In celebration of Diversity Month, the Glenwood Springs Chamber and FirstBank hosted the city’s first “Let’s Talk Business” event on Wednesday. 

The bilingual event, called Hablemos de Negocios in Spanish, invited local Latino business owners and community members to share their stories of success and learn from local vendors. 

“Recognizing the rich diversity and entrepreneurial spirit within the Latino business community, we seek to create opportunities to promote collaboration, business growth, and mutual success,” Glenwood Springs Chamber Latino Business Advisory Council member Giovanna Kennedy said.

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The event itself kicked off with a social hour with food catered by Hugo’s Restaurant and Taquería el Yaqui, followed by an introduction of the Glenwood Springs Chamber Latino Business Advisory Council and its new members.  

The Glenwood Springs Chamber Latino Business Advisory Council is a committee of the Glenwood Springs Chamber Board of Directors with the goal of building relationships between the board and the Latino business community. 

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Some of its members include Jorge Rojas López with First Bank, Margarita Alvarez, Gladys Arango, Breanna McCallum and Kennedy. 

“In my work with the community, I have had the fortune and privilege to listen and detect some concerns that become potential points of interest that we can work on, and one of them is the desire and need of our Latino community to form and own their own business,” Arango said. 

She continued by stating that entrepreneurship can help Latinos achieve economic independence and improve their quality of life, which is precisely what the event hopes to inspire people to do.

The second half of the night invited three Latino business owners to share the challenges, struggles and triumphs of opening a business in Glenwood Springs, accompanied by a panelist Q&A where representatives from Colorado Mountain College, First Tech and Garfield County Public Health responded to questions about the resources and steps available for attendees hoping to kick off a new business venture. 

The first to share their story was Katya Robledo Ortiz, owner of Kumbala Hair Salon and member of the Latino Business Advisory Council. 

Robledo Ortiz arrived in the valley in 1997, during a time when there weren’t very many Latino-owned businesses. 

She took jobs at restaurants and cleaning houses, all the while being a young mother and wife. Her cleaning schedules would keep her at work from 6 in the morning to midnight. 

“When I got home, everything seemed super small to me, because the houses I cleaned were castles in my eyes,” Robledo Ortiz said. “I got home sad but at the same time happy because I knew that I was coming home to a place where I had a lot of love, and I knew that I had to raise a little angel of mine.” 

Her career eventually took her into nursing, and she was able to go to school to work as a certified nursing assistant caring for the elderly. In 2001, her mother came to Colorado. Robledo Ortiz’s mother had owned a beauty salon in California, where she had helped her out since a young age.  

“I opened my clothing business to share the rent of the local shop where my mother would also open her beauty salon together (in Colorado),” Robledo Ortiz said. “One day my husband advised me to leave everything and dedicate myself to studying cosmetology, I was excited and super happy because I knew that I no longer had to have so much stress and I would only dedicate myself to studying one thing.” 

Robledo Ortiz opened her beauty salon in 2008, though the partnership with her mother didn’t work out, meaning she was completely on her own. She signed a three-year lease for her shop — 16 years later, Kumbala Hair Salon still sits in the same spot. 

“I don’t know what will happen in the future, I would like to do so much,” she said. “I hope (my children) follow in my footsteps and (that) whatever they want to do, they do it with love and dedication.” 

Mirella Ramirez, co-owner of Specialist Auto Body Repair with her husband, was the second to tell her story.  

She started her career working in accounting in Guadalajara, Mexico. However, at the age of 23 she decided she would move to the United States to fulfill her two biggest goals: to learn English, and to learn how to drive. 

“I got here, and I thought being in the United States, I would know how to speak English,” Ramirez laughed. “So I found myself with my first obstacle.” 

She enrolled into English language classes, and soon after met the man who would become her husband. His dream since he was young was to open his own auto repair shop, and Ramirez said the things she learned working as an accountant in Guadalajara prepared her for starting the business. 

“But there were lots of trials,” she said in Spanish. “We didn’t have the resources, we didn’t have the team, we didn’t have a lot of things we needed to open a business.” 

Thanks to the help they received from friends and a loan from First Bank, they were able to open Specialist Auto Body Repair. 

Today, she has three children, one of which works at the shop, and continues to serve the Latino and overall community through her work. 

“A lot of friends helped us through this process, and now it is our dream to continue to help them,” Ramirez said. 

The third and final success story came from Hugo Muñoz, owner and chef of Hugo’s Restaurant in Glenwood Springs. 

Originally from Veracruz, Mexico, Muñoz immigrated to the United States at the age of 22 and worked as a dishwasher in New Jersey. It wasn’t long before the chef noticed his cooking skills and gave him the opportunity to work as a cook. 

Once in Colorado, he worked as a breakfast cook in Snowmass Village. Muñoz said he had a lot of mentors that pushed him to improve and introduced him to the business side of things. 

“I didn’t even know how to use a computer because I only studied up through middle school,” he said. “(My mentors) really pushed my career.” 

“I put a lot of effort into it, like every dreamer,” Muñoz continued. “It was something I enjoyed … I was lucky to have good chefs that to this day are my friends.” 

 After two years of working in Aspen and commuting from his home in Rifle, Muñoz decided he would open a restaurant in Glenwood Springs. 

“I always passed through Glenwood and thought, ‘I want to open a restaurant here,'” he said. “The people here are very nice. I’ve been at Hugo’s for three years and I feel that the community appreciates me a lot, like I do my customers.” 

“I feel very proud to be part of this community,” Muñoz added. 

The Q&A portion of the event explored questions such as: What educational resources are available for immigrants who didn’t finish high school? What banking services are available for people with an ITIN number? What are the requirements to open a business account, or to get a bank loan? What types of permits or licenses are required to open a business in the food industry? 

Those interested in having these discussions can reach out to the panelists from CMC, First Bank and Garfield County Public Health.