Teresa Mlawer, one of the most recognized and respected people in the Hispanic publishing industry in the U.S., died March 21 due to cancer. She was 75.

Teresa was an entrepreneur, editor, translator, writer, teacher, wife, mother, grandmother, sister, friend, and a tireless worker. During the years I worked with her I found that she was the person who taught many of us about the Spanish-language book industry and was not shy about calling us out when missteps were taken. Teresa's soft-spoken voice and impeccable professionalism made you listen, she never minced words, and always encouraged and expected you to do better.

eresa was born in Havana, Cuba and came to the U.S. in 1962. As noted on her website, Teresa started in a clerical position at Macmillan, and rose to become sales manager for Latin America. From there she moved to vice president at Regents Publishing (a division of Simon & Schuster). In 1976 she was named president of Lectorum Publications, the oldest and largest distributor of Spanish language books in the U.S. which was acquired by Scholastic in 1996 and then bought by Alex Correa and his brother and partner, Luis Fernando in 2009.

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