ST. GEORGE, Utah — A couple of weeks ago, a business owner in St. George came up with the idea of gathering local entrepreneurs together. He didn’t know how many would show up.
It turned out, it was a lot.
The Blues Katz Rock n Roll Grill was nearly filled to capacity with more than 120 people at the first gathering of the Southern Utah Latino Business Alliance. The group was the brainchild of Desai Madrigal, who hopes the group will expand opportunities and the impact of Lation-owned businesses in southern Utah.
Madrigal, who runs a home inspection business in Washington and Iron counties, saw the need for a Southern Utah Latino Business Alliance. About five weeks ago he got the idea and set the date for when local business owners would gather to launch it: August 22.
“I’m a firm believer of just having a set date and things will happen,” Madrigal said. “So we worked really hard to get to this point and been an amazing turnout.”
Madrigal says the aim for what is called SULBA is simple: to let both Latino and non-Latino businesses and customers what is available to them and to connect them all together
“I would say that one of our big goals is to educate people to what's available in resources through education,” Madrigal said. “It's a lack of education that we're going to work on. And then also connecting people.
Word was spread through social media and through Juan FM, a St. George Hispanic radio station. Juan FM morning host Suleyma Plancarte says the southern Utah Latino community is like a family that needs to break out.
“The Latino community is our own circle. Having this event is bringing people out of their comfort zone and pushing them to do bigger things than they've done before,” Plancarte said. “We’ve been waiting for a long time for this.”
Despite the turnout, it wasn’t easy. While the Washington Area Chamber of Commerce was quick to partner with Desai, he got a couple of "No"s beforehand.
“I tried up north with a chamber there and kind of said, ‘Hey, there's a lack of community down here,’” Madrigal said. “And it was kind of a, ‘You know, we'll see, or maybe let's try to, you know, look down the road’ type thing.”
But with an exchange of business cards among tacos and drinks at the cafe, connections were made.
“I feel super proud and excited because our people need to have that type of connection,” said Cristina Zavala, who co-owns a business and is a realtor. “The networking, just connecting with other resources and obviously promoting their business. This is huge and I am so excited for all the things that will happen with this.”
