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Hopes for strengthening Hispanic connections

A small group of newcomers has big ideas about networking via business and professional people to foster a stronger sense of community.

By JOSE CARDENAS
Published June 5, 2006

HOLIDAY - The network of Hispanic business people has only four members so far.

Susana Cristancho, Katherine Atherton and William Sanchez, all involved in real estate, along with Alice Delgardo, the president of the West Pasco Democratic Club, meet over coffee every Tuesday morning at a Panera Bread in New Port Richey.

Relatively new to Pasco County themselves, they are looking for all the Hispanic business people and professionals they can find. The four want to develop the network with the hope that it might become an independent Pasco Hispanic Chamber of Commerce or function under the broader Tampa Bay Hispanic Chamber or the West Pasco Chamber of Commerce.

"There are women helping women, there are other professionals, but there's nothing targeted to the Hispanic community,'' said Atherton, 44, a real estate agent with Home Team Realty in Clearwater, who lives in Tarpon Springs. "And the Hispanic community is growing a lot in this area.''

Because the county has few nonprofits or other organizations that provide services to Hispanics, Sanchez said a local Hispanic chamber could help develop such services and information as how people can buy their first homes.

"There's a need for education of the Hispanic population in Pasco,'' said the 52-year-old Sanchez, a program manager for the nonprofit Tampa Bay Community Development Corporation, who moved to Pasco from New York four years ago. "There is no real organization that is affording them that opportunity right now.''

While the general population of Pasco County grew 16 percent between 2000 and 2004, according to U.S. Census figures, the Hispanic population grew by only 2 percent.

The census estimates that of the county's 402,000 residents, 8 percent - or 31,000 - are Hispanic.

The broader Tampa Bay Hispanic Chamber, based in Tampa, covers Hillsborough, Pinellas and Pasco counties.

The Tampa Bay Hispanic chamber has been growing the last couple of years, starting chapters and holding functions in Plant City and Clearwater.

The Pinellas chapter holds its quarterly lunches at the Belleview Biltmore Hotel in Belleair. At its next luncheon, on June 20, one speaker will be Jose Tavarez, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays' outreach coordinator for the Hispanic community and veterans.

"People have been asking for something in this area for a long time and finally we are able to give them that,'' said Norma Martinez, chairwoman of the Pinellas chapter, who owns a job placement firm. Having Pinellas events, "you get to know the other organizations within your community that maybe you wouldn't get a chance of meeting ... because you can't go to Tampa.''

For its success, the Tampa Bay Hispanic Chamber last year was named the medium-sized "Hispanic Chamber of the Year'' by the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce for a region covering Tennessee to Puerto Rico.

But the Tampa Bay Hispanic Chamber has no plans yet to develop an associated chapter or functions in Pasco.

Also, no one knows how many Hispanic businesses there are in Pasco, where the Hispanic population is heavier in the east than in the western part of the county.

The four business people who meet at Panera Bread measure the presence of Hispanics anecdotally.

There are the other businesses people they have met at networking functions, the occasional stores along main roads such as U.S. 19 and the presence of Hispanic products at mainstream markets.

"If you go to the supermarkets, you hear more and more Spanish-speaking people,'' said Cristancho, 44, a loan officer at American Home Mortgage in Port Richey. "Sometimes I stop (and ask), 'How long have you been here?' They say, 'We are new.' "

Like Sanchez, the others are new to the Pasco area.

Cristancho, a native of Colombia, came from New York four years ago. Atherton came from Puerto Rico six years ago. Delgardo, who is African-American and whose husband is Cape Verdean, came to Holiday from Boston four years ago.

The four are hoping that a group of Hispanic entrepreneurs and professionals could also create a social center for the Hispanic community.

"Initially, when people just move in the area, there's some comfort in being able to connect with people who are like you,'' said Delgardo, 54.

Mainstream nonprofits and organizations can also use a network of Hispanic business people as a point of entry into that community, Delgardo said.

She noted that she is interested in developing a Hispanic chamber because her own Democratic Club wants to better connect to that community.

Organizations like the United Way, Delgardo said, sometimes ask her if she knows anyone who speaks Spanish because the organizations want to make their information and services available to Hispanics.

"After you hear that a couple times you say, 'I know the resources are out there,' " said Delgardo, who is also a consultant who helps businesses establish office policies.

TO GET INVOLVED

Anyone interested in joining the networking group of Hispanic business people can call Susana Cristancho at (727) 271-5002.

[Last modified June 5, 2006, 05:58:12]