Sandra Candel is a native of Guadalajara, Mexico, where she was raised by her maternal grandparents and extended family. She describes what she refers to as “a legacy of migrants” within her family including her often absent mother.

As a child she was instilled with a love of education and the value of hard work. As a young adult, she migrated to the United States, southern California specifically. There she joined her mother and began her higher education.

Martin Lopez-Castillo was born in the small town of La Perla, Cuautitlán Izcalli in the State of Mexico. He grew up in a large Catholic family and was taught the meaning of hard work from a young age. Competitive by nature, he excelled in academics and always understood the importance of receiving an education. He left his hometown, immigrating to Phoenix, Arizona, and finally reached Colorado, where he worked as a cook for a Village Inn.

As Chairman and CEO of the Eureka Casino Resort, Gregory Lee’s involvement and impact on the Mesquite community will reverberate for generations. Although he was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, his ambitions starting from an early age led him to live with his business-oriented father in San Francisco, California. His journey eventually led him to attend Saint Paul’s School and Harvard College.

Pablo Macias was born in Carlin, Nevada, a small town 20 miles west of Elko, where the local population of Latinos was small. He has lived in Las Vegas since 1990.

He is the youngest of nine children born to Sofia and Tomas Macias, who met and married while living in Utah. Tomas was born in the United States and worked as a railroad laborer. Sofia was Mexican born and found work as a maid to help provide for their family.

In 1971, Emilia Marquez was born in Virginia to her Uruguayan immigrant parents, Alicia and Carlos. When the family returned to Uruguay in 1982, she experienced being an outsider in her parents’ home country. As she describes it: when in Uruguay she is Uruguayan; when in the U.S., she is an American citizen. Over the course of her life, she has proven to be an adept navigator of language and cultures. In 1990, she and Juan Carlos Mussio married. They have three daughters, Ashley, Emily and Jessica. The family moved to Las Vegas in 2001.