In 1994, I participated for the third time in what was called the “North American Alternative Trading Organizations” (NAATO) conference at Georgetown University in Washington DC . I was part of an international group of individuals working on the concept of certification, a system to ensure the adherance by companies to certain basic principles such as fair prices, respect for workers’ rights, care for the earth, the trade not charity concept, and encouraging consumer responsibility.

At the 1994 conference we formally decided to form the Fair Trade Federation. Being an outspoken Latin American in the crowd, I was asked to run for the first board of directors and was elected to be Vice-President. Then from 1995 to 1997 I worked for the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy’s (IATP) Fair Trade program. Under this program, we created Peace Coffee and introduced the Transfair Fair Trade Label to the United States. The interim board of directors later hired business consultant Paul Rice, to do market research and develop a business plan for the new initiative. Paul was later hired as the Executive Director of the U.S. branch of Transfair, the fair trade labelling arm of Fairtrade Labelling Organizations International. The rest is history as you can read on their website.

What prompted me to write about this issue was this morning’s report by Sea Stachura, a Minnesota Read the rest of this entry »

Nice article by Ben Goessling on yesterday’s Star Tribune South. Here is the link to the article, and here is the whole article if you just want to read it here.

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.

Read the rest of this entry »

A month or so ago, the Northfield Enterprise Center and the Latino Enterprise Center (both based in a small office on the second floor above the Northfield Chamber of Commerce) came together to craft a plan to support Maria’s Restaurant and Cantina on hwy 3, by the Crossings intersection in Northfield.
The owners, Maria and Rafael Estrada work long hours an have devoted all of their personal savings to their enterprise.  Both Maria and Rafael have the leadership and entrepreneurship spirit needed to keep the business going, but as all start-ups, they are struggling with cash-flows in a time of growth and great potential. Their business has become an icon of the Latino community in Northfield, a friendly and great place to grab lunch or a light dinner.

Matt Miller, an intern at NEC provided by St. Olaf through the Center for Experiential Learning, helped write-up a plan that involves re-structuring purchasing and negotiating strategies for raw materials and launching a marketing plan for the store. Other aspects such as the restaurant atmosphere, new products and pricing and profitability analysis and corrections are also part of the plan.

Yesterday morning (July 9th), I met at Maria’s Restaurant with Matt Miller (NEC Intern), Maria Estrada (Restauran owner), Yolanda Coterreal (Rural Programs Director for the Latino Economic Development Center in Minneapolis), Jeffrey Alexander a private business consultant with HRI Consulting in Falcon Heights, to polish a “Maria’s re-launch” plan.  The plan is crafted to bridge Maria and Rafael’s investment of time and resources with a market that they still have not fully tapped into, plus the city’s economic and business development assistance available which they have not yet accessed in this time of opportunity.  Stay tuned to new developments and a marketing campaign coming up in the next couple of months.

Looking forward, I see Maria and Rafael’s success as an important element in establishing a positive presence of our Latino business leaders in this beatiful and increasingly ethnically diverse city and a cornerstone in the process of integration of our community.

The Cannon River and Hiawatha Valley Chapters of the Sustainable Farming Association of Minnesota had their quarterly board meeting and farm tour this afternoon before the nice rolling rain showers came through Northfield. The board meeting was held at Mary Ellen Frame’s farm off highway 3 on the north side of town.

I had the chance to participate at both, the board meeting and the farm tour. With me was Marco Flores, one of our emerging community leaders in Northfield. Marco has participated in leadership trainings organized through the Hispanic Committee at St. Dominic’s Catholic Church and was the first to confirm his interest in participating in this experience.

During the board meeting, Marco was able to observe the dynamics and the way Anglo’s conduct their meetings, we then talked about the differences and formalities observed, including the approval of the minutes from the previous meeting and the way decisions were proposed, motions articulated, seconded, voted on, and recorded for the permanent files of the SFA chapter.

We had a chance to see the board at work, then Ben and Erin offered a tour of their Open Hands vegetable farm and the simple but effective machinery that they use to prepare the ground, plant, weed, and harvest their crops which are sold locally inNorthfield to 40 members of their Community Supported Agriculture operation.

Over the next 12 to 14 months, the Latino community in Northfield will be working on leadership development through the formation of a Community Development Council. This council will be representative of the different sectors where Latinos live in Northfield.  Its purpose will be to deal with those issues that are specific to our community (civic engagement, social environment, language, community participation, access to services, interaction with the Anglo leadeship, etc.)

Through the council, we hope to establish a strong Latino-to-Latino families network, as well as a permanent structure for Latino leadership development and training.  The council will also serve the purpose of relationship and community building goals with the Anglo community by providing a structure for formal interaction and communications and an opportunity for Anglo’s to learn the Latino way of conducting business.  Mutual understanding and integration of our communities will be the result of deliverate efforts and leadership on both ends to come closer together as we all grow in numbers and our issues get more complex.

Ensuring that each one of these leaders starts to feel comfortable among leaders in the Anglo community and that everyone understands how the Anglo community leadership is structure and managed is of the highest priority if we are to move forward a lasting process of integration and effective management of our Latino community affairs.