By Eduardo A. Hapke/ Miami. Antonio Escalona, a three-year-veteran at PepsiCo, serves as senior vice president of the Hispanic Business Unit of PepsiCo Foods North America. PepsiCo’s CEO, Ramon Laguarta, also is Hispanic. With a population that now tops 60 million, Latinos are a growing force in the United States. Their rising numbers and drive for success have helped U.S. Hispanics become the world’s fifth-largest economy, if they were counted as a separate country.