By Gail Elber, The World | Posted: Friday, October 28, 2011 10:24 am

NORTH BEND — Starting and running a business is hard for anyone. But if English isn’t your first language, it’s even harder.

“There’s a language barrier and cultural differences,” said Rene Quintana. “We see it, and sometimes we feel it.”

Quintana is the founder of Manos Unidos, an organization based in Crescent City, Calif., whose purpose is “to inform, improve, assist, encourage and strengthen the cultural roots, traditions and values of the Latino community.”

At the group’s second Latino Business Summit in North Bend Wednesday, elected officials, government agency representatives and business managers praised the help they’ve gotten from Manos Unidos in reaching out to Latino customers, clients and constituents.

Group makes connections

Benjamin Brayfield

Quintana didn’t originally set out to be a community organizer. After stints at the Harvard Business School and Oxford University, he landed at the University of California at Berkeley to pursue a BA.

“At Berkeley, there was so much going on on campus, and that exposed me to what was going on in the world,” he said. “I started getting involved with the neighborhood outreach programs.”

He moved to Crescent City and continued his work there, eventually organizing a school for farm workers in Smith River. “We taught English, computer training, civics — all those good things,” he said.

Ten years ago, he helped start Manos Unidos. Since then, the organization has worked in Humboldt and Del Norte counties and in the Brookings, Medford and Coos Bay areas. In October, the group got a $10,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to facilitate participation by Latinos in the agency’s agricultural and business assistance programs.

Quintana said he works with people from Mexico, Argentina, Peru and other countries who often are wary of applying for a grant, joining a chamber of commerce or volunteering for a city advisory commission because they have experience with corrupt agencies in their native country.

Also, “there’s a digital divide,” he said. “Latinos are not using computers, which are a primary source of information.”

Becoming more accessible

Wednesday’s gathering showed that he’s been working not only with Latinos but also with government agencies and companies to eliminate misconceptions on both sides.

With Quintana translating, Coos Bay Mayor Crystal Shoji explained how her city’s departments are organized. She encouraged attendees to apply for a current opening on the Parks Commission, emphasizing that those commissioners don’t have to speak in public very much.

“I don’t think it would be a scary thing, whether you have good English or bad English,” she said.

About one-third of her audience of 50 consisted of business people and other interested guests from the Latino community. The other two-thirds was representatives, Latino and otherwise, from agencies and companies that have worked with Manos Unidos.

Some of them, including Shoji, North Bend Mayor Rick Wetherell, and representatives of Bank of America and Northwest Community Credit Union, got awards honoring their efforts to make their organizations more accessible to Spanish speakers, by hiring bilingual employees and providing bilingual materials.

Representatives of the Bay Area Chamber of Commerce, Oregon Employment Department, USDA Rural Programs and Southwestern Oregon Community College’s Business Development Center spoke about their organizations.

After the meeting, Celso Ledesma, a business advisor at the Business Development Center, said he encounters many Latino entrepreneurs who have the drive to start businesses but don’t understand the rules about taxes, accounting, and payroll.

“They don’t understand why they can’t just take money out of the cash register,” he said. “They have to put themselves on the payroll.”

Ledesma, who worked in banking for 35 years in his native Peru, can help them figure out planning and licensing requirements and can connect them with Spanish-speaking accountants and tax preparers.

Connections help everyone

Maria Diaz, owner of the Latino grocery store Mi Ranchito, hosted Wednesday’s gathering in her store’s party room. A native of Puerto Rico who lived for years in California, she recently moved to North Bend with her family, seeking better schools and a safer environment for her teenage children. Now she’s interested in getting involved in the community. “I’m going to some meetings and hoping to join the Chamber of Commerce,” she said after the meeting.

Norma Peña Salinas, a Manos Unidos board member and editor of the Spanish newspaper La Bandera, told the group that when people reach out in that way, everyone benefits. With Quintana translating, she said, “People who know the Hispanic community, the Latinos, know that we have a big heart.

“Enjoy and learn if you have a Hispanic neighbor or coworker. You will have a sincere friend in the good times and the bad times.”