Latinos in Business Hosts Inaugural Business Expo

By Jennifer L. Warren

NEWBURGH – Gisele Rosado is a part of a very small, alarming statistic: Only 1.8% of law firms in America have Latina partners.

Rosado, a law partner from Murphy, Schisano and Rosado Esq, wants to change that reality. Sunday, she took some steps in that direction, as she led the Youth Workshop: Meet the Professionals at the 2018 Inaugural Latino Business Expo, hosted by Latinos in Business Succeeding Together, at Newburgh’s Armory. “The panel of this workshop is made up of business owners in the area, who will tell and guide the youth how they can get involved in the different industries as well as where to go and how to overcome various obstacles when starting a business,” explained Rosado. “I find Latinos are very underrepresented in the legal industry, so I want to encourage youth to go into the field and not be intimidated by cost and access to education, as there are so many programs out there to take advantage of.”

That mindset replicates the general mission of the three year old non-profit, Latinos in Business Succeeding Together, that hosted Sunday’s Expo. Hoping to give Latin professionals, business owners and entrepreneurs platforms for networking, growing and flourishing, the organization further seeks to create and support a setting in which Latinos in the Hudson Valley can succeed not only professionally, but personally while making life in the entire region better for all who inhabit it. And so, Sunday, the organization took yet another positive step in the direction of meeting those goals by having 25 businesses come to Newburgh’s Armory, a place where they could lend their expertise on their products, sell some of their merchandise as well as field questions from guests. In addition to the wide variety of vendor booths, ranging from; pain relief products, to soaps and candles, to insurance and health offerings, to mortgage businesses, the afternoon further included an assortment of educational and informative workshops, with such headings as; Business Startup, Increase Your Business, Motivation and Success, and Rosado’s-Youth Workshop: Meet the Professionals.

One of the representatives from one of those businesses was Juana Leandry, an insurance broker for Latin Premier, representing United Health Care, who was at the Expo, behind a booth hoping to to promote insurance offerings to the community as well as be an integral resource to them. Very impressed by what she has seen and heard about the Latinos in Business organization, Leandry was thoroughly impressed by and pleased with the success of its Inaugural Business Expo.

“This was an extremely well organized event that offered a really good variety of vendors, different from what you are used to seeing,” said Leandry. “I will be back next year and will be joining the Latinos in Business Succeeding Together group.”

Another vendor as well as Board Member of Latinos in Business, Walter Sierra, who owns WA Sierra Insurance Agency, was also happy about what he saw Sunday inside of the Armory at the first year event he was excited to be a part of.

“I came out here today because I wanted to give back to the community, while helping out and informing people about our services,” said Sierra, who attended with several members from his family business. “We are very happy to be here; it turned out better than expected, and next year it is going to be even better.”

Some of the businesses, in addition to Latin Premiere, Sierra’s, and Rosado’s law partnership, that attended Sunday’s Expo included; Bill B’s Painting Service, SCORE- a volunteer start up business, Superior Mortgage, Real Time Pain Relief, Latinos Unidos, Women’s Enterprise Development Center (WEDC), and Business Networking International, Hudson Valley Press and 1170 AM El Poder – Hispanic Regional radio.

To learn more about Latinos in Business Succeeding Together, contact them at: latinosbusinesshv@gmail.com.