Hispanic Chamber Sees a New Era and a New Role for Itself

The U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, which represents the interests of the nation’s 1.4 million Latino businesses, is remaking itself as an economic development organization to capitalize on the corporate and political attention its constituents have captured.

At the Washington-based chamber’s 20th annual convention, which opens today in San Diego and continues through Saturday, President and CEO George Herrera plans to announce initiatives that will bring financing, technology training, political power and media exposure to member businesses and chambers from Hawaii to New Jersey.

Among the newly created programs are an equity fund, a political action committee, a youth chamber and the launch of the first national news program on Latino business issues. “Hispanic Business Today” will air monthly on more than a dozen NBC affiliates beginning Sunday in markets including Los Angeles, New York and Birmingham, Ala. Although New York’s WNBC will produce the show, the USHCC owns it and controls content.

“What you’re seeing . . . is a change that positions us to lead Hispanic entrepreneurs into the new millennium,” said Herrera, now in his second year at the group’s helm. “The way to deal with social ills facing Hispanics in this era is through economic development. That’s the task in front of us, to educate [Latinos] that entrepreneurship can empower our communities.”

The chamber still has plenty of work ahead if it is to unify the Latino business community. The organization has not held its convention in Los Angeles--the nation’s Latino business capital--for a dozen years, and no board member hails from here, although that may change in elections Saturday.

“This aircraft carrier is taking a sharp turn, and if the chambers are on board they have an opportunity to get some real benefits,” said Hector Barreto Jr., the USHCC founder’s son and head of Los Angeles’ thriving Latin Business Assn. The younger Barreto is vying for a seat on the chamber’s board.

Latino entrepreneurs have reached critical mass that could yield results if they work together, observers say.

The number of Latino businesses increased 232% between 1987 and 1997, outpacing all other groups, the U.S. Census found. Latinas are forming businesses fastest of all. Among the fastest-growing sectors are transportation, high technology and business services--areas where few Latino entrepreneurs ventured in the chamber’s early days.

When Guadalajara-born Hector Barreto Sr. helped found the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce in 1979, most Latino ventures were mom-and-pop retail shops like his Kansas City restaurant, and corporate America was nearly oblivious to burgeoning Latino buying power.

The chamber helped change that. In 1983, Ronald Reagan addressed the group, making him the first sitting president to attend a Latino convention. When he commented on the number of Latinos who had received military medals of honor, the elder Barreto saw an opening.

“I told him to tell [former Defense Secretary] Caspar Weinberger that if we’re good enough to stop the bullets, we’re good enough to make them,” he said. The following year, Weinberger addressed the convention and the chamber received a $500,000 contract to help identify Latino defense subcontractors. Barreto eventually became an advisor on Latino business to both Reagan and George Bush.

The 1983 convention also marked the birth of a partnership with corporate America that has continued to grow. Today, dozens of Fortune 1,000 corporations participate in the chamber’s convention, lured by estimates of Latino spending power expected to hit $383 billion this year.

The chamber has also helped facilitate trade with Mexico, lobbying heavily for the North American Free Trade Agreement and opening a Mexico City office.

But with new clout came pressure for a chamber that could transform corporate and political attention into economic opportunity. While previous conventions were high on corporate gloss, individual enterprises rarely benefited, critics said.

Enter George Herrera.

In meetings across the country with 250 member chambers, he crafted a new direction that debuts in San Diego, where Vice President Al Gore, the Democratic presidential front-runner, will deliver the keynote address.

In addition to the political action committee and equity fund, Herrera plans to announce a technology training program to shepherd Latino business into the “new economy.” The chamber has also pre-scheduled procurement meetings with Fortune 1,000 companies and Latino entrepreneurs who hope to become their vendors and suppliers, and is in the process of creating a national vendor database of Latino companies that big corporations can draw on.

On Friday the chamber will also unveil Job Centro, developed for the USHCC by Vista, Calif.-based Batiz.com, a Latino-owned multimedia company. The site (https://www.jobcentro.com) aims to become the largest jobs database for Latinos on the Internet. It will connect job seekers and their resumes with more than two dozen major USHCC corporate sponsors, including Sun Microsystems, General Motors, American Airlines and Avis.

The changes are not lost on corporate participants.

“They have become much more politically savvy in terms of leveraging the size of the organization . . . when it comes to getting the attention they need, not only from corporate America but from political officials,” said Victor M. Franco, community affairs manager for Miller Brewing, one of the chamber’s founding corporate members.

The jury is still out on how the organization will help small-business owners in Whittier or the Imperial Valley, particularly Spanish speakers. But Latino business advocates say the potential is palpable.

“Our time is right now,” said Coco Corona, a Vallejo, Calif., businesswoman and former USHCC board member.

“We need to capitalize on our numbers--people numbers, economic numbers,” said Corona, who is running for president of the California Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, which represents 53 chambers statewide. “In order for us to expect the opportunity that should be ours, we have to network together.”