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Choosing the Road to
Entrepreneurship
There are times when
life walks up to you
and says “¡Basta!
Time for a change!”
I thought I was
doing ok – on-camera
reporter and
producer for
Univision TV’s
national evening
news by day, and
single mom by night.
But my charming
little boys were
becoming teenagers,
and I got a call
that they had missed
school days – lots
of them.
I decided to work
freelance from home.
At the time, there
was a real need for
Spanish language
producers to turn
English television
programs into
Spanish. And at
least working at
home on my own
schedule let me be
there when my sons
got home and wanted
to talk about their
day.
As my kids grew, so
did my business, and
the translating jobs
turned into requests
for full productions
– many of them for
non-profits and
government agencies
who needed help in
reaching out to the
millions of Latinos
on social and health
issues. My next step
on the road to
entrepreneurship was
no less risky. I
bought a camera and
editing equipment,
rented an office,
and covered the
first Gulf War for
broadcast news and
began producing TV
news releases for
AARP. My new husband
Jack became my
partner and we
decided to give the
company a name that
reflected bicultural
programming done
with a certain
flair. We chose
Accent Media.
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Cecilia
Domeyko
is
president
and CEO
of
Accent
Media
Productions
and a
2007
Anna
Maria
Arias
Memorial
Business
Fund
Award
recipient. |
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As my sons
grew up and went away to
college, Accent was growing too.
We kept adding to our list of
firsts – a series of
international documentaries on
education for the World Bank, an
OAS funded documentary on women
embroiderers in a Chilean
fishing village, a Spanish
public service campaign for the
Catholic Communication Campaign
on issues like AIDS, domestic
violence, drugs and alcohol, and
racial prejudice. I found I had
other talents, including casting
and directing actors, which, I
learned, is a big key to
successful storytelling on the
screen.
Now my
sons have gone through college,
connected with the larger world,
and become real professionals.
And Accent has become more
professional and connected with
a wider world too. Medicare and
Medicaid campaigns have allowed
me to explore issues like women
and AIDS and preventive
medicine. And full-scale
national bilingual public
service campaigns, many hosted
by celebrities like Celia Cruz
and Don Francisco, have let me
reach out to an exploding
Hispanic audience now
approaching 50 million.
Today, our
clients include international
organizations, government
agencies like the National
Institutes of Health, the
Catholic Church, and television
networks from Latin America,
among others.
Using
grants and profits from our
company, I’ve been able to work
on projects close to my heart,
documentaries mostly about
ordinary women who dare to do
extraordinary things, and in so
doing, change the world around
them. My feature-length
documentary “Cuba Mia,” which
celebrates the talent of an
all-woman orchestra in Cuba has
won eight awards and is airing
on PBS, and internationally.
Most
gratifying has been the
recognition I’ve received as a
Latina entrepreneur. The Anna
Maria Arias Memorial Business
Fund Award is not just a big
honor. It is helping to promote
my company and the funds are
helping me complete one of my
independent documentaries. “Code
Name: Butterflies,” is the story
of how three women’s amazing
courage and determination helped
bring back freedom and democracy
to the Dominican Republic.
It wasn’t
easy walking away from a career
as a Washington reporter. But I
feel my decision to set off on
my own has paid off. My sons are
great human beings and
accomplished professionals. And
though at times my “child”
Accent has caused me some
stress, it has helped me grow as
an artist, and has helped
educate our community about many
issues that are important to us.
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