "To date, more than three thousand
Latinas have participated in this series," says
her husband proudly. "Anna wanted to find a way
to have a positive impact on the life of Latina
entrepreneurs. She was always looking for ways to
better the position of Latinas in society."
Anna
Maria also impressed others with her caring and
determination. Three organizations have created permanent
scholarships in her honor: General Motors (GM), together
with the Hispanic Scholarship Fund (HSF), the Congressional
Hispanic Caucus Institute (CHCI), and MANA, a National
Latina Organization, together with State Farm Insurance
Companies.
GM established the General
Motors Anna Maria Arias Communications Scholarship with an
initial contribution of $5,000. The scholarship will target
Latino journalism students and be distributed through the
HSF. "Anna Maria had commitment beyond words. She
followed up with action. She had a sense of what she wanted
to accomplish," Orlando says.
The Walt Disney Company
quickly followed by matching GM’s contribution. "Anna
Maria represented the best in terms of ethics,
responsibility, and commitment to quality in
journalism," says Diane Medina, director of diversity
programs at Disney. "This scholarship was the least we
could do to recognize her contributions to the Latino
community."
The CHCI established the Anna
Maria Arias Trailblazer Scholarship which will award $5,000
to Latina CHCI fellows or journalism majors, while MANA, a
National Latina Organization, together with State Farm
Insurance Companies wanted to create a scholarship in honor
of Anna Maria because of her "relentless commitment to
Latinas," according to José "Pepe" Estrada,
corporate relations manager, Hispanic community, at State
Farm Insurance. "Anna Maria was one of those few
leaders that strongly felt that leadership is about
empowering people to accomplish what they thought was not
possible," he says.
