Houston Embraces Diversity and New Approaches to Business

If you ask Edgardo Colon, Houston is one of the best cities for Hispanics to call home. Give Colon, a corporate attorney and chairman of the board of the Houston Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, a minute and he’ll tell you why.

In a city where people of Latin American heritage constitute more than 40 percent of the population, Colon says the atmosphere has never been better for Hispanic entrepreneurs and business people, thanks in part to the city’s vibrant international port and the presence of many of the nation’s top businesses. But Houston also has other hard-to-quantify, but important, advantages.

“It’s a very welcoming city, it’s a very open city,” Colon says, adding that in some cities, success depends not so much on what, but who, one knows. “Here, that’s not the case. If you have the idea, and you work hard, you can succeed in business.”

Houston has one of the more colorful backgrounds of a major U.S. city. It was established in 1836 and named for Sam Houston, who played a variety of roles in his life. They range from being a founding father of the Republic of Texas to helping wrest the area from Mexico—surely a bit of irony when many of Houston’s citizens, their parents and grandparents later came to the United States from Mexico.

Today Houston trails only New York, Los Angeles and Chicago in population size—2.02 million in mid-2005, according to the Greater Houston Partnership, an umbrella group that includes the Chamber of Commerce and other business organizations. Oil gave the city a boost early in the 20th century, but while energy is still important to the economy, businesses today are diversified with international trade playing a particularly strong role.

Houston, Colon says, has factors that make it especially welcoming for Hispanics. Quoting the U.S. Census Bureau, Colon noted that Harris County, which includes Houston, has one of the highest concentrations of Hispanic-owned businesses of any U.S county. Moreover, the Port of Houston is the No. 1 U.S. port with respect to handling foreign cargo. And 22 percent of the $85 billion in trade moved through the port is directly related to Latin America.

Houston also has more than 800 multinational companies and 20 foreign banks, and has more direct flights to Mexico and Central America than any other U.S. city.

All that, says Colon, means Houston attracts those eager to participate in the economy.

“I see all kinds of people wanting to start their own businesses,” he says, referring to his experience as a corporate attorney. Ideas range from the traditional—like restaurants—to proposals that build on the Houston area’s strengths, such as an executive car rental firm, or businesses that tap into the well-established chemical industry sector.

The chamber is working with the University of Houston Small Business Development Center to sponsor the Hispanic Entrepreneur series, a free, 13-week program presented in Spanish on how to start a business.

“The response has been great,” Colon says, adding that more than 100 people are participating in the program. “It’s very rewarding for me to go there and see the enthusiasm.”

And just as the business community has diversified in the last decades, so has the Hispanic community, with a greater Central American and Caribbean presence mixing in with the traditional Mexican influences.

The Houston Hispanic Chamber is also working to increase Hispanic representation in business leadership positions. In September the Houston Chronicle ran an article by Colon and Adolfo Santos, chair of the Social Sciences Department and associate professor of political science at the University of Houston-Downtown, about the lack of Hispanics on corporate boards and upper management in the top publicly traded Houston-based corporations. The article pointed out that less than 2 percent of corporate leadership positions are held by Hispanics in a city whose Hispanic population is expected to approach 50 percent within the next 10 years.

The situation is not confined to Houston, Colon and Santos point out, but is part of a national problem. The paper emphasized that Hispanics have made significant contributions to the city’s economy, and it called for the business community to make a greater effort to bring Hispanics into leadership positions, especially as Houston area businesses increase trade ties with Latin America and Spain.

For Colon, bringing the situation to the fore is a plus. “At least here in Houston we are willing to talk about it,” he says.