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The Small Business Ethnic and Minority Media Appreciation Dinner on Wednesday, September 7th, 2022 brought together micro-business owners, Black and Brown community leaders and our Metro Detroit ethnic press together to network and celebrate at one of the most prestigious locations in the midwest, the Detroit Institute of Arts.

Our MC and one of our sponsors was the esteemed Mark Lee from The Lee Group, “It was an honor and privilege to MC and speak at this wonderful event honoring outstanding entrepreneurs. It was a celebration recognizing those truly making a difference.”

My favorite part of the evening was helping entrepreneurs to connect to one another and with media and government leaders. The cocktail hour in the Diego Rivera Court at the DIA was the perfect backdrop to weave relationships. It is not everyday that a taquero, a barber, a realtor, a contractor, and a cleaning company get to network with leaders in banking and government. Introducing some of our Business Alianzas clients to Lt. Governor Garlin Gilchrist II was the highlight of the night for me!

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Successful Entrepreneurs, Start-Ups, Great Friends, Incredible Memories!

see the photo gallery below

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“I would like to thank the assistance of personalities such as Lt. Governor Garlin Gilchrist II, Mr. Roberto Nicolas Consul of Mexico, Bruce Morgan of WSU, Wafa Dinaro of Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan, Kevin Hardy editor of Detroit News, Gabriela Santiago Detroit City Council,This event would not have been possible without the support of these people or these companies.”

A note from our host, Elias Gutierrez, Publisher of Latino Press:

I have been incredibly proud for all of the work the Puente has done through our partnership and collaboration with the MI Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and the selfless volunteers that have been a part of the MI-HCA Advisory Council for the last three years.

We’ve gotten a little press in recent weeks. Something that is so difficult to summarize are the relationships we’ve built and the funders that saw potential in our passion!

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Latino contractors seek bigger piece of southwest Detroit’s building boom
– Bridge Magazine, Article by Martina Guzman
New Group Helps Hispanic Contractors Compete For Southwest Detroit Construction Work
– Deadline Detroit

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I would personally like to thank the City of Detroit, especially the Housing & Redevelopment Department (HRD) Team and the Office of Immigrant Affairs for their trust in me and the Puente Team. The main funder of the Bilingual Lead Abatement Training has been the Erb Family Foundation who facilitated additional flexible funding by the Community Foundation of Southeastern Michigan and the United Community Housing Coalition. Through their support, despite the pandemic, we were able to successfully train and certify 29 contractors as Lead Abatement Supervisors and Workers over three cohorts that ran in February, March, & October. The MI-HCA has now certified the ONLY immigrant, Spanish-speaking Lead Supervisors in the State of Michigan. It was a lot of work, but it was so worth it! Looking forward to what is to come.

The networking events and workshops for the 148 MI-HCA members in 2020 were made possible by our sponsoring MI-HCA member partners:

• Comerica Bank
• Alliance Catholic Credit Union
• 5/3 Bank
• O’Brien Construction
• and others

Stay Consistent with Your Mission

During the pandemic, the Puente Team has met (almost daily via Zoom) to discuss the challenges and messages of the day. We became experts in trilingual outreach to the immigrant business community and all things COVID-related: grants, loans, executive orders, restaurant protocol, MIOSHA rules, etc. We consistently reminded ourselves of the Puente mission.

This means not just translating documents and emails, but using the most effective tools to communicate with our clients. Most days we made dozens of phone calls and sent dozens of direct messages to let people know about upcoming grants and workshops, to check in with how they were doing and to make sure that they fulling understood new COVID-19 regulations. We designed webinars to inform and support, sought out experts in finance and marketing, built relationships with the City of Detroit, Chambers of Commerce, the State of Michigan, nonprofit leaders, professional service providers, banks and corporations, writing grants and raising sponsorship money so that we could provide all of our services – trilingual outreach, small business support services, and entrepreneurial training – for free to ANY entrepreneur who needs our help. So while we were not able to give as much face-to-face technical assistant as we had in previous years, we adapted in March to provide more than 3,500 one-on-one communications to business owners in 2020 for the SDBA, the West Vernor & Springwells Business Improvement District (BID), and the MI-Hispanic Contractors Association (MI-HCA.org). One of the unexpected surprises of the economic downturn, were the more than 35 aspiring entrepreneurs that we helped to start or form new businesses over the last year. We look forward to continuing to help the more than 300 businesses we’ve been supporting in 2020 to DEVELOP even further in 2021.

Live with Intention. 📐📖🖊
✈️ Dream, Manifest, Design, Believe, Plan, & Do the Work, Be Patient & Persistent.🗓 📄
⏳Some goals take a lifetime to realize.

I am blessed to have parents who taught me there were no limits to my dreams & aspirations. I was privileged to grow up in a home where my parents never doubted they could rise, who did the hard work and provided so that their children could do the same. I am a bulldog when it comes to achieving my goals. Every major milestone in my life exists because I manifested it. Travelling the world is still my current goal. I had 4 countries planned this year. That won’t happen now, but it will happen.
This one photo marks a big dream come true — 35 years in the making.

✅ Studied in Mexico at 19, goal from age 11
✅ Dreamed of travelling to Europe, to every Spanish-speaking country, the world my entire life, ages 11-40+
✅ 2014 Finally got to Spain taking students, ate alone in La Boquería, called Paco crying from Las Ramblas, made the plan to go back to Barcelona four years later for our anniversary.
✅ 2018 Had an amazing meal with Paco & our friends at the same little counter in la Boquería

2015 – 2019✈️
✅ Dominican Republic
✅ Spain
✅ Colombia
✅ Germany
✅ Czech Republic

+ 🇲🇽❤️✈️
My Beloved México: Almost every year (some years 2-3x) 1992-2019.

Goals for 2021 & Beyond

• Hawaii
• Mexico & the Dominican Republic always (every year, Lord willing)
• Ireland
• Greece
• Perú
• Brazil
• Italy

I live with intention. I raised my children with extreme reflection and consciousness. I build my dreams and my business intentionally and without apology.

Manifest what you dream.
Paint the picture of the life you want to live.
If you cannot imagine it, you cannot become it.

(Original post edited December 2021)