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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