Louis Pagan, a man known better as @Louispagan
who was a social media pioneer in the Latino community—died Saturday morning at his home in Yonkers, New York.
Yonkers police said his death is still being investigated and would not comment on his cause of death. Pagan leaves behind a wife, Yolanda, and two young daughters.
News of Pagan’s death did not hit social media circles until Tuesday. His funeral is Thursday. His last tweet was a modest 24,334 point score on the popular Temple Run mobile game on February 3.
An IT network manager for Horizon Media, Pagan had an expert level understanding of computers, but his real passion was social media. The Bronx-born New Yorker is remembered by his friends and admirers for his forward thinking on how to tap the limitless potential of social media—blogs, Twitter and Facebook—to empower the Latino community.
Since he first started blogging in 2003, his entrepreneurial spirit has led to the beginning of two Latino social media organizations.
He co-founded Latinos in Social Media, #LATISM, the first major online community on Twitter dedicated to Latino issues. He also was the visionary and co-founder of Hispancize, a for-profit social media company uniting marketers with Latino bloggers.
Read Related: LATISM12: An Empowering Social Media Experience
“Latinos are becoming more engaged in society,” Pagan said in a Fox News Latino interview. “What’s unique about social media is it gives Latinos an opportunity to define themselves and present themselves on how they want to be viewed to the public.”
Before there was a real sense of how to use social media, Pagan is credited for being part of the original small group of Latinos who took to Twitter and Facebook—before there was an app for that.
“I think he saw where it was going in the mainstream, and he saw, just like everyone who sees this space, he had a knack to understand there were a lot of Latinos out there in the world,” Julio Varela, entrepreneur and founder of Latinorebels.com, said. “He was sharp enough to see that it was going to be the future.”
Read the full article on FOX NEWS Latino.
