On the first Thursday of every month, you can overhear Latino business owners and entrepreneurs exchange laughter and business cards to the tune of Donut Land donuts, coffee and music at the Tualatin City Services building.
Conversations range from how their food trucks are doing to loans and family and business advice.
Those in attendance listen to presentations by fellow Latino entrepreneurs, each made to lift the spirits of those in attendance, inform them of the ins and outs of the business, and in the case of December’s presentation, OSHA requirements.
Organized by Yaqui Castillo, a loan officer from Paramount Residential Mortgage Group, Castillo felt the need for a networking event for Latino business entrepreneurs to network and strengthen each other. Thus, the Latino Business networking event was born.
According to Castillo, she attended many networking events when she used to work in insurance, but saw a lack of participation in the Latino population.
“I started this two years ago, it will be two years ago in February. I saw the necessity in the community, especially in the Latino community,” Castillo says, “There are a lot of struggles for the [Latino] community to grow their businesses.”
Alba Johnston, the field consultation manager and community engagement representative from Oregon OSHA, gave a presentation on safety at the workplace.
“La ley se aplica a todo, la ignorancia no es excusa,” Johnston said in her closing statement. The law applies to everyone, ignorance is not an excuse.
After Johnston completed her presentation and answered questions from those in the crowd, each entrepreneur had the opportunity to introduce themselves. Each introduction was followed by cheers and applause, “If it wasn’t for these events, I don’t know what I would be doing,” an attendee echoed.
According to Castillo, the Latino Business networking event was originally held in the Tualatin Library for several months, until they realized that they needed a much bigger space.
“Usually we have 30 to 40 people, last meeting we had 105 attendants, so it’s very successful,” says Castillo.
Once each attendee had introduced themselves, Castillo raffled off gifts donated by attendees. When every member had gotten their gift, a big smile appeared on their faces. Those in attendance stayed after the gift exchange to help move the tables and chairs and said goodbye to each other with a hug.
Castillo says that the goal of the meetings is to simply help those with an invaluable resource: community. “It makes me happy to help people and make sure that they succeed. I think it’s very satisfying.”
The Latino Business Networking event is hosted every first Thursday of the month at the Tualatin City Services building from 9 to 11 a.m. There will be no meeting in January because of the New Year.
For more information, contact Yaqui Castillo at ycastillo@prmg.net.
