Burgeoning Market Exerts Its Force

At the same time, national retailers, like Safeway Inc., aware of the growing buying power of Latino consumers, are trying to adjust their operations to win more of them.

These changes can be measured in a number of different ways. For example, the growth of advertising and clasificados aimed at Latinos here now supports nearly two dozen weekly newspapers, a dozen radio stations and three local television channels. Twenty years ago there were only a couple of weekly Spanish-language television shows, one radio station and three newspapers.

The size and diversity of the business community is also reflected in the evolution of the area's Hispanic chambers of commerce. The granddaddy chamber, Greater Washington Ibero American Chamber of Commerce, was founded in 1976 by federal contractors, firms that still dominate the group today.

In the past few years, as the number of Hispanic businesses has soared and diversified, other chambers have sprouted up, including the Salvadoran chamber, the Hispanic Chamber of Montgomery County, and statewide Hispanic chambers in Maryland and Virginia. Last year, a Hispanic chamber formed in Prince George's County, which has one of the smallest Latino populations in the region but is home to Langley Park, where 63 percent of the residents are Hispanic.

Some of these business groups focus on writing business plans or networking or making changes to the federal minority business contracting programs. But the biggest problem facing most Hispanic business people is access to capital, several business leaders said.

"People think we're asking for a handout. No, we want access," said Elizabeth Lisboa-Farrow, owner of District-based public relations firm Lisboa Inc. and the first Latina chair of the D.C. Chamber of Commerce. "Access [to capital] is still very difficult."

When José Barahona, who immigrated to this area in 1973 and started his janitorial business in 1978, he said raising capital was "very difficult."

"One bank denied me a $50,000 credit line. They said, 'José, your papers are looking very good, but come to us in two years.' "

"I say the reason was my broken English. They think I'm going to be a risky loan," Barahona said. Able Services Contractors Inc., the janitorial company he founded and sold to his children, now has about 300 employees. He is also owner of the franchise rights for Pollo Campero, the popular Guatemalan chicken chain with outlets in Herndon and Falls Church. "I said one day, they are going to come to me, and now today they are coming to me, and I'm going to be a little arrogant because they were arrogant with me," he said.

One problem is that immigrant businessmen sometimes don't have the local assets or work history that banks want before they will make substantial loans. But another problem, say many Hispanic leaders, is that many immigrants don't speak English well.

"Without the language, it is difficult to conduct a relationship with a bank or attorney, to network, share ideas or even understand how business is conducted in this area," said Juan Albert, a business consultant who led the local Hispanic chamber of commerce for five years.

But Albert said as Spanish-speaking immigrants and their children learn the language, they will move from owning small family businesses and working in restaurants and construction into more professional jobs and running larger companies. "If you look at immigrants' patterns in this country, we are following the same pattern," Albert said. "When Greeks came to this country, they were the ones working in hotels. They started working in restaurants, working in construction. The trend is going to continue."