Jason Riveiro works as VP of Business Development for TSJ Media where he currently oversees the expansion of their Spanish Language products into several markets including Columbus, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Atlanta, Chicago, Houston, Miami.
Jason devotes much of his spare time as a volunteer for many non-profit organizations mostly focused on helping the Hispanic community. He represents the oldest and largest Hispanic civil rights organization in the country, LULAC (League of United Latin American Citizens), by serving as its Ohio State Director and as the founding past President of the Cincinnati chapter. Under his leadership, LULAC has awarded numerous scholarships to Hispanic college students. He has created 877-77-LULAC, a venue for people to report discrimination and racial profiling and has also helped fund after school reading programs within Cincinnati Public Schools.
A native of Houston Texas, Jason spent 10 years living in México before returning to his native Houston to complete his professional studies. He has lived in Cincinnati since 2005 with his wife, Hannah.
Jason serves on several boards including: WCPO-TV's Community Advisory Board; Clear Channel's Community Advisory Board; LULAC National Civil Rights Commission; the W.E.B Dubois Academy Board of Directors; the Cincinnati Art Museum Advisory Committee; Cincinnati Agenda 360 Inclusion Team. He has been awarded the Champion Award, Cincinnati USA Convention and Visitors Bureau, Power 100, Cincinnati Magazine; 40 under 40 by the Cincinnati Business Courier; Person of the Year by CityBeat Magazine; the NAACP Freedom Fighter Award and the Distinguished Hispanic Ohioan Award. Jason holds a Bachelors in International Studies and Business Administration from the University of St. Thomas in Houston, TX and has completed graduate courses in International Politics from the Universidad de San Pablo in Madrid, Spain.
Soapblog 3: The Formula to Compete With Larger Cities
Posted By: Jason Riveiro, 9/24/2009
A little interesting fact - since 2001, Cincinnati has hosted over 15 large multicultural groups for their national conventions including Las Amigas, NAACP, National Society of Hispanic MBA's and the National Baptist Convention. Thanks to the stellar team at the Cincinnati USA Convention & Visitors Bureau this list is growing and attracting larger conventions like the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers in 2010, the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) in 2011 and the World Choir Games in 2012.
My small involvement came as a result of our organization's desire to add LULAC to this prestigious list of conventions. LULAC which is the oldest and largest Hispanic organization in the country would draw close to 15,000 members and expose Cincinnati to our country's rich Hispanic heritage. The 2011 LULAC Convention would also be a critical aspect in keeping thousands of local hospitality professionals employed and local businesses operating.
We faced many obstacles, but looking back, the Cincinnati CVB formula made all the difference in beating larger cities including our competition of Dallas and Orlando - Disney to be exact. Though both cities were familiar names to Latinos and both had larger Latino populations, neither city was able to demonstrate the collective grassroots effort of Cincinnati. LULAC members saw support from our city officials, corporations like P&G and Macys, and influential Latino leaders.
In the end, Cincinnati was able to do what larger cities only dream about - bringing together individuals and groups from across the spectrum for one cause.
Soapblog 2: Latinos - Setting the Record Straight
Posted By: Jason Riveiro, 9/23/2009
Many might recall two incidents back in 2007 when our local talk radio flagship, 700 WLW, decided to stir up the immigration debate by casting some very negative and culturally insensitive stereotypes of the Latino community.
The first was a carefully planned billboard campaign which began with a teaser billboard in Spanish. The mysterious billboards sprung up throughout the city and stated, "Radio Para Gran Americanos", meaning 'Radio for Great Americans' alongside a large Mexican flag. You can only imagine the excitement many Latinos had when they saw a billboard that perhaps indicated the arrival of a new Spanish language radio station - Cincinnati is currently without full-time Spanish radio. I vividly recall several conversations with local leaders asking me if I knew the owners of this new medium. After about three weeks, the intent of these billboards became clear - WLW was trying to cause controversy. WLW replaced the Spanish billboards with their new 'Big One' campaign, 'The Big Juan'.
The second incident took the message overboard with some 30 second public service announcement which said the following: {Male announcer} "Illegal Aliens, they are here and they don't speak English which makes talking to an illegal alien difficult. So here are a few useful phrases next time you converse with an illegal alien: {Woman speaking Spanish} {Male announcer translating} 'If anyone asks, tell them you are an exchange student from Sweden'. {Woman speaking Spanish} {Male announcer translating} 'Be careful with those hedge clippers around the garden.' As culturally sensitive individuals would agree, these attacks are not helpful in any way and ultimately hurt the progress Cincinnati is trying to make. Fortunately, after some pressure and heavy negotiations, ClearChannel radio agreed to form a Community Advisory board last year and they have been free of any anti-Mexican messages so far.
The other side of this story is the one I want to use as my main point. Despite the efforts of a small group of individuals, Cincinnatians as a whole stood by our efforts to stop the WLW attacks. Because even though most immigrants, whether Latino or not, are here legally and contributing to every social-economic aspect of our city, those who are undocumented should not be looked upon as less human. In the end, over twenty (20) organizations stood up against WLW and declared Cincinnati a welcoming city.
Soapblog 1: Cincinnati - Land of Opportunity
Posted By: Jason Riveiro, 9/22/2009
Most readers of Soapbox are familiar with the recent explosion of activities on Fountain Square.
One of the most visited activities during the week happens to be the one I am most proud of - Salsa On the Square. This injection of dance, excitement, and diversity during the Thursday summer schedule has become one of the most visible signs of Cincinnati's growing Latino influence; however, this influence is only a small part of the contributions Latinos are making in our city. These contributions are seen not only in spicy food or our romantic language, but in the everyday face of Cincinnati's diversity.
Accounting for only 1.4 % of the Cincinnati population, a 2006 study by the University of Cincinnati's Applied Economics Research Institute concluded Hispanics contribute over $2.3 billion in output for our city every year. Hopefully this number will grow and so will the number of Latinos that call Cincinnati home.
If you're interested in learning more about Latinos and their rich history both abroad and in the United States, I encourage you to participate in one of the many activities going on during Hispanic Heritage Month. On September 15th through October 15th, Cincinnati will host numerous events in celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month. One will be able to experience a small part of the dynamic Latino culture on almost any given day throughout the month. Although fairly new to the region, Hispanic Heritage month dates back to 1968 when President Lyndon B. Johnson officially began the observation which marks the starting point for the anniversary of independence of five Latin American countries: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua.
For more information on all the local events in Cincinnati, check
here.