La tilde brand has been inspired and is majority owned by me, Anthony Muñoz. For 13 years playing for the Bengals my name was spelled Munoz on the back of my jersey without the tilde over the n, a letter in the Spanish alphabet called the eñe. Many players and fans would ask me if I was Latino and when I answered yes, they asked about why my name was missing the eñe. For 11 straight years when I was selected to play in the Pro-Bowl and each time that I received my game jersey it had my name spelled correctly. I determined that I had to take pride in my work and play at the highest level each year so I could again earn my ~. In 1998, I was inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame and my name is now spelled correctly for history. Several years later, my daughter read an article on the power of the tilde and inspired me to seek registration of the mark for use in the future. The future is now.

Although the inspiration for the tilde mark began as a personal story it is now a much larger message of respect and responsibility. Since the tilde is used in all Hispanic countries, my hope is that this mark can help to unify all Latinos and that we can use it to help our communities by making a difference. The program, Haz la Diferencia, will use a percentage of all profits from products sold to “give back” to the Latino community. Money will be used to support carefully selected programs that share our mission and can help us all by empowering each of us to take pride in ourselves, our families, our heritage, our culture and in our nation as a whole. We believe that by empowering and supporting each other, we can be productive and become responsible people doing incredible things.