BUSINESS SECTION

Hispanic owned business on the rise

Associated Press – August 3, 2005 - Hispanic immigrants lured to Arkansas in the 1990s by the promise of jobs in the poultry and timber industries are moving up the economic chain today by starting their own businesses. Spanish-language signs hang outside hair salons, convenience stores, bakeries, insurance agencies and restaurants throughout rural Arkansas and in various Arkansas cities. A growing number of Hispanic-owned businesses, such as Cooks Natural Foods in Rogers, are also catering to non-Hispanic customers.

"In our countries owning your own business is a struggle, here it's like a dream come true. Here they do not put so many obstacles or red tape in your way," said Peru native Susana Cook, who owns Cooks Natural Foods and Universal Medical Supply.

Over the past 15 years, Arkansas' Hispanic population has grown at the second-fastest rate in the nation, trailing only North Carolina, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

When Cook and her husband opened their combined stores 10 years ago, they rented a single space in a strip mall. They have since expanded into three adjoining spaces and are now building a stand-alone location.

Cook advises other Hispanics about starting their own businesses. She said the entrepreneurial bug is especially easy to catch in economically booming northwest Arkansas, which is home to the largest percentage of Arkansas Hispanics.

"This is such a good place to be. You can feel it, you can smell it, you can see it with all the new buildings going up," she said.

Hispanic-owned businesses are also on the rise in Little Rock, where Alejandro Dominguez recently opened the Taqueria Veracruzana restaurant. Dominguez, who worked in a restaurant in California, was encouraged by his brother to join him in Arkansas and open the family eatery.

After six months in business, Taqueria Veracruzana has a constant stream of new customers, both Hispanic and non-Hispanic, who enjoy the traditional Mexican menu, Dominguez said.

Rey Hernandez, northwest Arknasas district director of the Hispanic civil rights group League of United Latin American Citizens, said entrepreneurism and immigration are often linked.

Immigrants "are risk takers by nature or they wouldn't have uprooted their families and moved to a new environment in the first place," he said. "Often, a husband will work at a family business all day and the wife will work at the poultry plant."

Hernandez, who owns a business consulting firm, got his start by opening a Mexican restaurant in Siloam Springs. Many Arkansas Hispanics have succeeded by starting businesses catering to other Hispanics in growing communities, Hernandez said.

"When you move from another country and somebody is willing to import those products from your country and make you feel at home, for Hispanics it is a comfort zone," he said.

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