Transcript
Leslie Mix
President/CEO, Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Northern Nevada
In Nevada, you've recently seen a transformation?
Yes, we have. That's one of the states that we've seen a huge dramatic percentage growth increase in the last 20 years of Hispanics coming to the state because there are jobs. When people come over here legally or illegally, what they are really looking for is economic ambition. We do get the best of the best, because it is very difficult to cross hell and high water to get to our country and come here without family, without language, without education--people bring hard work. They come here with the anticipation that they are going to be able to go back to Mexico, or go back to Guatemala or wherever they came from, because there is still a lot of family members down there. And then the Hispanic community families obviously are very strong, so people come here, they work two or three service industry jobs, they work very hard, they send some money back to family in Mexico. Then they've been here for 5 or 7 years, they get to be here for 10 years, the kids are in the school system, they are starting to get married, life is pretty good, it's not a third world country, and the family members start coming to wherever their families are. What we are seeing on Wells Avenue is really an emerging economic market, when people have been here for 10 years or longer. They've saved some money, the family opens a family-run business, the family members run it, the community comes and supports it, now you've got this emerging economic market, and that's really what the United States is seeing when you talk about a million businesses. The backbone of America is small business, and that's not just the American dream. It's everybody with any ambition's dream, is to have your own business.
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