How Much is a Mexican Worth?

How much is a Mexican worth? Would you believe Mexicans living in the US and Americans of Mexican ancestry, which make up roughly 60 percent of all Hispanics in the United States, are estimated to be worth the larger part of more than $1.5 trillion in annual purchasing power by 2015? Believe it. But Mexicans also start and operate more small businesses than any other immigrant group, according to census data. States like Florida are taking heed of this and targeting all Hispanics with small business creation programs that provide fully bilingual staff and offer startup grants for new entrepreneurs. With Mexico as the United States’ second largest export market, Florida may be the trendsetter for creating new economic growth opportunities.

“The Mexican national team is a gold mine,” said Vicente Navarro, director of Hispanic Marketing for Soccer.com, referring to the country's soccer team. Navarro, a Spaniard, picked up on the potential of the US Latino soccer market in 1995 while crisscrossing the United States setting up soccer specialty stores for Kelme, a Spanish soccer goods company.

  “There was huge potential (in the Hispanic market) but no one was doing it right. No one was talking to Hispanics in a relative way,” said Navarro. Soccer.com, an American owned e-commerce retail site, hired Navarro in 2007 to implement their Hispanic initiative. The effort entailed many changes with the golden egg of their work being their extensive and detailed customer database. The company is now the world’s largest soccer retailer and sells as many Mexico jerseys inside the United States as they do U.S. jerseys.

 “Mexico sells. If you want to win, the jackpot is the Mexican fan.” Navarro estimates that in soccer, Mexicans are worth about 80 percent of the soccer business in the United States.

“When Mexican fans watch the games they want to have the same brands they see their players wearing. If someone bought a Mexican jersey, we will make sure that they see the other Mexican products too,” he said. Soccer.com offers five Mexican brands that the e-commerce site did not sell before the Spanish native came onboard.

 But to pigeonhole Mexicans as consumers slights the greater economic contributions they bring to the table in the form of small business creation. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development ranked Mexico the highest of its 28 member countries in entrepreneurship, above even the United States and Great Britain. Roughly 25 percent of Mexicans are self-employed business owners according to Mexican census data making it no surprise that Mexicans lead all other immigrant groups in small business establishment when they cross their northern border. But only 6 percent of Mexicans continue to build self-employment in the United States after leaving their homeland, prompting some to wonder if more could be done to support these entrepreneurs.

“Small businesses make up 90 percent employers in the United States,” said Daniel Mantilla, business consultant for the Hispanic Business Initiative Fund (HBIF). “They are a force that helps the economy grow.” HBIF, a Florida non-profit organization, opened its doors in 1991 and has since offered free business planning services to the public, regardless of race or ethnicity.

“Our mission is to create jobs in the state of Florida through business development and training Hispanic entrepreneurs,” said Rosalina Stober, vice president of the agency’s central Florida branch. “What makes us unique is that all our staff is bilingual.”

Grants to Hispanic startups are another unique offering of HBIF. The State of Florida provides the grants under their mission to stimulate minority small businesses. Funds from the U.S. Small Business Administration, along with their own fundraising, cover operation costs for the organization.

The Florida non-profit offers all the building blocks to put a new business on solid footing including business plan development, one-on-one business consulting, legal assistance, and bookkeeping and tax workshops. Among the organization’s success stories are clothing manufacturers like Black & Denim Apparel and health food companies like Acai Masters.

With the largest number of Mexican immigrants in the country, California has yet to follow Florida’s lead to maximize the economic contribution of these residents and their fledgling businesses. SCORE, a national non-profit that receives the same federal monies as HBIF, operates multiple locations and offers the same array of services for free or a small fee. They do not offer startup grants nor do they mandate that locations have bilingual staff.

 “In order to offer services in Spanish, we need Spanish speaking volunteers. We don’t have any of those,” explained Nancy Tiako, office manager and workshop coordinator for the Los Angeles chapter of SCORE.

From "Mi Vida Loca" to Location, Location, Location - Immigrants Cede to Hipsters in Echo Park, CA

One Echo Park gang member lay dead, another wounded, two blocks apart in an afternoon gun rampage that would claim one more life before it was over. That was 2009. Five years later Echo Park is enjoying a crime drop. Now the eclectic Los Angeles neighborhood, made famous in the film “Mi Vida Loca,” is watching property values soar and migrant working class families replaced in higher income ‘hipster’ tenants. One recent house flip sold for more than three times its purchase price of $300,000. The sale price fell just south of $1 million at $922,000.

“It’s the new Beverly Hills East,” mused Darin Williams, owner of the security company hired in 1994 to patrol the then crime ridden hillside community. “Back in the 1990s shootings with fatalities were not uncommon,” said Williams. “You wouldn’t see a single woman out walking her dog at night. You’d be crazy.”

Susan Borden was one of the original Echo Park Security Association members who hired Williams’ company.

“Crime in the late 1980s was very high,” remembers Borden, who moved to Echo Park in 1979. “People had to decide if they were going to leave or do something about it. There was no middle ground at that point.”

Now in her sixties, Borden recalls drug deals and shootings on her street. It was the era before the Los Angeles Police Department had fully embraced community policing. Their support for the citizen program consisted of little more than yard signs and a pat on the back according to Borden. Most of the work fell on community volunteers for the dozen or so neighborhood watch beats. “It was a lot of work,” said Borden.

One resident floated the idea of hiring a private security company to patrol the area. Some were afraid it would be oppressive. Residents also did not want to be profiled. After addressing concerns, people were willing to contribute $10 each per month. The group added up the money and went shopping for a security service. They had enough to pay for one night per week. They chose Friday, the night with the most crime. “It was a huge relief to people,” recalled Borden.

By pooling their resources, these working class renters and homeowners were able to employ a high profile private security patrol, something only very wealthy communities were using, in their struggle against the pervasive lawlessness around them. Now there is the gang injunction, which makes it illegal for served gang members to associate with each other in public. Even so, crime in Echo Park, like Los Angeles overall, has declined every year for over a decade. With decreased crime comes economic development and gentrification in a town that has long been a welcome landing place for Mexican immigrants over the years.

“There has been a shift. I don’t think this is such a cheap area for recent immigrants anymore,” noted Borden. “So many people who were active in the 1990s have departed or moved away.”

When she arrived in town 30 years ago, she used to see women balancing bundles on their heads walking up the street, something she has not seen in years. Gone too are the ritual and ceremony of colorful motorcades, festooned with handmade tissue rosettes and paper flowers that would publicly present young women on their quinceañeras and newlyweds as they left the church.

That was an era when three generations all lived together in the same one-bedroom apartment and walked where they needed to go. Now that apartment is rented by one or maybe two people and they live nearly inseparable from their cars. Trendy eateries, boutiques and yoga studios have begun to appear in the business district of town.

“These things have definitely changed over the years. You don’t really notice until it’s gone,” reflected Borden. Ari Bessendorf, president of the Greater Echo Park Elysian Neighborhood Council, defends the changes as something that happens everywhere.

“Yes there are people that have been moved out of apartments. This is economic level change. It is not racially motivated. People who are not involved with the planning process don’t understand it,” he said.

Bessendorf, a recent transplant from the East Coast, identifies himself as part of the yoga mat transformation too. He believes that public resources that were being used by lower income residents have been reduced due to federal budget cuts and theorizes that some of the people moving on are caught up in that.

He touts renovation as a positive thing. There is less graffiti. The strip on Sunset Boulevard is no longer a “drunken party zone.” He estimated that 30 to 40 buildings are sold and renovated each year but minorities are not being targeted even though they make up the largest group moving out of the city.

“All towns change. I came from Jamaica Plain, Boston, a diverse community in itself. It was founded by Puritans and since has seen many different nationalities move in and add to the history.”

Geoffrey Rhue, 52, and his fiancé, Joy Joaquin, 48, are a microcosm of the changes in Echo Park that see rents being raised and tenants having to choose between paying more or moving elsewhere. The pair has paid $1,500 per month to live in a single-story, 2-bedroom, 1-bath home abutting a semi-wild corridor since 2011. Next month the rent increases to $2,400, an eye-popping 60 percent hike.

“There is no rent control on single-family residences,” laments Joaquin, who came to the United States from the Philippines as a teenager. Even though she grew up on Los Angeles’ west side, her heart has always been in Echo Park on the east side. “I live and breathe Echo Park. The best people live here, the real people,” she said

Rhue himself has been moved on twice before in this way, once from an apartment in Echo Park and once from Eagle Rock. He was lucky last time to find another place in Echo Park.

While their current rental agreement includes an option to buy, Joaquin doubts the owner is going to be selling. Their resolve to stay is firm. “Even with the rent increase, we are staying in this house,” says Rhue. “Echo Park is our home. We are staying.”