Audio:

The whole interview is about 2 hours, but it is only after 30 minutes that things get a more articulated representation of the work we are doing to build a regional system that can support a new system for promoting economic development my maximizing the regional assets in the food and agriculture sector.

If you are very interested in what we do, this interview pulls out a lot of material that is hard to get into a document, and although we are working on writing down the whole system in a formal publication, this is a great preview of what will come later.

Than you Jaci for such a wonderful support of this important work in our community.

Community Action Center’s Newcomer Project gives aid

By JACI SMITH
Managing Editor

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

NORTHFIELD – Two local programs with common goals have joined forces to help newcomers to Northfield find work and get involved in the community.

The Northfield Community Action Center and the Latino Enterprise Center have formed a partnership to develop new community leaders and create jobs for Latinos and other new residents.

The CAC’s Newcomer Project had been focused for the last year on employment and housing. Joining up with the LEC, which has been developing ways to connect Latinos with the greater Northfield community, fills a need, said CAC Executive Director Jim Blaha.

The CAC will use part of a bequest it received from the Davis Taylor-Ana Ortiz de Montellano family to fund part of LEC director Reginaldo Haslett-Marroquin’s salary. The family had requested that the money be used to create the kind of unconditional hospitality that Davis Taylor said he experienced while he was with his future wife de Montellano’s family in Mexico.

Haslett-Marroquin was splitting his time between the LEC, which was unpaid, and his work statewide for the League of Rural Voters. With the new full-time position, Haslett-Marroquin will be able to devote twice as much time specifically to Northfield.

“His ability to meet with the newcomer community and find ways to make bridges to them is a significant expertise,” said Blaha. “His belief in entrepreneurial development will bring us new community leaders. Entrepreneurs are the ones who work to get things done and that will lead to bigger and better things for Northfield.”

Haslett-Marroquin said in recent months, he had begun to wonder whether the LEC would find a serious, committed partner so that the fledgling program would continue to grow. The LEC, which began in February of this year, has undertaken projects to introduce Latino farmers to growing alternative crops such as hazelnuts and black beans, to broker a partnership between a local Latino businessman and ARTech to repair used computers, and to dispel myths about the immigrant community in Northfield.

Haslett-Marroquin said the LEC wants to ensure that the Latino community can tap into its leadership ability by connecting with those resources available to them that Latinos may not always know about.

“There is a lot we haven’t discovered yet,” Haslett-Marroquin said. “In the geography of CAC, Rice County, there is a lot more potential within the Latino community. The projects we have now are just samples of what is to come.”

- Jaci Smith can be reached at jsmith@northfieldnews.com or 645-1116.

You can read the article below, or directly by clicking on the link above.

We later checked on our poultry experiment where we have 15 egg laying gens and 25 broilers, we checked on the status of the 2 acres planted with black turtle beans on land that I rent from my neighbor, our onion production experiment, blue corn seed patch, and the general garden area.  There was a lot of wind and water damage to report but we will still have an acceptable harvest if the weather does not play another trick on us.

A partial list of the people who came to the gathering include, Maria Sosa and Salvador Ruiz from Faribault, Jose Javier of Northfield, Father Dennis of St. Dominic Church, Amy Bacigalupo of the Land Stewardship Project’s (LSP) Willmar office, Karen Stettler of LSP in Lewinston,  Joci Tilsen, Program Director with the Minnesota Food Association, Collie Graddick, with the Pescitice Management Unit at the MN Department of Agriculture, all of these folks came with partners and kids, great food and a warm spirit to share.

Here is a picture with some of the kids after we partially succeeded in pulling them away from their games.

Garden a seed for positive change

Photo by Jeff Thompson, Star Tribune

Humberto Gonzales watered vegetables in a community garden started by Reginaldo Haslett-Marroquin in Northfield. Six Latino families are growing black turtle beans and onions, and several have started to sell crops to the Just Foods Co-Op in Northfield.

It might just be a garden now, but Reginaldo Haslett-Marroquin sees a lot more than that in his first project for Northfield Latinos.

By Ben Goessling, Star Tribune

Last update: July 17, 2007 – 12:07 PM

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Reginaldo Haslett-Marroquin leans over to inspect the onion patch growing in his Northfield garden, and already he can see progress.”That’s $3 from here to here,” he says, stretching his arms to span a row of four plants. “That’s about what a farmer’s getting for a bushel of corn this year.”

He sees progress, too, when he gets a phone call later that night informing him that a local Latino family showed up, unannounced, to work on the garden.

That’s happening more frequently these days. And it’s all part of the plan for the Latino Enterprise Center executive director, who sees this little “gardening experiment” as the start of a big change in Northfield.

“We’re creating business development, leadership development and skill development,” he said.

This garden was Haslett-Marroquin’s first big idea to empower Latino entrepreneurs when he came to Northfield last fall, and it’s starting to take off.

Six Latino families and six high school students are growing vegetables in three spots in the northeast corner of Northfield.

Much of the food will feed Latino families, but part of the harvest will yield a profit: 5,000 onions are already committed to Northfield’s Just Foods Co-Op, and Haslett-Marroquin is formulating plans to handle additional interest next year, with an eye toward eventually starting a Latino farmers’ co-op.

He’s also talked with Maria and Rafael Estrada, owners of Maria’s Restaurant and Cantina in Northfield, about marketing their own salsa using locally grown vegetables.

“A lot of the Latinos that come up here are tradesmen. They aren’t entrepreneurs, so to speak,” Northfield Enterprise Center executive director Lee Runzheimer said. “We’re trying to say, ‘Hey, even though the types of Latino residents we have haven’t though about being entrepreneurs, there’s potential there.’”

Haslett-Marroquin’s hope is that the garden’s benefits won’t stop at financial profit.

He is using the project to create a community hub for Latinos, whom he’s often found to be isolated from the rest of Northfield.

He created an emergency network for Latino families to reach each other in case of immigration raids or gang activity, and he hopes to develop a mini-council to foster civic involvement.

“Every Saturday night for the next 12 to 14 months, we’re going to bring in leaders to educate us on everything they do,” he said. “A year from now, we’ll have a group of relatively well-trained representatives of the Latino community.”

And though he said he isn’t concerned Latinos had anything to do with recent news of a Northfield heroin problem, Haslett-Marroquin met with Police Chief Gary Smith to find ways to cut off any connection between heroin rings and gangs that might bring drugs into the Latino community.

“We’re not policing,” he said. “We need training on what it’s appropriate for residents to do.”

It’s all part of Haslett-Marroquin’s ever-expanding definition of progress.

“You get people doing things on their own, and you go, ‘Wow, this feels good,’ ” he said. “That’s when you know things start happening.”

Ben Goessling • 612-673-7252 • bgoessling@startribune.com

You can read the article on the businesss section of the Star Tribune South or just read it below.

SLATINO040407

Last update: April 03, 2007 – 8:51 AM

A Latino leader’s next step: make more leaders

Reginaldo Haslett-Marroquin hopes helping entrepreneurs will invigorate Northfield’s Latino community.

By Ben Goessling, Star Tribune

Since he moved to Northfield last fall, Reginaldo Haslett-Marroquin hasn’t wasted any time making friends.”He’s the most popular guy in town. He’s going to be a write-in candidate for mayor,” joked Northfield YMCA CEO Skip Zimmerman.

The Guatemala native has a personality that draws a crowd, and he can barely sit down at Northfield’s Bittersweet Eatery without someone stopping by to say hello.

But if he has his way, they won’t just make small talk. They’ll listen to his plans for the city’s booming Latino community, and they’ll get involved.

After making a name for himself in a number of businesses — including founding fair-trade company Peace Coffee in Minneapolis with Nobel Peace Prize winner Rigoberta Menchu Tum — Haslett-Marroquin has turned his attention to Northfield. His latest project is the Latino Enterprise Center, which he hopes will help curb poverty among Northfield Latinos by helping entrepreneurs start businesses.

Eventually, he plans for the LEC to help Latino entrepreneurs land microgrants from the Northfield Enterprise Center or gain access to $600,000 he is working to secure from St. Paul’s Neighborhood Development Center.

According to estimates, Latinos make up 5 to 8 percent of the city of 18,000.

“The most important thing was seeing what wasn’t here,” he said. “If you look at all the organizations in the city, there’s no Latino leadership from (the lower levels) up.”

He sat down with Star Tribune South last week to discuss his project, poverty in Northfield and the struggles immigrants face in climbing the corporate ladder:

Q You’ve done quite a few different things in your career. Where did you get the vision for the enterprise center?

A I did a scan of Northfield, and found there was very little going on in the Latino area. I said, ‘Why don’t we think of this in a broader term?’ I was looking at school connectedness, academic performance, the high school dropout rate.

We had to come up with a 20,000-foot view of Northfield. What you see from that view is two pockets of Latinos — Viking Terrace and Florella’s Park. Sixty-seven of 87 Latinos at Greenvale Elementary live in Viking Terrace. This community is isolated; it’s on its own.

Through developing businesses all over, one thing I know is, we have affected immense numbers of people. Peace Coffee, for example, is bringing jobs to people who don’t have a clue who the heck I am. That, to me, was more important than developing a shopping mall.

Q What are the biggest challenges to getting two cultural groups to understand each other?

A I believe the biggest challenge comes out of the poverty aspect. People are working two shifts. How do you have time to engage in other things?

This poverty … doesn’t just stop with the families. It goes to the businesses, it goes to the kids, it comes all the way around to the parents, in terms of connectedness to the school, it goes to the education. It’s just amazing. Sometimes we think of it in terms of eating three meals a day, but that’s just the tip.

I’ve spoken to almost 200 Latinos, and there isn’t a single one who won’t come to a meeting. But I can only get three or four together at a given time.

I’m not here to run a show. I’m here to organize a grassroots response to integration and poverty.

Q What put this project on your radar?

A My mom organized the only two charter schools in my village back in Guatemala. My dad was the founder of two cooperatives, even though he doesn’t write or read. It was sort of bred into us. You see a situation, you take initiative.

Take that, and match that with all the networks I’ve built over the last 10 years in the U.S., and you have a winning proposition for somebody who feels very comfortable serving other people.

Q How did you get to the U.S.?

A I met the woman who is now my wife. She graduated from St. Olaf, and she was volunteering at an orphanage (in Guatemala) where I was. We married in 1991, and in 1992, she got accepted to the University of Minnesota, trying to get a degree in bilingual education.

We were OK in Guatemala. We were going to build a house….

Contrary to what a lot of people think in this country — that all of us in Latin America are dying to come to the U.S. — I just don’t live better here than I would in Guatemala. It was, in fact, a very, very difficult situation.

I was used to being a very young, successful executive in Guatemala. I came here, totally unable to even mop a floor.

Q Coming to the U.S. and struggling to learn the language, does your heart go out to families who struggle with the same thing?

A It goes most to the parents. The kids are doing fine. But when those kids grow up, they will be facing the same issues. Their leadership abilities will be diminished by the stereotypes that exist about their community. It’s still going to be there. African-Americans are still discriminated against after how many decades?

I can have a vision without getting lost in the idealistic aspects of things. This is like getting a product off the ground. You target that product that’s going to be your star. To me, the entrepreneur is the star of our enterprise, and that enterprise is the well-being of our community.

Ben Goessling • 612-673-7252 •

©2007 Star Tribune. All rights reserved.

I will check into translating it for our Spanish speaking audience, but meanwhile, you can read it below. For more Northfield News articles, you can obtain an on-line subscription, just click on the link above.

By CLARICE GRABAU

NORTHFIELD – What will Northfield look like 20 years from now? In a recent presentation to the Lions Club, resident Reginaldo Haslett-Marroquin painted a picture of a bustling, vibrant town, where Latino children, who are today in first or second grade, will be city councilors, school board members, bankers and business owners.

A new Latino Enterprise Center, the brainchild of Haslett-Marroquin, is seeking to “tap into the entrepreneurial skills and spirit of Latinos in Northfield, and to create the foundation necessary for a comprehensive integration of Latinos into the community.”

The purpose of the center is to help area Latinos, estimated to be 5 to 8 percent of Northfield’s population, better integrate into the existing framework of the community, have their voice heard, and work with existing organizations to advance job placement, open a business, or obtain training or education, Haslett-Marroquin said.

It is possible, he says, in part, because Northfield is a nurturing community with a long list of service organizations in place. The goal of the LEC is not to create new organizations but to better utilize those in existence such as the Northfield Enterprise Center, the YMCA, the Northfield Community Action Center, even private business consultants who donate their time, all of whom have recently come together to offer input and services.

“Latinos also have resources of their own,” points out Haslett-Marroquin, “so we help them dig into their own bag. Some have expertise, like computer skills which can help other Latinos. Others may have knowledge in areas such as gardening or farming.”

Progress is becoming more evident, says city Welcome Center Coordinator Marj Evans-de-Carpio.

“Compared to seven years ago, the Latino population today is more settled. More families are living with both parents and the children, whereas seven years ago, a lot of young men were forced to leave their families behind in Mexico. With this stability, good things are happening: more youth are graduating, going on to post-secondary education, and taking on leadership roles in the community,” she said. “Adults are taking advantage of training opportunities and beginning to advance in the workforce. A few have jumped into home ownership.

If those who have the head and heart to go into business are connected with the necessary resources and knowledge to succeed, it will be a benefit to them and to the greater community as new businesses bring new money into the economy.”

“Integration can be seen from two main lenses,” explains Haslett-Marroquin, “civic and economic.” With Evans-de-Carpio heading the civic portion, Haslett-Marroquin says his focus will be on the economic aspects, working through the LEC.

“The LEC emphasizes entrepreneurship because in order to be effective, this needs to come from the people, not the city,” he said.

On Jan. 31, the Northfield Enterprise Center became the fiscal agent for the LEC and is providing office space at their location, 207 W. Third. There are no regularly scheduled meetings of LEC principals yet, but Haslett-Marroquin is meeting frequently with Latinos and other community members, and plans are underway for a founding meeting to bring together “all Latinos interested in business development in Northfield.” The meeting will be held at the Northfield School of Arts and Technology.

“Latinos can use the LEC as a place to bring their ideas for initial exploration,” Haslett-Marroquin said. If they speak English, both the NEC and LEC can work in partnership to provide networking in several areas. A computer recovery program to refurbish used computers, job searching, training, technical assistance and lending are areas being explored both locally and with assistance from organizations such as the Latino Economic Development Center in Minneapolis.

As of yet, there are no established criteria for people to use the LEC.

“All we ask is that people who want to work with the LEC are either Latinos themselves or work with Latinos and believe they can help them move up the economic ladder by working with us,” Haslett-Marroquin said.

Future LEC project ideas include a youth farm project that teaches project management by raising black turtle beans on 10 acres already secured; a parents’ garden to involve parents of high school youth in growing vegetables to improve their diet and increase involvement with their children (an acre with water access has been reserved); a Northfield farmers market project to establish a Latino presence at the market by selling products from the above projects; and a Latino farming enterprise project that will conduct farm tours involving local Latinos interested in farming. The objective is to secure 100 tillable acres for interested agricultural entrepreneurs.

The LEC is technically possible because of fiscal sponsorship and in-kind support from the NEC and because of the Main Street Project in Minneapolis in the form of a part-time salary for Haslett-Marroquin. NEC sponsorship allows for tax-deductible donations to be made to the LEC. For more information go to www.latinoenterprisecenter.org.