The chamber has a lot of good news to share. In fact, the economic reach of the Latino community in Minnesota is significant. More than 1,000 Mexican-American businesses alone operate in the state, generating an estimated $200 million in sales a year, according to a 2004 Minneapolis Foundation report, “Immigration in Minnesota: Discovering Common Ground.” Lake Street is home to 200 thriving Latino businesses; in rural Minnesota, Latinos employed in agriculture a dd $25 million to the state’s economy each year.

Almost 200,000 Latinos call Minnesota home. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, about 60 percent of Latino Minnesotans were born in the United States, while another 6 percent are naturalized American citizens. Of the Latinos who emigrated from other countries, about two-thirds originally came from Mexico. There is also a significant populace from Puerto Rico, Cuba, Colombia, Guatemala, El Salvador, Venezuela, and Ecuador.

“The reality is [Latinos] are the fastest-growing community in this country and this state and, contrary to popular belief, the growth is not coming from immigration. It’s coming internally, from families, from those who have been here and have been citizens for generations,” says Rafael Ortega, a Ramsey County commissioner who teaches at Metropolitan State University. “What programs like 25 On The Rise do is highlight those facts and make it more concrete when people can point to others working in different sectors. It’s Latino people who are showing leadership across the community. People will see that Latinos make a difference and are a part of the American fabric.”

The 25 On The Rise program also helps to highlight the depth and breadth of Minnesota’s Latino community, says Heladio Zavala, state director of St. Cloud–based United Migrant Opportunity Services (UMOS), which helped select the honorees. “You can see we have many different cultures, backgrounds, and different countries in our community,” says Zavala. “You have an opportunity to put a name and face to the word Latino and understand the diversity of the Latino people.”

This year’s 25 recipients are diverse in both nationality and profession: Honorees in 2006 include entrepreneurs, bankers, lawyers, real estate agents, a chiropractor, a security officer, and many who work for nonprofits, hailing from Mexico, Cuba, Peru, El Salvador, Argentina, Columbia, Puerto Rico, and Venezuela.

“The Hispanic Chamber of Commerce plays a very important role, especially as we are growing as a community and the number of Latino businesses is growing. We have professional businesses, we have mom-and-pop businesses, we have restaurants—and they are growing,” says Zavala. “The chamber helps people do business, capitalize on our strength, promote our community, and promote dialogue of any kind.”

A Chamber On the Rise

The 25 On The Rise program is one part of the revitalization the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce has been going through. When Val Vargas restarted the nonprofit in 2000, she hoped to create an organization that would foster and promote economic prosperity in the Latino community through access to information, training, education, business, commerce, and other resources. Her primary goal for the Chamber is to serve as a catalyst for positive changes in the lives of Latinos, businesses, and professionals.

In the past five years, Vargas and her team of four other employees, along with a nine-member Latino Board of Directors, have developed new programs and tripled the chamber’s budget. Now a professionally run economic development organization, the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce offers a broad range of services to the Latino community. It also serves as the voice of Latino business people to the entire state.