Hispanic businesses boom in Valley, nation

EDINBURG — Saul Corona has pulled the leather soles off of cowboy boots and sewed new ones on for more than three decades, carefully cutting the material and pressing it on as not to change the shoe’s fit.

He can resole about 10 pairs of boots a day — cutting, sewing and pounding his way to earn a decent living for himself.

The 58-year-old Edinburg native owns Corona’s Shoe Repair on Cano Street, south of University Drive in the Hidalgo County seat.

His business is part of a dying industry, repairing high-quality cowboy boots the way skilled artisans once did across the Rio Grande Valley. It has given way to machine-stitched shoes from China and other third-world countries, where the upper of the shoe usually gives way before the heel.

Corona takes pride in the service he provides and his profession, which was passed down to him from his father who picked it up in “Old Mexico.”

But while the shoe-repair industry wanes, Corona is part of a growing class of hardworking denizens of the Rio Grande Valley — Hispanic business owners.

“Running a small business is OK,” he said. “You don’t have to punch a clock, but it’s a lot of work.”

Growing impact

From Sept. 15 to Oct. 15, people across the country are celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month, honoring U.S residents who hail from Mexico, Spain and Central and South America.

Nationwide, Hispanics are a growing population, nearly doubling in population since 1990 to 44.3 million people in 2006, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

And nowhere is Hispanic growth felt more than in the business world. Hispanics owned 1.6 million businesses and generated $222 billion in revenues across the nation in 2002.

The number of Hispanic business owners is particularly high and growing in the Rio Grande Valley and along the Texas-Mexico border, where immigration and migration from other parts of the country has rapidly increased over the last decade. In fact, the impact is still not fully understood.

“Some of it has to do with the comparative advantage,” said Marie Mora, an economics professor at the University of Texas - Pan American. “Given that a lot of Hispanics speak Spanish, to be able to cater to one another.”

Sign Depot owner Raul Cepeda said the Valley is friendly to business owners hoping to get a start.

“The Valley’s not too big and not too small,” he said.

Cepeda started in the graphics business nearly 20 years ago after he quit a well-paying job with a telephone company and decided to take a crack at being an entrepreneur, he said.

“I just wanted to leave and do my own thing,” he said. “I said ‘Why am I letting these people make money off of me when I can do it myself?’”

He started with a smaller graphics business called Trimplus.

Then in December 2005 he opened Sign Depot, hoping to make a retail-oriented sign production company. The plan has worked. With four locations, 22 employees and more business than he can handle, Cepeda says Sign Depot is the largest graphics company in the Rio Grande Valley.

He’s hoping to expand business with franchises in Harlingen and other parts of the Valley.

“We want to go nationwide,” he said.

Aurelio “Jim” Aleman, a Pharr native, is one Rio Grande Valley business owner that has been able to go nationwide with his business. Seven years ago, Aleman and partners Sergio Lagos and George Gomez started U.S.A Logistic Carriers. It is now the largest Hispanic-owned trucking company in the United States and largest Hispanic owned business in the Upper Rio Grande Valley.

The NAFTA agreement provided the spark for the company, tagging along with the area’s rapid growth. The company has nearly 500 trucks and specializes in shipping products from maquiladora distribution spots in the Valley to destinations across the country. In 2006, the company grossed $77.9 million and the company expects even more business this year.