I was very saddened by the tragic news that a person that I highly admired as a online media leader and mentor, Louis Pagan, passed away over the weekend. Louis was a co-founder of both Hispanic media organizations, LATISM and Hispanicize, because he had such a great passion on studying how Latinos communicate online both professionally and personally and he wanted to teach others to utilize the latest social media technology in order to create successful marketing campaigns and build relationships. He loved to share his ideas and collaborate with others in building innovative strategies within the Hispanic online media landscape.

I remember making contact with Louis the first time when I was still in grad school when he found me out through my blog. I never had the pleasure of meeting him in person but by communicating with each other online, we both knew that we both were very passionate about gaining knowledge and sharing our research with others about the fact that Hispanics are at the forefront of online communications and technology adaptation. We both agreed that there are so many opportunities that can happen through Hispanic online media and networking so every now and then we share ideas and at times I helped him out with his research.

What I considered was one of the best accolades that I have ever received was when Louis tweeted during a tweetchat on Hispanic media growth “you should know Frankie, he is such a great researcher.” Having such a compliment from someone like him shows that I was on the right track.

I was very fortunate to have known him and his love for the industry that he worked so hard to expand. My thoughts and prayers goes out to his family. You will be missed “hermano”. If you knew Louis professionally or personally please feel free and leave a comment. Thank you.

If you want to know more about Louis Pagan’s involvement with Latino social media, check out this special article from the 2011 Spring edition of NSHMBA also starring Lance Rios, the founder of Being Latino.