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Together in Bicultural Business
Two Mundos magazine co-publisher Marcelo Rocabado, right, adds some champagne to the set of a photo shoot for the publication.
(By Marvin Joseph -- The Washington Post)
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"In this area, people think that the Latino isn't important, that we are only the employees, but that's not true," she said. "If you go in right now, and you say Latino to the person, they are going to think of the immigrant issue."
Real life is much more complex, Dove said. She flips the radio in her van between Spanish-language pop music and hip-hop. Her favorite movie is "The Secret of My Success," in which Michael J. Fox stars as a young corporate tycoon, but she's also a fan of the drama and passion of Spanish-language telenovelas .
And Dove also does business at the intersection of both worlds.
She and Rocabado did not attend the immigrants rights marches last month because they were in Miami holding a party to launch Two Mundos in that market.
Diaz attended the large march for immigrants rights on the Mall and said he closed his office because his employees wanted to attend it. But in his white dress shirt, olive-green slacks, brown dress shoes and the ever-present BlackBerry on his hip, he stood out among the masses. He carried no flag and did not yell with the passionate crowd.
Diaz left El Salvador in 1987 on a student visa, found work at Cameron's Seafood in Rockville and studied English at Montgomery College. After two years of English studies, he was hired as a sales representative at Snyder Communications Inc. and became director of sales until Daniel M. Snyder sold the company in 2000 to focus on the Washington Redskins.
Diaz met Rocabado at a mixer thrown by the local affiliate of Spanish-language television station Univision last year. "We're like a little monopoly," Rocabado said. "We'd rather do business with a Latino. That's what I love about my community."
Cultural similarities ease business deals, said Rocabado, Dove and others. For instance, when Dove heard that a group of young immigrants had opened an upscale furniture store called Vesta Home in Arlington, she contacted one of the co-owners, Georgie Benardete. The women learned of their mutual ties to Puerto Rico -- both of their mothers were born there -- and talked about how they might work together.
After the meeting, Benardete began advertising in Two Mundos. The store builds custom furniture and carries Armani/Casa, the Italian designer's home-furniture collection.
"It's very cool," Benardete said of her business connections to other Latin American immigrants. "I work with a graphic designer. A young guy from Argentina who left Buenos Aires because of the crisis [and] started a business here and then expanded to Buenos Aires. There is a comfort level. Your Latin culture can come out. You can go and kiss them on the cheek because they understand. Americans think you are flirting with them. We really help each other."
