Latino community comes together at Hispanic Foundation ball
At the Hispanic Foundation Ball last year — held just weeks before the 2016 presidential election — there was a sense of a political elation. But those political winds shifted quickly, as Hispanic Foundation of Silicon Valley CEO Ron Gonzales noted to start this year’s ball Saturday night.
“It’s fair to say that 2017 is a far different year than what we imagined at this time last year,” said Gonzales, a former San Jose mayor. “But tonight is an opportunity for us to come together as a community, to recognize our strengths, to focus on our continued potential and to recommit ourselves to working as community to fulfill the mission of our foundation, which is to improve the quality of life for Silicon Valley Latinos.”
And so they did. A boisterous crowd of about 830 people filled the Fairmont’s Imperial Ballroom for the 28th annual fund-raiser, which had Reed Hastings as its presenting sponsor.
The biggest highlight, besides perhaps the evening-ending dance party, was the presentation of the La Familia award to the Escamez family of Redwood City. The family, led by teacher, theater director and social worker Veronica Escamez, has served Bay Area Latino families through its nonprofit, Casa Circulo Cultural. She was joined in the honor by her sons. Gerardo Escamez, Octavio Escamez and Fernando Escamez are all key parts of the Casa Circulo family, and Manuel Escamez is a professor at the University of Mexico.
Also honored at the event were Silicon Valley Community Foundation CEO Emmett Carson, who received the Visionario award for his support of the foundation’s work with STEM education in the Latino community, and Chevron, which received the Pioneros award for its funding of the foundation’s work. WHITE HOUSE REUNION >> Vivek Murthy, who served as U.S. Surgeon General under President Obama, was the keynote speaker Friday night at Momentum for Mental Health’s Shining Stars fundraiser in downtown San Jose. Murthy flew in from Washington for the event at the invitation of a former colleague, Momentum CEO David Mineta. The two worked together in the Obama administration, where Mineta was a deputy director in the office of national drug control policy.
Murthy was honored with a Shining Star award along with Santa Clara County Supervisor Ken Yeager and Mary Crocker Cook, an expert on drug and alcohol dependency issues and licensed addiction counselor. In recognition of the nonprofit’s 20th anniversary, Mineta opened the program by honoring his predecessors in the agency’s leadership: Mary Hiland, Vonza Thompson and Paul Taylor. ART AND ABOUT >> Silicon Valley art collectors walked home with some real treasures at the San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art’s live auction Saturday night, but the item that had people talking was Amante Bronze Maquette II,” a 1983 sculpture by Manuel Neri, who is known for his work during the Bay Area figurative movement in the 1960s. After a riveting bidding battle for the piece, with a retail value of $42,000, photographer and artist David Pace won with a $35,000 bid. He called it a “once in a lifetime” opportunity.