Cool Cleveland Interview
Dan Porras
Executive Director
Hispanic Business Association: Hispanic Chamber of Commerce for Ohio

Dan Porras is glad to be leading what many consider to be a key Hispanic business development organization in Ohio. The Mission Statement of the Hispanic Business Association: Hispanic Chamber of Commerce for Ohio is to “[p]romote Hispanic Business interest and economic development through strategic partnerships, technical assistance and advocacy."

To hear Porras tell it, he wants Cleveland to be the place where local Hispanics can start and grow a business.

The Hispanic Business Association: Hispanic Chamber of Commerce for Ohio (HBA: HCCO) was incorporated as a non-profit organization in 1983 by a foundation of Hispanic business owners who were concerned at the low level of Hispanic involvement in both private and public sectors. The association functions through a voluntary, 15-member board and large network of supporters, all who believe an institutional presence in the community, will help develop and expand Hispanic business.

Through management training programs, professional services and specialized technical assistance, HBA: HCCO provides tools to help build successful businesses.

Funded in part by membership dues and grants from the City of Cleveland, the organization provides technical assistance and advocacy services to Hispanic businesses or individuals interested in starting/expanding a business. Members receive discounts on Health, Dental and Vision Plan benefits. The association also offers services in English and Spanish, helping residents take full advantage of the organization’s many programs and services.

The association also sponsors the annual “Entrepreneur of the Year” awards banquet, which recognizes Hispanic entrepreneurs who are succeeding in business and participating civically in community development.

Cool Cleveland caught up with Porras recently and talked about statewide collaboration, employment and entrepreneurship, the immigration debate and its impact on the Hispanic population in Cleveland and gearing up for the HCCO’s “Entrepreneur of the Year” awards.

Cool Cleveland: Thanks for taking the time. If you would, tell our readers a little bit about the history of the organization.

Dan Porras: We came to be around 1984, with a purpose to advocate for the Hispanic populations in Cleveland. Most people in those communities felt like they weren’t being represented, so that’s when the idea of a Hispanic Business Association came to be. I don’t know back then whether it was affiliated with the U.S. Chamber [of Commerce] or not. But over time, we came to be Hispanic Business Association: Hispanic Chamber of Commerce for Ohio.

The name suggests that the organization has some statewide organizational responsibilities.

Well, no. We’re still in Northeast Ohio and there are other associations across the state. But we’re working toward creating a statewide organization.

What is your current relationship to those other organizations?

We meet together periodically and do what we can to help each other out, whether it is with a fundraiser or some other technical help. Primarily, the other associations are in Toledo, Columbus, Cincinnati and Dayton. So, most of them are more southerly. Last year at the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce meeting, we did talk in detail about creating a more statewide partnership.

What sorts of collaborative efforts have happened up to this point? Any particular events or initiatives that have been adopted statewide?

Well, we have had meetings and been apprised of the other groups’ pursuits. Unfortunately, we rescheduled our annual banquet from June to September because we had a Hispanic Women’s Conference for the first time in February. It was a very successful event, but backed us up some. We really wanted to give more space in between the two events. As a result, I haven’t been able to participate in working with other organizations as much as I would like.

It sounds like there is momentum there, however.

Yes. It’s true, and collaborative efforts move slowly because you have to build trust with one another.

So how did your Women’s Conference turn out. I heard good things.

We had about 550 participants the first day and about 450 the second day. We had extremely good participation and were pleased with what we were able to accomplish this first time out… we are going to have another one and try to put six months between each of our events for funding and scheduling reasons, and to work well with corporate sponsors.

A lot of what you offer to your membership sort of echoes what COSE does. Do you have a working partnership there?

When I started here, we decided that we would like to build a relationship with COSE. My vision is to grow associations across the board, with businesses across the board, to a point where we are truly representative of the Hispanic population and achieve a level of sophistication. To do that takes time. We have to identify the Hispanic businesses, identify what their needs and goals are and such. There are statistics out there, but the strength comes in building your own database and constituency and earning trust. From there, we can get these people networked and exploring joint ventures together. That’s the goal.

From what I can tell, your corporate sponsors, particularly those in the city, have been pretty strong and supportive of your efforts.

Yes, they have! We have several great corporate sponsors. We are pleased to have National City, KeyBank, First Merit, Dollar Bank and New Era Construction, which is the leading Hispanic-owned general contracting business for construction services and government agency contracts. They really stepped up to the plate. New Era is, I believe, the second largest Hispanic-owned company in Cleveland. The largest is Ferris Metals. And there are others, both small business and non-profit.

Interesting that you have overwhelming support from financial institutions. They can be funny about setting up sponsorships and not wanting to move in the same sponsorship circles for the same group or event simultaneously. Having that situation is great for your organization.

I feel that with our services and the help that we provide—particularly technical advice for companies who are starting up or expanding—there is a huge role that operating capital plays in that regard. Because we assist [owners] in formulating packages for successful funding, by virtue of that, we tend to have a lot of collaboration with financial institutions.

That certainly allows a huge opportunity for growth, I would think.

Absolutely. If you look at demographics and statistics, Hispanic populations are the fastest growing in the United States. And not just by population, but also by business. A study came out by the U.S. Census Bureau covering the years 1997 through 2002 and it found that 31% of businesses started nationwide were Hispanic, which is three times greater than the next group, minority or otherwise. In Ohio, that figure is 10%. In Northeast Ohio, that figure is 23%.

What do you attribute that Northeast Ohio growth to?

I attribute it to the fact that a lot of Hispanics are populating Northeast Ohio these days. A lot of them come here have difficulty finding positions, but they are coming from places where commerce is a way of life and they don’t have the infrastructure we do in the United States. From a regional standpoint, I imagine small businesses are healthier because of the amount of manufacturing industry that has been lost here. We’re adapting and being more open to starting from scratch. When you think about the fiber of the United States, it’s built on small business and the virtue of their development. It’s not anything new.

Inevitably, our conversation leads us into the U.S. immigration debate.

Sure. We’ve had migration and immigration in various times throughout our history as a country. The issue is, this time, and I don’t want to sound like a racist or anything, but the issue is that these people are not Caucasian and are speaking Spanish. And the concern is, “will they ever assimilate?”

It’s an interesting story. The concept that’s out there is that Hispanics never want to speak English. But I was reading a study by the Pugh Foundation, which found that 75% of first generation Hispanics spoke Spanish only, 25% were bilingual. In the second generation, and my statistics here are probably not exact, but the figure went down to around 50%, with about 10% of them speaking English.

By the third generation, the dominant language was English. 20% of them were bilingual and nearly none were speaking Spanish by itself. And critics might say otherwise, but I suspect that’s not very different from other immigrant populations who have settled in the United States.

Those stats are pretty interesting. I’m second generation. My grandparents came from Armenia and settled in Cleveland. My Dad was somewhat bilingual and did his best to help his parents understand what was happening in the community and with bills and mail. I can't hang in a conversation as a listener, or speak the language at this point.

Another distinction that can be made is that Hispanics like to stay tied tightly to their heritage. But I can verify that there’s some of that distinction among my own children, in terms of language.

To what extent is the U.S. immigration debate going on impacting the Hispanic community locally? How is the community responding?

It has a big effect. Right now, we’re involved in the Butler County situation, where the Sherriff there [Richard Jones] is trying to enforce immigration law. As a result, business there is going down and people are afraid to go out on the streets, et cetera. So, what we have done in conjunction with some other organizations is approach Butler County about coming to Cleveland to see what opportunities we have here. We are collaborating with Team NEO, the City of Cleveland and others to come up with a strategy to bring them here and show [residents there] what we have to offer.

I want to make clear that we’re not going in to raid that population, but we were alerted to being able to help those individuals. Our history in Cleveland is very strong in immigration and migration, Irish, Eastern European. We embrace that and we’re pleased that the city and county were open to assisting us.

You’ve got another big event coming up. Very exciting!

It’s the 24th annual event and one of the main fundraisers for us. It’s going to be a dynamic event. We’re having a power breakfast, strictly for our sponsors with a Q&A session. No presentations, just an interactive exchange between our membership and sponsors. And then there will be the Awards Banquet.

We’re trying to make both of them more responsive to our corporate sponsors as well. This year, I twisted the arm of my brother Jerry Porras to get him to participate and speak at the event. He authored the book Built to Last and had planned on being there, but he’s having an operation and won’t be able to make it. So, the co-author of the follow-up, Success: Built to Last will be speaking. Stewart Every. He spent the last 10 years consulting major consulting on principles of the book.

That’s quite a coup! And Senator John McCain wrote the forward.

Yes. It’s already been reviewed by USA Today. It’s a precursor to Built to Last and offers examples of remarkable success stories in business. It’s also a study of what makes success happen. McCain in his forward says that, and I am paraphrasing, that success is always greater than what your objective is and greater than yourself. That’s what defines a visionary, he says.

What do you think defines a visionary? Are you seeing it in the Hispanic community in Northeast Ohio today?

I see a struggle. There are visionaries in the Hispanic community, but to really see the benefit of those traits, it is critical to have those people all working together and sharing their knowledge and experiences with one another.

My personal vision would be to unite Hispanics of all nationalities in our community. They’re all coming from different cultures. And working together, they could all be a powerful force with the population growth. That would define our community as being visionary.

The annual “Entrepreneur of the Year” awards banquet, which recognizes Hispanic entrepreneurs, takes place Friday September 8 at 6:00 PM at Crown Plaza Cleveland Center, 777 St Clair Ave. Visit HBA:HCCO at http://www.hbahcco.org/. Visit Crown Plaza at http://www.crownplaza.com. For more information or to make reservations, call 281-4422.

From Cool Cleveland Managing Editor Peter Chakerian peterATcoolcleveland.com (:divend:)