Latino chambers gear up with new offices

After years of working in sometimes disorganized obscurity, groups hoping to boost the Latino business communities in the Boulder Valley and Northern Colorado suddenly are taking a much more visible approach.

One Latino chamber of commerce opened a prominent office in Greeley in October and another will open in downtown Longmont this month. Both are launching multi-pronged efforts to boost entrepreneurship and networking in a state where more than one out of five citizens identify as Hispanic or Latino, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, and that percentage is growing – along with their formidable mainstream economic muscle.

So why now? Much of the answer, the chambers’ leaders say, was found by looking in the mirror.

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“I don’t think it has anything to do with society itself,” said Manuel Agripino, president and chief executive of the Northern Colorado Latino Chamber of Commerce, whose office made its debut in October in Greeley. “Historically, the Latino community has not accessed the business community as much as other groups have.”

“Sure, there are some social stigmas, based on some of the things that have happened before,” added Jose Beteta, board president of the Latino Chamber of Commerce of Boulder County, which will unveil its new office May 16 on Longmont’s Main Street. “The need arises from the bridges of communication that still aren’t there. There is a lot of mistrust because of things that have happened in the past.”

Bridging those gaps is the primary mission of both chambers.

“We want to provide activities where we come together with other chambers and show them how to approach communities they might not know how to approach because of the cultural differences,” Beteta said, adding that teaching “cultural competency” across the board is one of his organization’s key missions.

“For example, the Latino population is a lot more family oriented in all facets of life,” he said. “I think the Anglo population is very good at compartmentalizing business and family. But we bring family into all areas of life. So it requires a more personal touch in a lot of cases, where you can’t just telephone a business, you have to sit down with them.”

Building a networking infrastructure also remains a challenge.

“Some of the underserved don’t have access to the banking, the capital,” Agripino said. “They weren’t trained to be business owners. They don’t know what it means when a bank tells them to come to the table with working capital.

“Education is life’s great equalizer,” he said. “Historically, Latinos fall behind academically. It’s not that they don’t take education seriously; it’s more that they haven’t accessed it seriously. We have not been focusing on education as we need to be.”

Many do have the impetus to become an entrepreneur, Agripino said, but “we may have somebody working out of their garage that hasn’t registered their business.”

The Latino chambers have taken on the mission of providing education and developing collaborations and relationships that will promote businesses and improve quality of life. Their growth has showed that the demand is there; from no paying members when the office opened in Greeley Oct. 1, the Northern Colorado chamber now has 198 – and hopes to grow to 1,500 within three years. The Boulder County chamber has 150, which Beteta said is triple what it had just two years ago.

“In order to survive and become a viable economic chamber, we have to have membership,” Agripino said. “Our members are everything from mom-and-pops to major employers like JBS, Cargill, High Country Beverage and American Eagle.”

He emphasized that part of that bridge-building mission is supporting all economic-development efforts around Northern Colorado.

“Just by the nature of our growth, it’s telling people that a true Latino chamber is not a cut-down to the other chambers,” he said. “We’re all about making sure we promote the local chambers.”

Both agreed that having a physical office helps. Both venues will provide space for business-development programs and classes.

“We’ve actually been around 30 years but never had a true chamber,” said Agripino. “Now we have a place where we can give advice on whether to start as an LLC, an S-corp or a corporation. We can give them resources such as access to attorneys and accountants. We have a lot of business partners willing to provide them.”

Both Latino chambers credit the help of existing companies and mainstream economic-development organizations.

“This just wouldn’t have been possible without the help of the Longmont and Boulder chambers,” Beteta said. “We’ve even gotten help from Google. That would have been unfathomable before. And the Boulder Valley School District donated equipment to us.”

Beteta came to the chamber three years ago and found a website out of date and a social media outreach nearly nonexistent, he said. Like Agripino, he echoed the gratitude for his chamber finally having a space of its own.

“In 13 years it’s our first physical office,” he said, “a safe, inclusive, diverse space. We’d been using borrowed spaces and coffee shops, and it just wasn’t private enough. Now we can bring the training to people who might not be comfortable yet” to go to other local economic-development groups.

“They do provide some classes in Spanish,” he said, “but some may feel more comfortable at first with us, and then we can steer them to them.”

Other obstacles, he said, were “a lack of recognition that we have a serious organization – and a lack of a budget that was tied to that recognition.”

The Boulder County Latino chamber has planned its opening to coincide with ArtWalk festivities in downtown Longmont. Beteta said. “Without support for the arts, the city wouldn’t be as attractive and thriving.”

The Northern Colorado chamber will get lots of exposure on Saturday, May 2, at the Cinco de Mayo parade and festival it helps sponsor in Greeley’s Island Grove Park, an event that draws up to 15,000 people.

Both events, Beteta said, should be “a great ice-breaker.”

Dallas Heltzell can be reached at 970-232-3149, 303-630-1962 or dheltzell@bizwestmedia.com. Follow him on Twitter at @DallasHeltzell.

The new offices

• Northern Colorado Latino Chamber of Commerce
2725 W. 11th St. Road, Greeley
970-660-4418
www.nocolatinochamber.com

• Latino Chamber of Commerce of Boulder County
332 Main St., Longmont
202-423-7060
www.thelatinochamber.com