Christy Haubegger: 1968—: Publisher

According to Latina Online, the result of Haubegger's efforts "was a bilingual lifestyle magazine that addressed the needs and concerns of an untapped Hispanic population," Hispanic Americans who were bilingual and bicultural. Haubegger explained her target audience in an interview with the Los Angeles Times. "They are also Latina like me—with one foot in each culture." She went on to describe this target audience as upwardly-mobile, educated, between the ages of 20 and 40, and employed with an average annual income above $30,000.

Latina was launched at a time when other publishers were also trying to tap into the Hispanic market. The death of Mexican singer Selena in 1995 resulted in a surge of purchases of magazines about the young star, demonstrating the purchasing power of the Hispanic population. In response, both People and Newsweek began to publish Spanish versions of their magazines. In addition, other Latino publications grew in popularity, such as Moderna, which targeted a fairly young audience, and Si, which was written only in English. However, as an article in the Seattle Times explained, "… selling to a Hispanic audience means more than simply translating words from English to Spanish or replacing thin models with curvaceous ones. The industry can be insensitive to minority groups, often exoticizing or dehumanizing them."

In contrast Haubegger envisioned Latina as a magazine for a population of Hispanic women who were bilingual and bicultural. Her readers were often second-generation citizens who flowed easily between the two cultures. In an article in USA Today Haubegger described the average reader of Latina. "She wants to make enchiladas, but she doesn't want to use lard. Her mother didn't work out, but she wants to. Their mothers don't speak English, their kids don't speak Spanish." To reach such an audience Latina features a wide range of articles, including a focus on health problems that disproportionately affect Hispanic women, highlighting promising careers for bilinguals, or health-conscious tips for making traditional Spanish meals.

The fact that the magazine was bilingual was important to Haubegger. Each issue is approximately 60 percent English and 40 percent Spanish. Editor-in-chief Patricia Duarte explained the reasons for having a bilingual magazine to Folio. "One is that there are several levels of language proficiency in Hispanic households, and another is that there is a community tradition of using periodicals as learning tools." Not only was Latina bilingual, but it also used some Spanglish, a slang hybrid of English and Spanish that is commonly spoken among Latinos. As Haubegger explained to the New York Times, "If we were an English magazine, we would just be general market. If we were a Spanish-language magazine, we would be Latin American. We are the intersection of the two, and we reflect a life between two languages and two cultures that our readers live in."