Immigrant Entrepreneurs Reveal Pluck at Business Graduation

Oakland, CA – AnewAmerica Community Corporation is pleased to announce the graduation of 16 new American entrepreneurs from its business planning college certification program.

One graduate, Delia Suarez, a grandmother who immigrated from El Salvador in 1980, had high hopes when she opened her own day-care center – Delia’s Little Angels. However, despite hard work, it was only after she signed up with AnewAmerica’s business incubation program, customized specially for new Americans like herself, that she was able to access the education, networking and credentials she needed to be successful.

After completing only the first of a total of 3 years in AnewAmerica’s program, Delia has earned a college certificate in business planning from Holy Names College in Oakland, and completed a business plan. Delia’s plan, which includes taking out a mortgage on her home, will result in improved facilities, more clients, and a new hire by September. 

Other AnewAmerica graduates include caterers, housecleaners, cabinet makers and beauticians, who’ve come from Colombia, Honduras, Guatemala and Mexico to participate in the American business milieu. 

These new Americans – new citizens, immigrants, and refugees – struggle with barriers of language, culture and politics, as well as all the usual complications of starting a small business, to win recognition.

“We’re so proud of our graduates. They come to America with the same aspirations as all entrepreneurs, but the system does not serve such newcomers well,” says Sylvia Rosales-Fike, president and founder of AnewAmerica and herself an immigrant entrepreneur from El Salvador. “Banks won’t finance their business or homes because they don’t have credit histories or lack a business plan; they don’t know what kind of permits they need; many of them they don’t even know about opportunities to open a retirement account.”

AnewAmerica is a young and innovative organization that has received recognition by the Small Business Administration and by the U.S. Treasury Department for its work with new Americans like Delia, who toil daily to build businesses and long-term economic self-sufficiency for their families.

“Despite the significant growth of Latino and Asian immigrants in our neighborhoods and in our public schools, the system is treating them as an ‘invisible’ population. AnewAmerica is here to help them gain visibility and access the system,” says Rosales-Fike.

The graduation will be held on Thursday, February 12, 2004 from 6:00pm to 8:30pm at Holy Names College’s Black Box Theater, 3500 Mountain Boulevard, Oakland, CA.

AnewAmerica Community Corporation was founded in 1999 by a group of community leaders representing immigrants and community development advocates who saw a continuing lack of integrated job creation, asset development, and community empowerment strategies for low-income new Americans living in the San Francisco Bay Area. In 2003, AnewAmerica activities assisted in the creation of 28 new microbusinesses, 14 business expansions and 42 new jobs.

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