There were already two Latino business groups in Los Angeles. Last week, the sector got a little more crowded when a third was added.
The Latino Business Chamber of Greater Los Angeles burst on the scene April 2 with an opening ceremony featuring surprise! mariachi music at a theater in downtown Los Angeles. The organization promises to promote the interests of local Hispanic companies. About 300 people attended, including Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and City Council President Eric Garcetti.
The founder of the new organization said his group is an important addition to the mix.
“There are good groups doing good work, but we need to be in play with corporate America and the public sector in a serious way,” Jorge Corralejo, founding chairman of the Latino Business Chamber, said at the opening ceremony.
Los Angeles already has the Latin Business Association, one of the largest ethnic chambers in the country, and the Los Angeles Metropolitan Hispanic Chambers of Commerce, a group that focuses on international trade.
Both organizations have a head start on the new Latino chamber in terms of membership, funding and name recognition.
Corralejo, owner of Macondo Leasing Co. in downtown Los Angeles, was on the board of the Latin Business Association for 25 years before he started the new organization.
“We never played the stakes high enough,” he said. “I don’t want to compare this to any other group, but we’re building something of a greater scale to benefit Latino businesses.”
One of Corralejo’s first priorities is to get money for direct lending to Latino companies from banks that received money under the federal Troubled Asset Relief Program.
He also plans to leverage government programs, such as the Small Business Administration lending program and Small Business Development Centers.
Alberto Alvarado, director of the Los Angeles SBA office, sits on the new chamber’s board. Robert Mooney, deputy director of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., spoke at the chambers’ inaugural event.
Bob Holguin, executive director at the Latino Business Chamber, said the new organization will concentrate in offering business consulting, loan packaging and political advocacy to its members.
“We want to give our members added value, not the normal chamber breakfasts and networking opportunities,” Holguin said. “It’s going to be different from other chambers because we’ll do seminars, workshops and one-on-one consulting the stuff Small Business Development Centers do.”
A representative of another Latino chamber said his group offers those services, however.
Holguin, who formerly served as the head of SBA lending at East West Bank in Pasadena and as chief operating officer at the Valley Economic Development Center in Van Nuys, expects the new chamber to develop special expertise in packaging loans. In addition to helping entrepreneurs complete the paperwork, the organization will work with bank officers to place the loan.
“We know which banks like startups and which ones like restaurants,” Holguin said. “We’ll tailor the package for the bankers who like those deals.”
All these groups
Ruben Guerra, chairman of the Latin Business Association, sees the new organization as validation of the LBA’s mission rather than direct competition.
“The Latino business community is growing at such a rate, even in these recessionary times, that even with three chambers, I don’t think it’s enough,” Guerra said. “We need all the advocacy and help we can get.”
LBA membership peaked in the late 1990s at about 1,200 companies. It fell all the way to 200 two years ago, but has since rebounded to about 800.
While he welcomes the arrival of the new group, Guerra also said the LBA already offers some of the same services and has a track record it can tout.
“A lot of people say they are advocates of the Latin community, but we have done it for 35 years,” he said.
Guerra and Corralejo both attended the Latino Economic Summit in Washington last week.
The third local Hispanic trade group, the Metropolitan Hispanic Chambers, is an umbrella group that pools a number of area organizations; its focus is on international trade. Although it has a few individual members, most come from other chambers including Hispanic chambers in Fontana and Ontario, and country-specific groups such as the Brazil-California Chamber of Commerce. The group’s next major event is a trade mission to Ecuador scheduled May 28 to June 1.
At the opening gala, the upstart Latino chamber counted 37 founding members. Rather than depend on membership fees, it will fund itself with about $400,000 in corporate grants including U.S. Bank, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Comerica Bank, Verizon and Southern California Gas Co.
“Many of the major banks are invested in the success of this organization,” Richard Davis, chief executive of U.S. Bank, said at the opening gala. “I know there was the LBA before, but this is your moment.”
