Thank goodness this was not a scientific survey because the number of tied votes and illegible entries, not to mention the ballot stuffing, was enough to keep Florida election officials busy for years. Florida election officials don’t need our help.

But herewith, in all its green, red, white and blue splendor, is the debut of The Best of Latino Enterprise, San Diego style, complete with allusions to Robert Villarreal’s world. Villarreal is president of the San Diego County Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, and while The Best of Latino Enterprise is not an official effort of the Hispanic Chamber, those protectors of all things smacking of fronterizo commerce y cocina made sure the boss was covered.

First up, the serious categories:

Best Latino Music and Dancing
“I wish I knew,” wrote one voter. Now you will, thanks to the other voters, who selected Cafe Sevilla — hands down (and feet up?) — in Downtown San Diego for its musica, musica, musica mas, even though with a name like Sevilla the music is mainly Spanish flamenco and so is the dancing, part of the dinner show most nights.

Honorable mentions in both music and dancing go to Robert Villarreal’s office, which we will not attempt to explain, y Casa Guadalajara, Mirasol, Palomino, Candela’s and 106.5. The latter is the Hispanic Broadcasting Co.’s “La Nueva,” filling the airwaves with ranchero music, making anyplace in San Diego or Tijuana the “best” place for Latino music and dancing, including Villarreal’s bathroom. But we won’t go there.

Best Place for a Latino Power Lonche*
Chuey’s in Barrio Logan is universally respected by Latino and gringo judges, especially federal judges named Rhoades, so this was no surprise; nice nook near the bar to set up a bandstand. We were pleasantly surprised, however, after Super Taco Loco, Robert Villarreal’s office, Casa de Bandini and Rubio’s, to stumble across the nominations for the Westgate’s Le Fontainebleau Room, P.F. Chang’s and La Gran Tapa, none of which are Mexican but all of which offer a sophisticated change of pace for the typically powerful bicultural professional.
*Mexican food not required.

Best Mexican Restaurant**
So many cocinas, so few meals. San Diego offers plenty of great Mexican comida, and technically Robert Villarreal’s Mother’s Kitchen is not a restaurant. However, we received so many nominations for Mary Villarreal’s place in Chula Vista we had to ask: What’s cookin’? Chile Colorado and steaming lengua, with taste buds intact.

We’ll stick with Candelas in the Gaslamp Quarter, El Zerape in University Heights, Ranchos Cocina in Ocean Beach and North Park, Los Quatros Milpas in Barrio Logan where “half the city staff is at 10 a.m.,” La Nena in Chula Vista, Rubio’s anywhere, Antonio’s Mexican Food on Sixth Avenue in Downtown, Miguel’s from Mike Morton’s Brigantine family, and Tacos El Gordo in National City, Chula Vista and Tijuana. Pass the lard! Tres cervezas anyone?

The powerful public relations machine in Old Town, causing the nominations of El Agave, El Fandango, Casa de Bandini, Acapulco and Casa Guadalajara, ought to get a clue. “If you want real Mexican food, don’t waste your time going to Old Town,” says National City Mayor Nick Inzunza. “Come to Highland Avenue. We’ll fix you up.”
**Power lunching no necesario.

Best Health Care Providers for Latinos
Ready for that after-lunch angioplasty? We expected Latina-run, Chula Vista-based Comm-unity Health Group to take top honors, but there’s no shame in ranking second to Kaiser Permanente, which was bound to score high with 500,000 members in San Diego County and Spanish in its name. About 30 percent of members are Latino. Kaiser operates a 395-bed hospital on Zion Avenue and 20 outpatient facilities throughout the county, including its second-largest regional center on Otay Mesa. Throughout the county it employs more than 7,000 people including 800 physicians. “We are bilingual in nearly all of our servicios,” says Kaiser spokeswoman Sylvia Wallace. Tagalog spoken here, too. Kaiser even makes a point of studying and applying “culturally appropriate care.”

Need more on Community Health Group? Log onto sandiegometro.com for the cover story on Norma Diaz from June 2002.

Honorable mentions in health care go to doctors Ortiz at Sharp, David Casillas and Irma Covarrubias at Kaiser, Gabrielle Cerda at Children’s, Wayne Kurisu and Pablo Colin. Best Latino dentists, according to our voters, are Christy Martinez, Richard Mercado, Laura Larios and Juan Pablo. Smile. And in health care marketing, honors go to Elizabeth Bustos of Health Care Management Strategies, of course.

Best Latino CPAs
We can count. But since when does understanding the Internal Revenue Code have anything to do with something as logical as arithmetic?

Accountant Armando Ibarra Jr. has to be one of the best-connected CPAs around. Enacting the political adage to vote early and often, friends of Ibarra packed the ballot box, er, fax machine and e-mail, with enough votes to steal any banana republic election for presidente or CPA. Including Florida. Viva Ibarra!

Tom Saiz and Calderon Jaham & Osborn, now known as Caporicci & Larson, enjoyed a strong second, with Benjamin Martinez and Robert Rosario earning honorable mentions. Rosario practices in San Diego and New York.

Best Latino Attorneys
Where do we start? How about business law with Daniel L. Guevara, corporate attorney and head of Guevara, Phippard & James; Carlos Heredia, an intellectual property partner with Morrison & Foerster; Rebecca Perez-Serrano, an associate with Foley Lardner (and counsel to the Hispanic Chamber) and Roberta Sistos with Burke, Williams & Sorensen, all in San Diego, and Manuel Pasero and Jóse M. “Pepe” Larroque in Tijuana? Rene Cadena gets a nod for immigration law. And then there are the blanket nominations for La Raza Lawyers Association. Where do we end?

Best Latino Printer
The San Diego printing industry is a major employer of Latinos. There’s more ink running through Latinos than blood. And the pinnacle, according to our readers, is Marco Sanchez and his Baja USA Printing, with the hometown namesake Diego & Son Printing, in business for three decades, right behind. Frontera, the Tijuana newspaper which does a good share of commercial printing, gets an honorable mention.

Best Latino Web Designer
How is a Latino Web designer like a Mexican muralist? There are too many to pick just one. And the winners are: Batiz.com, RosArt Multimedia, Santos Design and Patrick Osio. Actually, Osio is not really a Web designer, at least he’s not writing HTML, but is a creative genius and content provider behind hispanicvista.com, and serves as Guru Official for cross-border affairs at sandiegometro.com and the San Diego Metropolitan. The Batiz brothers are busy with the San Diego Workforce Partnership, U.S. Navy, Hispanic Chamber and other clients.

Best Financial Institutions for Latinos
No one, other than the FDIC, mentioned Roque de la Fuente, who is, after all, the best Chula Vista-based Latino bank chairman ever sued by regulators. But we’re looking for institutions, and among the banks the voters prefer San Diego National, Union Bank, Wells Fargo, Washington Mutual, Bank of America, Neighborhood National, Banco Popular and Bank of Coronado for as long as it uses the name.

Among credit unions, San Diego Metropolitan (no relation), USE, San Diego County Credit Union, and Point Loma Credit Union get top honors.

Fireside Thrift even got a nod.

Next time, we’ll pit the banks and credit unions against each other, and see which prevails.

Best Broadcast Coverage of Latino Community
One of the most profound ramifications of the emerging Latino powerhouse is in electronic media on both sides of the border, freely and equally available to Latinos whether they live in Baja California or San Diego County. And we’ll observe, Tijuana news operations give much more attention to San Diego activities than San Diego newsrooms give to Tijuana. Similarly, Tijuana’s and Mexico’s news programs give more attention to international affairs, outside of Mexico and the U.S., than U.S. broadcasters, with the exception of this sadly unique period of Iraq attack coverage. We suspect the average Mexican is more worldly than the average American, certainly more worldly than the average American realizes. Anyway, regardless of language, voted the best broadcaster for Latino coverage, radio or TV, was the NBC-owned and operated television station KNSD 7/39, known as NBC San Diego, followed by Univision’s KBNT 17, Radio Latina 104.5 FM, La Nueva 106.5, and Telemundo Channel 33. Go figure.

Best Print Coverage of Latinos
Among print media, voters selected the Union-Tribune’s Enlace, El Latino, El Informador and La Prensa for offering the best coverage of Latino affairs. What, YOU PEOPLE CAN’T READ ENGLISH? The Metropolitan would protest for not receiving one vote if we weren’t gracious. The ballots never said “Best Print Coverage of Latinos en Español,” but that’s how readers voted. Or not.

Coverage of Cross-Border Issues
When voters were asked to pick which media, regardless of print or broadcast formats, provide the best coverage of cross-border issues, Patrick Osio received top honors, without any insight into whether he’d earned the nod for his work in the San Diego Metropolitan, sandiegometro.com, hispanicvista.com or for his entire body of work. Who needs El Metro when you’ve got Osio?

Runners-up to Clark Kent Osio for coverage of cross-border issues are Televisa’s Channel 12, the Union-Tribune’s South Bay edition, 106.5 La Nueva, NBC San Diego, and Telemundo’s Channel 33.

Best Media Relations Consultant for Latinos
Would you believe a dead heat among Patricia Ciccione’s Medicis Communications, Elizabeth Bustos’ Health Care Management, Matthews/Evans/ Albertazzi, Gina Garcia’s Comunicaccion Internacional, Lucy Garcia Roberts’ HMC Advertising and Doug Perkins’ Pacific Gateway? Would you believe these consultants know a shot at free publicity when they see one? Can you believe Enrique Morones missed one?

Best Educational Institution for an MBA
San Diego State University has honed a well-earned reputation for its rigorous and practical bachelor’s program in business. In the last five years, Montezuma Mesa also has developed a master’s program that provides immediate usefulness both in traditional MBA disciplines like accounting and management and in international business applications that take on special significance considering San Diego’s place on the Pacific Rim and its proximity to Baja’s maquiladoras. SDSU cooperates nicely with City College in Downtown San Diego and Southwestern College in National City. Then there’s that fledgling Hispanic Entrepreneur-ship Initiative, the subject of our cover story. National University gets honorable mention.

Prep School Districts for Latinos
Latinos in San Diego County predominate south of Interstate 8; that’s especially so among Latino families with school-aged children. Maybe not surprisingly, then, most often cited as best here were the Sweetwater Union High School District (which, by the way, offers adult school courses for Chula Vista, National City, Imperial Beach and San Ysidro), followed by the San Diego Unified School District and Chula Vista Elementary.

Best Latino Educators
We won’t say San Diego enjoys an embarrassment of educational riches, but there certainly are many Latino educators to go around. Not enough, however, to sit still for the export of CSU San Marcos President Alexander Gonzalez to Sacramento. At least we can keep Augie Gallego, chancellor of the San Diego Community College District, and Ted Martinez, president of Grossmont College, as well as Mara Sanchez at UCSD, Ileana Rodriguez at Castle Park High School, Ramon Merlos at Hilltop, Rudy Jacobo at SDSU, Rick Cooke and Enriqueta Chavez.

Best Community for Latinos to Live
Secure as the county’s second largest city, Chula Vista overwhelming was voted the best place to raise la familia in San Diego County. The schools are locally governed and the built environment offers everything from affordable homes in older neighborhoods to affordable new homes in EastLake and beyond, as well as almost affordable old mansions and former orchard homes nestled in East Chula Vista and above Bonita. In fact, EastLake and Otay Ranch were specifically singled out as best places to live, while the richest Mexican village in North America, La Jolla, was voted runner-up.

Chula Vista offers good shopping in its traditional Town Center and in the sprawling in-town Chula Vista Center, not to mention neighborhood commercial centers. And recreation abounds from Otay Lakes to the J Street Marina. Knotts Soak City USA and Coors Amphitheater are merely two of the more convenient entertainment diversions for Chula Vistans. And that commute to Downtown San Diego or Tijuana, via car or trolley: Piece of cake, although getting back home from Tijuana can be a drag, but that’s another story.

Best Community for Latinos to Work and Grow a Business
As much as Chula Vista is growing, another renaissance is under way in Downtown San Diego, which was acknowledged as the best place to work and the second best place to grow a business, while Chula Vista took top honors as the best place to grow that business.

By its very nature as the densest commercial and residential community in the region, Downtown San Diego offers spectacular high-rise environments with views that stretch from Mount Laguna to Los Coronados off Rosarito. Downtown offers lively street environments, too, and the mix of businesses in the Centre City runs the gamut.

Chula Vista, however, is almost entirely a low-rise environment, except for the new mid-rise Gateway at H Street and Third. But, oh, the low-rise choices, from bayfront property to industrial subdivisions in Otay Valley, to Town Center storefronts to Broadway’s strip commercial; you need it, Chula Vista’s got it, and its city government will throw in relatively speedy permit processing.

To work, La Jolla received honorable mention. San Ysdiro was a runner-up for growing a business.

Best Latino Builder/Architect
Speaking of Chula Vista, the 23-year-old Ortiz Corp., a specialty contractor of underground utilities based in Chula Vista, gets the nod as best Latino builder. We’ll cast our lot with Latino Builder Magazine as the best Latino builder magazine. Azteca Landscaping and Luis Garcia get top honors for landscape contractors.

Among architects, top vote-getters are (Joe) Martinez & Cutri, Claudia Salazar, Aida Salcido and Tucker Sadler’s Art Castro.

Most Important Latino Athlete
OK, it’s not the same as Fernando-mania 20 years ago when Mexican Valenzuela pitched the Los Angeles Dodgers to the World Series and an attendance mother lode, but Oliver Perez has the potential to lead the San Diego Padres to Petco Park when it opens next spring Downtown. Perez was the Padres’ most promising rookie last year, and this could be his breakout year. An All-Star? The Major Leagues have precious few Mexican stars, and the 21-year-old Perez could be next.

Most Effective Latino Public Official
Lucky for us, a fax machine doesn’t yield chad hanging, pregnant or otherwise. No recounts, please. This was a close race, and San Diego Deputy Mayor Ralph Inzunza, who represents a piece of Downtown, Barrio Logan and South San Diego, including Otay Mesa and San Ysidro, won by a chihuahua whisker over his predecessor and ex-boss, Assemblyman Juan Vargas. Brother Nick Inzunza, National City’s mayor, barely registered, probably because Metropolitan readers know too much. Police Chief David Bejarano, just nominated by President Bush as U.S. Marshal, Chula Vista’s Mary Salas and National City’s Louie Natividad received honorable recognition.

Best Business Publication for Latinos
We subtitled this category “Cheap Thrill,” for us. You picked San Diego Metropolitan hands down. We thank you. And congratulations to the runner-up Wall Street Journal.

Miscellaneous Odds and Ends
Speaking of cheap thrills, we offered a space for write-in categories and write-in nominations, and so we wound up with these winners ready for the cutting-room floor: Best Chamber of Commerce for Hispanics: The San Diego County Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Best Internet Portal: Tufrontera.com, David Sanchez. Best Motivational Trainer:, Daniel Gutierrez, he thinks. Best Entertainment: Nova Menco. Best Escrow Company: The Escrow Company. Best Latina singer: Coral Thuet. Best Staffing Service: Volt Services Group. Best New Company: Puentes Latinos. Ah, Morones didn’t miss after all.