CubaTrade-April2017-FLIPBOOK

We Are One
PRMA 2017 • JUNE 1-5, 2017 • Conquistador Hotel, Puerto Rico
The most relevant convention in the island…Meet our leaders
• 200 booths • Attend Seminars and Conferences
• Network with more than 10,000 business professionals
• Golf Tournament • Gala Event
Manuel Laboy, Secretary of Economic Develeopment
and Commerce of Puerto Rico
the replacement of a large plain-glass window at the Oratory.
“We took a Puerto Rican artist by the name of Marcos
Alegría to replace a window at San Felipe with a stained-glass
work of art, to give the place a touch of its church origins,” he said.
Cordero continued traveling to Cuba, on cultural and
sports-related missions with Andares Antillanos. One of the
group’s most publicized events took place in 2012, when they invited
Cuban sculptor Yarovi López to tour Puerto Rico, putting
on an exhibit of his work hosted by Banco Popular.
The following year, however, Cordero changed gears. For his
latest trip, Cordero took a different turn, to business—another
passion he shares with his Cuban friends and colleagues.
“Business in Cuba had been on my mind from the very beginning,”
says Cordero, who was already managing director of the
San Juan-based Business Venture Group (BVG). “The challenge
has always been to figure out the niche that would work within
the legal limitations [of the embargo].”
Cordero joined a 2013 “trade” mission organized by the
Puerto Rico Manufacturers Association (PRMA)—“they were
more educational missions at this point,” explains PRMA President
Rodrigo Masses—and decided that Cuba offered opportunities
for BVG in the technology arena, in particular for a BVG
food innovation that extracts nutrients and other high-value
materials from plants. And for that project to move forward, his
cultural links with Cuba were an asset.
“I discovered early on that the cultural ties would be of great
benefit when the time was right to explore the business side,”
he said, “since it is something Cubans, including government
82 CUBATRADE APRIL 2017
Rodrigo Masses, President, Puerto Rico
Manufacturers Association
authorities, value very highly, and more so when it comes to
doing business with someone from Puerto Rico, given the history
between our two countries.”
Cuba and Puerto Rico have long shared strong cultural and
historic ties. Both were still part of the Spanish empire when the
1895-98 War of Independence freed Cuba from Spain. During
the 30 years of rebellion that led to that final war (which also
made Puerto Rico an American protectorate) many high-profile
Puerto Rican cultural and political leaders joined the efforts of
Cuban revolutionaries, including those led by José Martí.
The decades of liberation wars where, in fact, intended to
free both countries—yielding, among other things, flags with
identical designs except for the inverted colors.
“Cuba and Puerto Rico remain de un pájaro las dos alas,”
Eusebio Leal Spengler said during the 2009 ceremony that
unveiled Alegría’s stained glass. Leal was the official historian of
the City of Havana, and the phrase, which translates as “the two
wings of a bird,” hails from a poem written in 1893 by Puerto
Rican author Lola Rodríguez de Tió. Rodríguez lived in Havana
for much of that rebellious 30-year period, and her name is
enshrined in roads, schools and other places in Cuba.
“The love runs deep,” agrees Richard Carrión Matienzo,
executive vice president in charge of business development and
international banking for Banco Popular, Puerto Rico’s largest
and oldest financial institution. As Washington and Havana have
come closer to lifting restraints on trade and investment, Carrión
has been a strong proponent of using Puerto Rico as a U.S.
bridge to Cuba.
The Puerto Rico Manufacturing Association is committed to making America
great again by re-establishing Puerto Rico as a hub for trade and commerce.
Our purpose is to unite the manufacturing and services industries to further
the interest of Puerto Rico’s private and public sectors. Join us as we review
the island’s trade and interstate commerce advantages to help make all of the
United States prosper.
Puerto Rico has a role to make America great again.
FOR MORE INFORMATION, RESERVATIONS, TICKETS OR BOOTH:
Management Events: 787 758-7700
Contact: Maria F. Mora – mmora@msssinc.com • Lianie Rivera – lrivera@msssinc.com