“When I came here in 1956, there were 60 Spanish-speaking people in the Stamford area,” said Galdino Velasco. “Now there are 25,000.” A native of Mexico City, Velasco was 21 at the time.
The Hispanic demographic has mushroomed with the numbers: Once primarily Puerto Rican and Mexican, now immigrants arrive from across Central and South America.
So, too, has business advice grown, and it now comes en Español.
Stamford”™s Hispanic population is one that can”™t be ignored and, according to the county”™s seasoned business professionals, needs to be embraced. The task is a bigger effort than one might think.
According to Brenda Cerezo, president of the Greater Stamford Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, 25 percent of businesses in the city are owned by Hispanics.
“Things have continued to change,” said Michael O”™Malley, director of the Fairfield County chapter of SCORE (“counselors to America”™s small business” and a Small Business Administration initiative partner). “We”™ve always tried to present ourselves to the Latin community here, but for the most part most of the counselors are American.”
O”™Malley said as the Latin population increased so did the necessity to be involved and connected. O”™Malley said SCORE is in place to help communities in a commercial way, much like the Red Cross is in place to help with the health of a community, every part of it. He said knowing the Hispanic community was present and growing was frustrating because of the lack of contact.
Cerezo said continuity within the Hispanic business community can be hard to quantify because of the great range of diverse nationalities, the language barrier, and a lack of trust.
The Greater Stamford Hispanic Chamber of Commerce currently has 45 members.
Velasco encountered the same disjoint environment when he founded LAFOS in 1999 ”“ the Latino Foundation of Stamford: “It”™s the largest Hispanic organization in Stamford,” he said. The registered nonprofit”™s efforts extend to arts and communication programs.
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LAFOS also has awarded three $1,000 college scholarships. LAFOS has begun to partner with SCORE in another effort to stir and better manage the Hispanic business community”™s resources ”“ resources that were not always at hand.
Velasco arrived in Stamford “because of an accident,” as he puts it. He was studying at Mexico”™s National Polytechnic Institute when a student strike left him idle. His brothers in Connecticut invited him up and he landed a job in the Cutex cosmetics factory, long closed, he said, and the building now owned by Pitney Bowes.
Velasco soon thereafter got a job with the Norma Hoffmann Bearings Corp. on Hamilton Avenue in Stamford where he worked “for 20 years and seven months.” The plant shuttered in 1979 and he opened Tacos Guadalajara in 1980: “The first Mexican restaurant in town, my friend, and still going.” The business plans to celebrate its 30th anniversary in May and will be expanding into catering and, ideally, franchising. He said the quest for capital has begun.
On the whole, Velasco”™s story is not unique and neither are his goals.
“There are so many Latin business people out there, but for so long we only saw a couple occasionally come to us,” said O”™Malley.
According to O”™Malley, SCORE”™s Stamford location now has four bilingual counselors, an effort to comfort and encourage and connect with the Hispanic business community. O”™Malley said there are just as many cultural issues as there are language issues.
In December, O”™Malley also joined forces in roundtable discussions with the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce to discuss ways to influence and contact the Hispanic business community.
“We launched that in December,” said O”™Malley. “But our loud speaker isn”™t loud enough; the word doesn”™t get out as far as we know it can.”
O”™Malley said the SBA, SCORE and the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce have been working harder and harder to serve the Latino population. It is a primary effort in Stamford.
“Everyone we talk to says they feel the community is underserved,” said O”™Malley. “The need is so great, and if not now then when? These people are growing businesses and we can help them. Hispanic businesses are growing and if you”™re smart you want your business to have connections in that community. You don”™t want to ignore that community.”
One of O”™Malley”™s partners in the effort is Julio Casiano, a business development specialist at Connecticut”™s SBA in Hartford, who makes trips weekly to talk with Stamford”™s Hispanic business owners. O”™Malley said Casiano has the ability to talk in Spanish about issues important to the Hispanic community. “And now they have people to talk to,” Casiano said.
“A lot of these businesses were built without the help of banks ”“ built on their own money,” Casiano said. “These are the owners that are creating jobs in the inner city.”
Casiano is also teaching Hispanic business owners and entrepreneurs about loan programs offered through the Small Business Administration as part of the $787 billion economic stimulus package.?“The SBA can help small businesses through offerings like America’s Recovery Capital Loan Program, Patriot Express for U.S. military veterans, the MicroLoan Fund, and the Certified Development Company 504 loan program,” said Casiano?Casiano said in lieu of the large banks lack loan making, the SBA offers an alternative for Hispanic small business operators. ?Secretary of State of Connecticut Susan Bysiewicz said the Hispanic or Latino population is one of the major factors in the rebirth of the state’s economy coming out of the economic meltdown.?“The Latino marketplace is one that is still growing substantially in Connecticut and we must do whatever we can to encourage the growth and stability of Latino-owned businesses,” said Bysiewicz.
