In honor of National Hispanic Heritage Month, which runs from September 15 to October 15, we’re celebrating several notable drinks pros of Hispanic heritage who are making an impact across the cocktails and spirits industry.
Of course, this isn’t even close to a comprehensive who’s who among the worlds of hospitality, distillation and more. Just as the Hispanic population across the country is robust and diverse, that’s true within the drinks field as well. According to the 2022 U.S. census, the U.S. Hispanic population reached 62.5 million in 2021, representing nearly 19% of the total population. That group includes people of Cuban, Mexican, Puerto Rican, South or Central American or other Spanish culture or origin, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
For drinks spaces, that’s meant the introduction of offerings with incredible depth and complexity as Hispanic individuals incorporate ingredients, drink-making techniques and points of view from their respective homelands.
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While it’s always been important to honor Hispanic heritage in the drinks industry, says Lynnette Marrero, the chief mixologist at ready-to-drink spritz outfit Delola, the community is receiving more recognition than ever, including helming bar and restaurant projects.
“I think it is important to see the representation of the diaspora in the front-of-the-house sharing in the profits of our cultures being so popular,” Marrero says, noting the rise of spirits from Latin American countries and successful Latin-themed bar concepts around the world.
“I am proud of the resilience and talent of the community,” she adds. “It is one of the most supportive collectives I belong to. It’s an honor to represent!”
Juan Coronado
Co-founder, Mijenta Tequila
Following an extensive career in the in food and drink industry, Coronado launched the Altos Planos Collective and co-founded Mijenta Tequila during the height of the pandemic in 2020. Mijenta’s blanco tequila recently earned an impressive 93 points from Wine Enthusiast.
Coronado began his hospitality career as the Champagne sommelier for the prestigious Bubble Lounge in New York and San Francisco and went on to open drinks spot Sortie in New York City. His track record also includes service as the cocktail innovator for ThinkFoodGroup, which is led by chef José Andrés, and lead liaison for the research and development team. In addition, he’s a partner in Bresca, the Hennessy House of Mixing Academy and Cuban spot Colada Shop, all based in Washington, D.C. Most recently, Juan held the position of National Brand Ambassador at Bacardi.
Born in the Dominican Republic and now based in Jersey City, New Jersey, Coronado credits his roots with influencing the course of his career. “Tourism is the number one industry there,” he explains. “It’s in people’s manners to be polite, hospitable, cordial… Fast-forward, [with] all the charisma and happiness of being Dominican, it was natural for me to jump into hospitality.”
Alba Huerta
Owner, Julep
Born in Mexico and raised in Texas, Huerta is well-known as a bartender, entrepreneur, bilingual cocktail educator and advocate for the bar industry. After stints at Houston bars including Anvil Bar and Refuge and mezcaleria The Pastry War, she opened her own bar, Julep, in 2014.
Since then, Julep received the James Beard Award for Outstanding Bar Program in 2022 and was ranked 46th in the 50 Best Bars North America Inaugural List that same year. In 2023, Huerta made her debut on the Bar World 100, a list of the most influential figures in the industry—and this is only a fraction of the accolades for her bar and for Huerta herself. Actively involved in championing migrant rights through RAICES, which helps migrants with legal assistance, as well as promoting female entrepreneurship via the Latin Women’s Initiative, Huerta’s brand extends far beyond just cocktails.
Lynnette Marrero
Chief mixologist, Delola
“I have always been a very proud Nuyorican,” meaning a New Yorker of Puerto Rican descent, says Marrero. One of the most accomplished bartenders around, her career began at New York City’s Flatiron Lounge, where she quickly transitioned from cocktail server to bartender. Eventually, she transitioned over to the brand side and spent two years with Diageo as an ambassador for Zacapa Rum. Along the way, she developed a successful consulting business, Drinksat6, which works with restaurant and bar programs. Marrero also helmed the opening and became Bar Director at New York hotspots The Llama Inn and Llama San for over six years.
She’s also the co-founder of Speed Rack, a speed-bartending competition that raises funds for breast cancer research, and in April 2023, Marrero launched Delola, a line of ready-to-drink spritzes, developed in partnership with Jennifer Lopez.
“In the most recent years I have made sure to continue to connect our Latiné community across other industries and use my platform to assist in working with not-for-profits,” Marrero says. To that end, for the past two years she’s served as beverage director for the Raizado with The Latinx House, a festival featuring everything from talks to musical performances in support of Justice for Migrant Women.
Celina Perez
Head distiller, Great Jones Distilling
With roots in Durango, Mexico, and Spain, San Francisco native Perez started her career as an assistant at the Dogfish Head and Birra Baladin Microbrewery collaboration on the Eataly rooftop, as well as working with New York spirits brands such as Widow Jane and Owney’s. She holds a bachelor’s in science from New York University and has spent nearly a decade working on all levels of distillation production, from planning to construction to implementation, seeing the processes through from grain to barrel to bottle.
Today, she’s head distiller at Great Jones Distilling Co., the first whiskey distillery opened in Manhattan since Prohibition. There, she manages spirit production including fermentation, distillation and new product development.
“As a Latina distiller, I am proud to be a part of a community of women who are breaking barriers in the spirits industry,” Perez says. “I am also proud to be a mentor to other Latina distillers.” Diversity is essential to the spirits industry, she continues.
“When we have people of different backgrounds and perspectives working together, we open ourselves up to innovation and can pull culturally from the many different traditions of spirits production… I am very proud of my Mexican and Spanish heritage and the beauty of those cultures and how they have contributed to making me who I am.”
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LyAnna Sanabria
Co-founder and beverage director, Papi Portland
The beverage director and co-founder of Papi, a Puerto Rican bar and restaurant in Portland, Maine, Sanabria was born in Vermont to a Puerto Rican father and French Canadian mother. She went on to earn her bachelor’s degree from Boston University as a first-generation college student, focusing on developmental psychopathology. Her other passion? Working in bars.
In 2017, she moved back to Maine, where her grandfather was growing old. She decided to marry her love of the drinks business and community growth, the latter part of a mission she describes as striving “to bring equity and sazón” to every space she enters or creates. That has included developing and executing a craft Puerto Rican beverage program at Papi as well as working with Turning Tables NOLA to establish a non-profit that addresses industry access and representation needs in Maine and the greater New England region.
“Growing up in the diaspora is often an experience that gets lost in translation,” Sanabria observes, “whether it be the disappearing of traditions, language or a skewed sense of identity.”
Looking back at her own journey toward defining a sense of identity after settling in Maine, “I realized that I had always been hosting Puerto Ricans, people of color and the queer community through flavor and hospitality. I was the representation I was looking for and I could represent through the menu, flavors and the bar space as a whole.”
Cristhian Rodriguez
Bar director, elNico
Born and raised in Peru, Rodriguez grew up in a family bakery, where he learned about that the interwoven relationship between culinary arts, visual arts and personal histories from a young age. Always involved in the arts, he studied clarinet music performance at the University of Miami and, later on, Packaging Design at the Fashion Institute of Technology. He began his career in service and hospitality at the NoMad Hotel before moving to the beverage team at Eleven Madison Park.
After the pandemic, he worked with the teams at Atelier Crenn and directed the beverage program at La Devozione before he was tapped to head the beverage program at elNico, a Mexican restaurant in Brooklyn’s Williamsburg neighborhood, with an emphasis on agave spirits.
“When [Sydell Group partner] Leo [Robitschek] asked me to join elNico”—which is located inside the Penny hotel, a Sydell Group property—”I was thrilled to collaborate with a team that comes from different Hispanic backgrounds.” Robitschek hails from Venezuela and chef Fer Serrano from Mexico City, he explains. Both designed elNico to be a celebration of a range of Latinx and Hispanic cultures.
“I jokingly say that never before in my career have I been able to speak Spanish as much as I do with this team,” Rodgriguez says. Further, he’s proud that the restaurant’s program is about more than just food and drinks. It’s also “a story of our backgrounds that we hope educates people on our culture’s vibrant heritage and inspires more people to do the same.”
Carlos Soto
Founder, Nosotros Tequila & Mezcal
For Costa Rica native Carlos Soto, a college assignment turned into a lifelong career. At Loyola Marymount University, a classed tasked him to “come up with a business idea that has nothing to do with technology,” which prompted Soto to develop a tequila brand rooted in sustainability. He took out a personal loan of $18,000 for the first batch of production of a tequila blanco, and went door to door across Los Angeles to drum up interest in his product.
He faced rejection after rejection and was due to fly back to Costa Rica in a matter of weeks when, in the eleventh hour, he submitted Nosotros’ blanco to the San Francisco World Spirits Competition. It took home a Best in Class medal and catapulted the brand into the spotlight, making it a contender in the premium spirits space. Today, a permanent Los Angeles resident, Soto is a 2023 Forbes 30 Under 30 Finalist —and the kind of success story others study in business school.
Amanda Victoria
Co-founder, Siponey
Describing herself as “a Boricua”—a person of Puerto Rican descent—”by way of the Bronx,” Hudson Valley, New York-based Victoria is a multi-decade, award-winning leader in cocktail and spirits business, communications, corporate environmental and social impact, product development and revenue strategy.
After working in educator roles at William Grant, Rémy Cointreau and Bacardi, specializing in French spirits and whiskey, Victoria went on to become an educator at the Scotch Malt Whiskey Society, leading their U.S. national communications.
In 2019, she co-founded Siponey Spritz Co., the first Certified B-Corp cocktail company, as a super-premium canned alternative made with top-quality ingredients. Her work has been featured prominently in the media as an eminent wine and spirits authority, entrepreneur, and environmental and social activist.
“Passion via entrepreneurship is very much in my Latina bloodline,” Victoria says. ”When it comes to how I see myself as a Latina in cocktails and spirits, I think of how far I’ve come from my grandparents’ generation, the sacrifices they made to get me here today, and how they inspired me all along the way for throughout the last 20 years of my career.”
Last Updated: October 12, 2023
