While most people may think naming a PR firm Sword is a novel marketing idea, that is actually Jasmin Espada’s last name. The name Espada, which means Sword in English, had its origins in Spain and Portugal, an occupational name for an armorer or a swordsman, from espada ‘sword’ (Latin spata, from Greek spathe, originally denoting a broad, two-edged sword without a point).
The name is a good fit for Espada, who has been both swordswoman and armorer for top Hollywood celebrities for over 13 years.
Espada, is an Award-winning entertainment publicist who started her career in entertainment as a radio co-host at the age of 19. During Espada’s college years at UMASS Boston, she served as Assistant to the Student Trustee and helped coordinate rock concerts and special events on campus.
In 1991 Espada relocated to Los Angeles where she worked in the nonprofit sector. This led to her initiation in film publicity on the film Bound by Honor under publicist Katherine Moore. In 1994 Espada joined Mission: Renaissance, the world largest fine art school. Espada helped secure press on local and national levels helping make the brand the leader in its field. She was awarded Mission: Renaissance’s Ten Year Award as well as the Larry Gluck Artistic Freedom Award in 2008.
Espada’s impressive list of clients include some of the top names in entertainment starring in award-winning shows such as Jane The Virgin, Ozark, Mars, Chicago Med, Chicago Justice, Chicago PD, Teen Wolf, Switched at Birth, How to Get Away With Murder and Criminal Minds among many others. Espada also worked on box office hits such as Blood in, Blood Out, LOGAN, Miracles From Heaven, Chavez and Indi hits such as 30 Days with my Brother, North By El Norte, H.O.M.E. and Varsity Punks.
With a career spanning over two decades, Espada is credited for bringing the first independent camera crew inside a California Prison changing a long standing Supreme Court Order banning cameras.
BELLEVie: How were you able to bring a camera crew inside a prison?
JE: Persistence. I had a client who was shooting a documentary about a book. There was an inmate inside Folsom Prison who had read the book and wrote a letter to the author stating how this book had changed his life. The interview with this inmate was going to be crucial…the centerpiece of the documentary. Eventhough the client knew he was giving me a Mission: Impossible, he also believed I could get it done. He would not take no for an answer. So I embarked in a long and at times excruciating quest to get my clients’ request approved. I may have easily spoken with hundreds of people who nicely repeated “Well Ms. Espada, as you know there is a standing Supreme Court order…” But I kept going. Then one day I made another call to The Bureau of Prisons. Almost anticipating the negative answer, I asked again. The person who answered the phone this time I had never spoken to before. He started reciting the old script when all of a sudden he said: Wait a minute…
My heart stopped for a few seconds. I could hear him shifting papers on his desk.
“Well, Ms. Espada. You are in luck. In a few weeks we will have the crew of America’s Most Wanted with a special permission of the Supreme Court. If you bring your crew the same day, same time, I will look the other way.”
-That was early on in my career. So early on I learned nothing is impossible.”
Often called The Joe Montana of Public Relations Espada has been endorsed by both the Associated Press and Traditional Home Magazine as One of the most persistent publicists in Hollywood. Jasmin Espada is a member of the Television Academy and is an alumni of the University of Massachusetts and The School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
-Editor
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