Hispanic business: very heavy clout - includes related article - Hispanic Business

New Mexico Business Journal, Dec, 1993 by Arlene Cinelli Odenwald

Call it good business. The growing influence of Hispanic businesses throughout the United States is resulting in some very heavy clout -- both on the commercial scene and the political scene.

Hispanic-owned businesses in New Mexico leaped 39 percent during the 1980s and are still on the rise.

Jose Armas, an expert on Hispanic culture, contends the growth of Hispanic influence throughout the United States is far more significant than even statisticians can show.

Part of that influence is reflected in Spanish-language billboards cropping up across the country, a clear indication that commerce is targeting the Hispanic population to capitalize on profits.

Leroy Pacheco, executive director of the Albuquerque Hispano Chamber of Commerce, says there is growing proof that non-Hispanics indeed are interested in that growing sector of the economy.

"About 40 percent of the Albuquerque chamber's membership is non-Hispanic, non-minority," says Pacheco. The Albuquerque chamber incidentally is considered among the elite of the nation's Hispanic chambers.

David Santillanes, president and owner of Vista Verde Companies and former state director of tourism and travel, is among the new breed of New Mexico Hispanics.

Santillanes, who entered the private sector in 1980, contends New Mexico is moving in the right direction to support small business.

In particular, Santillanes believes the state should continue to work on capital formation for small businesses. "I'm not talking about give-away programs," he says, "but programs that allow small businesses to get started and grow.

"The legislature recently has been good to small businesses by allowing banks to remove some of the risks from themselves over to government."

Santillanes was selected as Small Businessperson of the Year in November by the Albuquerque Hispano Chamber of Commerce.

What has become obvious whether in Hispanic businesses or small businesses in general is that small operations represent perhaps more than 85 percent of New Mexico businesses.

Small businesses statewide and nationwide employ more people than all the large corporations combined, according to surveys.

Tina Garcia, owner of Ray's Print Shop in Albuquerque's South Valley, is a proponent of the values of small businesses, saying having a small, but devoted customer base rather than growing too quickly and winding up with dissatisfied customers.

She says she prefers to keep her business small and manageable. She raised five children while running her print shop next door to her home.

Her husband Ray, retired from Sandia National Laboratories, was a New Mexico legislator for eight years; Tiny Garcia was an unsuccessful candidate for the Bernalillo County Commission.

Projected Change in Composition of Civilian Labor Force,
1990-2005

                          Actual 1990      Projected 2005

Mainstream                      78.5%               73.0%
African American                10.7%               11.6%
Hispanic                         7.7%               11.1%
Asian and Other                  3.1%                4.3%

Source: U.S. Department of Labor

She is another former recipient of the Small Businessperson of the Year honors from the Albuquerque Hispano Chamber of Commerce.

Arlene Cinelli Odenwald is a freelance writer in Albuquerque.

Hispanics Fastest Growing Work Force

WITH MORE THAN 9.7 million workers, people of Hispanic origin rank as the nation's third largest group of workers, according to Hispanic Business magazine.

The numbers are projected to continue to increase.

The U.S. Department of Labor claims 8.8 million more Hispanics will enter the work force by 2005. The federal agency estimated 7.7 percent of the American labor force was composed of Hispanics in 1990.

Because the Hispanic work force is younger than the mainstream and African American labor forces, labor officials see fewer losses to retirement in the Hispanic sector.

By the year 2005, the number of Hispanics in the work force will almost equal the number of African American workers.

Tragedy to triumph

Mary Garza, president and chief executive officer of Solar Electric Co. Inc., has been named 1993 Businesswoman of the Year for Region II by the United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. The region includes Arizona, Colorado, Montana, Nebraska, North and South Dakota, Utah, Wyoming and New Mexico.

Garza's husband, Ralph Garza, a native of Monterrey, Mexico, believed that a person of Mexican birth and limited English language skills could be a successful business executive in the United States.

When he died in 1989, Mary Garza rolled up her sleeves to keep the Las Cruces electrical contracting firm operating.

Four years after her husband's death, she runs one of the most prosperous electrical contracting companies in southern New Mexico.

The firm originated with a bonding capacity of $25,000 and now has a bonding capacity of more than $5.5 million, and employs 21, of whom 90 percent are Hispanic.

Garza is an active member of the Hispano Chamber of Commerce de Las Cruces.