Why Should Delaware Care?
The number of Latino-owned businesses is growing in Delaware, mirroring national trends and contributing to the nearly 5 million Latino-owned businesses in the country. Latinos are one of the fastest growing segments of the U.S. business population, with a collective economic contribution of roughly $3.2 trillion.
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This story was developed following discussions at a Spotlight Delaware Pop-Up Newsroom. Our next scheduled stop in Oct. 21 at the Lewes Public Library.
Francisco González Hernández has worked many jobs.
He left his home in Guatemala and arrived in the U.S. at the dawn of the 2007 Great Recession. The economic crisis marked the steepest recession in the country since World War ll.
He worked brief stints in landscaping and construction before the recession dried up any new building jobs. The trades led him to the restaurant industry, where he regularly held down 18-hour shifts from 5:30 a.m. until 11 p.m.
His plan was to stay for five years — get a job, make some money and buy a house. Then, he’d return home.
But plans change.
Now, 17 years after his arrival, González Hernández owns two construction companies in southern Delaware.
“It’s been an adventure,” González Hernández said.
Ha sido una aventura.
Francisco González Hernández
Latinos comprise one of the fastest growing segments of the U.S. business population, with a collective economic contribution of roughly $3.2 trillion, according to the Stanford Graduate School of Business. There are nearly 5 million Latino-owned businesses in the U.S. that generate over $800 billion in annual revenue.
The country saw a 57% growth in the number of Latino-owned businesses between 2007 and 2022, according to the school.
In Delaware, the number of Latino-owned businesses increased by 1% from 2021 to 2023, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration Office of Advocacy. Today, about one out of every 16 businesses in the state are owned by Latinos.
Numerous initiatives to foster and grow the number Latino-owned businesses in the First State have also sprouted in the years after the COVID pandemic, including the launch of the Delaware Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and the Delaware Alliance of Latino Entrepreneurs. The programs in each county have empowered Latinos to start their own business through education and resources.
The startup businesses range from mechanic shops and house-flipping operations to construction outfits and food trucks.
Many organizations have expanded this year as the number of Latino-owned businesses and Latinos in general continue to rise.
La Plaza Delaware, an organization which bolsters Latino businesses in Sussex County, began expansion efforts into Kent County in August. The organization has supported over 300 Latino-owned businesses in Sussex with training, events and workshops since it began in 2021.
“We are growing as a community,” said Neyda Albarrán, La Plaza’s Kent County project manager and pastor at Avenue United Methodist Church in Milford. “We’re here, and we’re here to contribute.”
Immigrants, including many from Central America, like Karina Gonzalez from Guatemala, are starting small businesses in Delaware. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY JOSE IGNACIO CASTANEDA PEREZ
‘We’re here to contribute’
The BP gas station parking lot cradled Karina Gonzalez’s food truck on a recent afternoon in Lewes. Gonzalez’s eatery, Tacos Emily, sat towed to a pickup truck and nestled beneath the sign proclaiming the day’s gas prices.
Gonzalez and her husband converted a former barbecue-and-hot dog food truck into their taco eatery in June 2023. Gonzalez was an elementary school teacher in Guatemala before she immigrated to the U.S. to help support her parents in 2003.
“I’m still here, still fighting, still trying to move forward,” Gonzalez said.
Sigo aca, luchando, tratando de seguir adelante.
Karina Gonzalez’
Immigrants represent 52% of Latino business owners in the country, according to the Stanford Latino Entrepreneurship Initiative.
In Milford, the city’s downtown is peppered with various Latino and Haitian establishments, catering to the community’s increasingly diverse residents. The community has historically attracted many Latino and Haitian immigrants seeking work at the nearby poultry processing plant.
Neyda Albarrán, pastor at Avenue United Methodist Church in Milford, has helped to highlight and support the area’s Latino population. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY JOSE IGNACIO CASTANEDA PEREZ
Albarrán, is working to catalog all the town’s Latino-owned businesses into one master list. So far, she’s cataloged 35 Latino-owned businesses in Milford’s downtown district, including businesses like popular Puerto Rican cafe and bakery My Sister’s Fault and the Brazilian-owned Elite Sports shop that caters to local soccer players.
La Plaza is offering 10 storefront beautification grants worth $5,000 for downtown Milford Latino businesses.
“These are serious business people who have taken all the steps necessary to have amazing businesses that are flourishing and thriving, and they’re right here in our town,” Albarrán said.
Meanwhile in New Castle County, Wilmington University added its second Spanish immersion business class in August. The live online class focuses on business communications and caters to the university’s bilingual students.
The course is geared, in part, toward students who are full-time professionals and will be offered on Monday evenings.
Additionally, the Delaware Hispanic Chamber of Commerce launched in Wilmington in March, with over 200 Latino-owned businesses already on board. The chamber’s small business training program, Emprendedores sin Barreras, meaning entrepreneurs without barriers, has graduated over 60 students since it began last year.
In Georgetown, Francisco González Hernández still wishes to return home. He misses Guatemala, his mother and siblings.
Raising three kids and watching them make their way in Delaware has complicated his original intention to return. The plan was to stay for five years — now he’s nearing two decades.
Still, he’s happy here. The plan is for González Hernández and his family to stay while “God permits.”
But Guatemala continues to tug. And plans can change.
The post ‘We’re here to contribute’: Latino businesses grow in Delaware appeared first on Spotlight Delaware.