Lavonne luquis biography

Lavonne Luquis found a void on the Internet and she filled it.

Six years ago, Luquis was working in Olympia, Wash., as a newspaper editor. She had just moved back to the U.S. from San Juan, Puerto Rico, where she had lived for several years.

Feeling homesick in the rainy Northwest, she went on-line, “looking for a way to connect with other Hispanics.”

What she found was: nada.

“I figured there had to be a lot of people like me,” recalls Luquis.

That experience led her to create Latinolink.com in 1996.

It is one of the few Web sites devoted to Latino culture, and with 5 million monthly hits, it’s one of the most successful Hispanic-oriented sites on-line. Its target audience is the growing number of college-educated Latino professionals.

With Hispanics the fastest-growing segment of the American population and, according to recent studies, their use of the Web increasing, Luquis believes that she’s tapped a growing market.

Latinolink.com, head