Feature Stories - May 2003

The Hispanic Factor

Population Trends Shaping La Nueva Nevada

by Fred Couzens

Nevada is undergoing a revolution of business and commerce in the Silver State – a territory that once belonged to Mexico. Major streets in Reno, Las Vegas, Sparks or North Las Vegas as little as 20 years ago had eye-catching signs signifying a butcher shop, laundry, tire store, bakery and shoe store location, but now that those same streets have become thoroughfares in older, more urban and less affluent areas – neighborhoods that have experienced "white flight" – the new, festively colored signs read carniceria, lavanderia, llantera, panaderia y zapateria.

Yes, Nevada shoppers are being "salsafied" because a wave of new Hispanic residents are migrating here not only from Mexico, Central and South America, but from other U.S. states, principally California. Also, Hispanic birth rates are historically higher than white or other non-white birth rates.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2000 figures, Nevada posted the third largest state increase (224 percent) in foreign-born population during the past decade, a large proportion of that being Hispanic residents, who totaled just under 394,000 in 2000.

Of that statewide amount, almost 73 percent are Mexican, followed by Cubans (11 percent) and Puerto Ricans (10 percent), with the balance coming from numerous other Central and South American countries. One in five Nevada residents is now of Hispanic heritage.

Clark County’s Hispanic growth numbers are even more impressive, showing a jump of 374 percent, from 80,704 in 1990 to 302,143 in 2000. Washoe County posted a 153 percent increase, bringing its Hispanic population up to 56,301. Of the 14 other Nevada counties and Carson City, the percent of Hispanic population increased in all but two sparsely populated counties – Lincoln and Mineral.

Population Creates Impetus

All this growth has fueled a business community response to increasingly provide goods and services for Hispanics, and has also provided new opportunities for Hispanics themselves.

"Growth in the Hispanic business community is rapid, especially in the south," said Michael Graham, deputy state director of the Nevada Small Business Development Center in Las Vegas. "Hispanics are not any different than any other group when it comes to being entrepreneurs. There are a lot of mom-and-pop restaurants, ethnic food stores and the like, but there are other businesses as well. There’s a major advertising firm from Mexico with clients like Coca-Cola and Ford Motor Co. that has chosen Las Vegas as an area to get a toehold into the U.S. market. So, what we’re seeing across the board is not just mom-and-pop businesses growing, but bigger ones as well."

The same holds true in Northern Nevada where owners are capitalizing on the upward Hispanic growth curve. "With the Hispanic population growing, it’s becoming more recognized as a consumer base and business is realizing the viability of opening up to a new consumer market," said Leslie Mix, president of the 250-member Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Northern Nevada. "They’re recognizing there’s opportunity there whether they want to tackle it or not. A Hispanic population of 18 percent to 20 percent is a strong customer base that’s hard to ignore."

New opportunities are springing up elsewhere in the state, especially in Nevada’s border cities – sites of the "last chance/first chance" casinos – enclaves that are also experiencing a skyward influx of Hispanics. During the last decade, the number of Hispanics living in Mesquite, at the Nevada/Utah border on I-15, rose a staggering 1,267 percent – from one in 10 residents in 1990 to one in four in 2000. Incline Village at Lake Tahoe’s north shore, Minden and Gardnerville on U.S. 395, Carson City, and West Wendover, just inside the Utah line on I-80, all posted Hispanic increases in the 100 percent to 200 percent range. The percent of Hispanics living in Stateline and Kingsbury on Lake Tahoe’s south shore decreased since 1990, probably a result of escalating housing costs.

Growth in Southern Nevada

Meanwhile, in Southern Nevada, the Hispanic numbers keep growing, primarily for three reasons – job opportunities mostly related to tourism, the lower cost-of-living, and "California backlash," the political fallout resulting from the passage of anti-Hispanic Propositions 187 and 227 during the ’90s.

"The growth has been tremendous in the last 10 years, especially in supermarkets, but also in services – lawyers, accountants, bookkeepers, radio stations and advertising agencies – that cater to the Hispanic community," explained Otto Merida, executive director of the 1,000-member Latin Chamber of Commerce for the past 27 years and a member of the Nevada Commission on Economic Development. "Once the new hotel Steve Wynn is building comes to fruition, we’ll see more expansions at the hotels that will bring even more Hispanics to the area."

Likewise, local advertising agencies, newspapers, radio and TV stations catering to the Spanish-speaking public are doing a land-office business, as are Hispanic-oriented Websites.

The dramatic growth of the Mexican population bloc – at least two of every three Hispanics in Southern Nevada is of Mexican ancestry – attracted the attention of the Mexican government. In February 2002, it opened the first, and still only, full consulate in Las Vegas. It started with six employees and has now grown to 14, who secured and produced birth certificates, passports, dual-citizenship papers and other documents for more than 30,000 clients during the consulate’s first year.

"About five years ago, we did an analysis that showed the people here who needed our services went to the closest consulate, which was in San Bernardino, Calif.," explained Consul Berenice Rendon, a member of the Mexican Foreign Service for 25 years. "We noticed the numbers kept growing and growing so we came here with our mobile services, but we were just overwhelmed. We’ve seen strong growth here because of the employment that’s available in the hotels and casinos and for maids and kitchen help."

Rendon has plans to bring the consulate’s mobile services to Reno every two months this year, but said Northern Nevadans’ other option is the Sacramento consulate, two hours away by car, if their need is immediate.

Hispanic Businesses Answer Demand

As the Hispanic population in Nevada increases, so does the number of Hispanic-owned businesses, which are flourishing to meet state, regional and local needs.

According to the 1992 Economic Census, in 1987 there were only 1,767 Hispanic-owned firms in Nevada. However, in just five short years, that number had swelled to 3,900, representing a 64 percent increase. In 1997, that classification rose to 6,565, up 68 percent from 1992 and up a whopping 272 percent from a decade earlier.

While those numbers represent all types of legal entities – individual proprietorships, partnerships and Subchapter S corporations – a truer picture of business formation lies in the number of firms with paid employees.

In 1992, there were 719 Hispanic-owned businesses with paid employees, while in 1997 that figure more than doubled to 1,661. It’s still too early to tell what numbers will be generated from the 2002 Economic Census, but one thing’s for sure – it should be skyward-bound.

With Southern Nevada more tourist-oriented, it’s not surprising many Hispanics gravitate to service industry jobs in the hotels and casinos. However in Northern Nevada, they are attracted to manufacturing and warehousing positions, which represent a larger proportion of the employment base.

"IGT has a heavy Hispanic employment base, as do other manufacturers in the Truckee Meadows area," said Mix, who in 1989 was the founding president of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Northern Nevada. "Across-the-board, you’ll find that anywhere there are entry-level positions, the Hispanics are there, whether it’s manufacturing, landscaping or whatever."

And not only are Hispanics strong, dedicated and able-bodied workers, but they also possess an entrepreneurial spirit that allows them to strike out on their own, forming new businesses to run by themselves. Most banks in Nevada have special financing programs geared toward the Hispanic market, while a number of government programs are tailored to meet their start-up needs.

The Nevada Small Business Development Center (NSCDC), a business assistance program funded by the U.S. Small Business Administration and the University of Nevada, Reno, embarked on a mission to enhance economic growth through business development when it opened for business in April 1985.

The NSBDC offers free professional counseling services to small business owners and prospective small business owners, including services that can certify Hispanic businesses as a Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE, which includes minority- and women-owned businesses). Since 98 percent of all firms in the state of Nevada are qualified as small businesses and would therefore qualify for this program, the NSBDC has helped many Hispanics discover the rewards realized through certification.

"Certification is the fastest growing segment of the services offered by our center," said the NSBDC’s Graham. "People are finding out you need to be certified to bid on [government] contracts, which explains why the DBE program is our biggest growth area."

Employers, Employees Benefit

In addition to Hispanics helping themselves, assistance in the form of a new round of investment is occurring in Southern Nevada, as evidenced by two major Los Angeles-based supermarket chains and "the Wal-Mart of Mexico" rushing into the area because of its burgeoning Hispanic numbers.

September 1998 saw the opening of the first of three King Ranch Markets, which provided 500 new jobs and will add another 100 jobs when a fourth store opens this summer. Earlier this year, Liborio Markets cashed in on the demographic version of Megabucks by opening its sixth store – its first outside California.

It may sound like "supermarket wars," but in reality, that’s not so, said a grocery executive. "There’s really no competition for us, because [Liborio Markets] is for different people," said Marisol Crespo, director of community relations for King Ranch Markets. "Our main customer is Mexican, and their main customer is Central American. We’ve also noticed in the last six months that American customers are coming to our stores more often."

Meanwhile, Belmont Partners LLC and Metro Development Group LLC plan to have a May groundbreaking for El Centro de Las Vegas in North Las Vegas, with Gigante Mercados, one of Latin America’s largest discount chains, having signed a letter of intent. The 12-acre site on Las Vegas Boulevard North, with 15 percent of Southern Nevada’s Hispanic population living within a one-mile radius, also will feature Miami Club, a salsa music-dance venue, restaurants, a plaza, fountain and strolling mariachis – a draw for all cultures. And while Hispanic tourists are being targeted as customers, the developers haven’t lost sight of their real market – the locals.

"For the locals, we will have urgent care, a family clinic, an immigration attorney, DMV registrations and licensing, travel and tours and many other office services," said Charlotte Sousa, senior retail leasing broker for Millennium Properties & Development, Inc. "We are acutely aware that these families typically shop less than two miles around their homes."

Both the Latin Chamber of Commerce and the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Northern Nevada agree English is the language of U.S. commerce. All the new residents who need work and all the new companies that need to conduct business have created a need for language education services, which until recently, was satisfied through a scattering of classes offered at the postsecondary level. As a result, Spanish-speaking employees, who are gaining employment in record numbers, are seeing more employers take advantage of services provided by private language preparation firms.

Seven years ago in Reno, Marcel Fernando Schaerer began International Professional Development Services, which teaches Spanish to managers and supervisors, as well as teaching English to the everyday Hispanic worker. "With the Hispanic population growing, it’s becoming an increasing challenge for businesses. Language skills are needed by management to communicate internally, and employees are deeply involved with customer service," said Schaerer, who noted that what started out in 1996 as a part-time job with one client has since evolved into a full-time position with more than 100 customers. "There still exist tremendous opportunities for us in terms of what we need to do. I see huge growth in the future – in the 300 percent to 400 percent range. "

In Southern Nevada, Ronna Timpa’s Workplace ESL Solutions of Henderson – a company that started 11 years ago as RT Language Services – teaches and translates the English and Spanish languages with a single goal: to improve on-the-job communications skills. "We go into the workplace and customize our translation program to bridge the communication gap," said Timpa, who has a master’s degree in Education with specialization in English as a second language from UNLV. "There’s a huge need here. East of I-15, 58 percent of the population is Spanish-speaking. I work for many of the hotels that cater to Spanish-speaking customers. At these hotels – the MGM, Stardust, Park Place Entertainment properties and all 10 of the Station Casinos – we customize a program for each of their needs, whether they’re external or internal communications."

One of Southern Nevada’s self-made Hispanic businessmen, who spoke little English but gained a better command of the language over the years, is 35-year-old Cuban-born Sergio Perez, who taught himself how to cook using his mother’s and grandmother’s recipes. Perez parlayed his kitchen skills into the opening of his hugely successful Florida Café in 1997 in a building shared with a Howard Johnson’s motel. He epitomizes the Hispanic community’s entrepreneurial spirit.

"At first, the owner was a little scared about me serving Cuban food," said Perez, whose weekly food order now includes 500 pounds each of ham and pork, 650 pounds of top sirloin steak, 400 pounds of black beans and 700 pounds of white rice. His restaurant is the only place in Southern Nevada where you can find six fruity flavors of homemade Cuban ice cream. "My business has steadily increased over the past five years, and a lot of it is repeat business. My customers aren’t just Cuban, but from all the countries – China, Korea, Puerto Rico, Venezuela and Ecuador. They come because they know of the good flavor, that it’s a nice place and there’s always friendly people."

Growing up in Havana in the post-Cuban missile crisis period, Perez wanted to be a radio and TV repairman, but changed his mind when he heard stories of how Americans would simply throw away broken sets and buy new ones. In 1992, itching to flee Cuba, Perez entered Mexico and came across the border at Nogales, Ariz. on his trek to join his mother, who was living in Las Vegas.

Once he reached Southern Nevada, he had jobs working in a carwash and a bakery, but he dreamed of going into business for himself. To this day, the anti-Castro restaurateur is haunted by the memory of a way of life that offered no hope. "In Cuba, there was no privacy, no freedom of expression, no freedom to choose, no future. If you say something wrong, they put you in jail or kill you. People in the United States don’t see the real Cuba," Perez said frankly. "I started the restaurant because I wanted to make people happy and show them good Cuban flavor. Now, when I wake up in the morning, I thank God to be here."