It`s hard to find a parking space along 18th Street these days. It`s even harder to find a vacant store along the commercial spine of Pilsen, the Mexican-American barrio on Chicago`s Near South Side.
Dry statistical reports from the Census Bureau and private research firms verify what`s going on: a 47 percent increase in Illinois` Hispanic population in the 1980s to almost 1 million; a near doubling of Hispanic-owned businesses here to more than 10,000.
But it doesn`t really hit you until you see it on the sidewalks of Pilsen or the strip malls of West Chicago; until you hear it in the voices of those who are part of the revolution in our midst.
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Revolution? Better call it a ”blossoming” of the Hispanic business community, a bottom-to-top sprouting of enterprise and hard work that, in time, promises to revitalize Anmerica`s economy more than any discount rate cut by the Federal Reserve.
It`s dangerous to generalize about ethnic matters. But there surely was a special electricity in Chicago last week, and it didn`t come from Com Ed.
This is Hispanic Heritage month, and last Monday was Mexican Independence Day. Last weekend there was a big Independence Day parade downtown, and on Wednesday the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce opened its 12th annual convention in Chicago. On Friday, the featured speaker was President Bush.
But it`s not just a parade or the Mexican tri-colors on all those car antennas or even a presidential speech at the Hyatt Regency. The energy radiates also from a new generation of Hispanic business leaders. Talk to them and you get the sense that Hispanics have arrived as an economic force.
Those were the vibes on 18th Street last week, especially in a little restaurant called Nuevo Leon, where organizers of the Mexican-American Chamber of Commerce of Illinois Inc. met to discuss the future over lunch.
”You look across the spectrum of American business, and we`re there,”
said Gery J. Chico, president of the group. ”Our parents started small-with restaurants, grocery stores, landscaping-but their children are in the major corporations, the law firms, even our own midsize businesses.”
Chico nodded at a fellow in a starched work shirt who had just walked out. ”That`s Ray Guerra of Guerra Construction. His main problem is growth management, his business is getting so big.”
Chico knows big when he sees it, being an associate at Sidley & Austin, one of the city`s largest law firms. He was getting ready to fly to San Antonio to recruit more Spanish-speaking lawyers for Sidley. Recession or not, farsighted firms are gearing up to handle more Hispanic clients. They also are getting ready to help existing clients expand operations into Mexico, the Caribbean and Central and South America.
The latter trend is a hot topic among Hispanic business leaders.
U.S. diplomats are negotiating a free-trade agreement with Mexico. If Congress goes along-and the ”if” is key-American corporations can be expected to rush across the border, contracting for raw materials, selling their finished products and setting up low-wage assembly plants.
Until now, most controversy over free trade has centered on the last item, the prospect of American companies shifting low-skill jobs to dollar-an- hour maquiladoras. Organized labor has vowed a fight. At minimum, the unions will demand some kind of compensation for their membership.
But Hispanic-American businessmen want something else-a piece of the action.
”It won`t do us any good if major corporations go to Mexico and leave us out of the mix,” Chico said.
The same argument was heard last week at the Hyatt Regency, where Jose Nino, president of the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, laid it on the line. ”I call our program Sanchez-to-Sanchez-to-Smith,” said Nino. He claims U.S. companies will benefit most if they use Hispanic-American intermediaries in their business dealings with Mexico and other Spanish-speaking lands. Let organized labor lobby for compensation, Nino said. Mexican-Americans want set- asides: that is, guarantees that a percentage of the new trade will flow through Hispanic-American hands.
As Chico put it: ”Give us the contracts and keep the government grants.”
You get the feeling, breaking bread with Chico and following Nino around a convention floor crowded with exhibits ranging from IBM to American Airlines, that they just might pull it off.
For one thing, they have a great deal of political sophistication.
Chico has close ties to Chicago`s Regular Democratic Organization and once helped Ald. Ed Burke (13th) run the powerful City Council finance committee.
Nino, also a Mexican-American, used to work a precinct in Rep. Dan Rostenkowski`s 8th Congressional District on the Northwest Side, where he built pan-Hispanic bridges to that area`s Puerto Rican community.
Keep in mind that Rostenkowski will play a key role in approving the terms of free trade with Mexico and that Hispanics are now a huge voting bloc in his 8th District.
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Rosty also attended Nino`s convention. He feels the energy, too.