Print

Email story

Comment

Letter to the editor

Language and cultural barriers fall for Hispanics

Members of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce do traditional networking, but the group also helps business newcomers.

By KRIS HUNDLEY
Published October 28, 2007

ADVERTISEMENT

"I'm fully bilingual, but there's such a diversity of cultures and people in New York City, I missed that when I first came here," said the 43-year-old native of Puerto Rico.

Her first feeling of home came when she was serenaded in Spanish at a local restaurant. The next occurred when she joined the Tampa Bay Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

"I was looking for that warmth we have within our community," said Semprit, a vice president with Citibank in Tampa. "And my company wanted me to be part of the community we're serving."

Semprit is now chairwoman of the Hispanic chamber, which has about 380 members, including self-employed entrepreneurs as well as corporate executives. She said they rely on the chamber for traditional business-networking purposes.

But veteran members said the Hispanic chamber can perform another critical role: showing newcomers the ropes in an alien culture.

"When I came here from New York, I didn't know how local government bureaucracies worked or who did what," Semprit said. "Learning those things helps make you successful."

Yanina Rosario is the economic development chairwoman of the Hispanic Business Initiative Fund in Tampa. The nonprofit group helps start-ups and existing businesses access loans. The fund also offers free business seminars.

"When a Hispanic is getting started in business here, there's a little bit of a language barrier, but the cultural barrier is even harder to break through," said Rosario, whose group worked on 64 loans last year, averaging $10,000 to $25,000 per loan.

"People may not understand that personal credit is based on your payment history, not on knowing the president of the local bank. Or they don't know about business taxes or sign restrictions or the fact you cannot have a bakery out of your house," she said. "It's the little things that get people in trouble."

While learning a new culture as well as a new language can be daunting, Semprit said barriers to the Tampa Bay business world are falling fast.

"With Tampa Bay transitioning from a smaller city into something more of a greater metropolitan city, there will be lots more opportunities as more corporations come to the area," she said.

She is also encouraged that, as the local Hispanic population grows, it is becoming more willing to focus on its similarities, rather than differences.

"The Hispanic community here is very diverse," Semprit said, saying the label covers longtime residents as well as recent immigrants from all over Central and South America as well as the Caribbean.

"If we're all united in one voice, we're much more successful than we are as individuals."

Kris Hundley can be reached at khundley@sptimes.com or 727 892-2996.

[Last modified October 25, 2007, 14:23:45]