Born and raised in Mexico City, Beatriz Andrekovich has spent her life studying and championing the cultural traditions of the Americas. And thanks to her undergraduate studies at Pennsylvania’s Clarion University and a master’s degree from her home country’s Universidad Tecnológica Autónoma de Mexico, she has the business know-how to advance those traditions wherever she goes.
As a Central Floridian, her résumé includes work on behalf of a long litany of organizations and events that strengthen the ties between the United States and the Spanish-speaking world. The list of undertakings that have benefited from her expertise runs the gamut from Casa de Mexico to the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce in Fort Myers to Casselberry’s Latin Fest – even the Mr. and Miss Lake Mary contest!
“In Pennsylvania, I felt like people looked at me as an alien,” she recalls of her time in college, and of the early years of her marriage immediately thereafter. “I didn’t want my kids to grow up being thought of as aliens. We settled in Central Florida for the weather, the schools and the closeness to nature, as well as the fact that there were people from all over here and we could fit in.”
Patronizing establishments like Winter Park’s La Hacienda Market and Taqueria and helping to make Dia de los Muertos displays are merely two of the activities she engages in to keep those home fires burning.
“[Central Florida] is a place where I can be proud of my heritage, show it off to others and fit into a community that honors many cultures,” she says. “I am proud of what we’ve accomplished in Mexico and feel the responsibility to represent Mexico well.”
Beatriz’s nonprofit Arte de Cultura de Mexico provides public relations and art and cultural support for larger nonprofit organizations in the Orange, Osceola, and Seminole counties.