Sofía Aguilar, Suzette Velásquez Reedy Annie Martínez
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Our conversation with Sofía Aguilar, Suzette Velasquez Reed and Annie Martínez allowed us to learn what goals these leaders wanted to achieve at the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Metro Denver (HCC), the National Association of Real Estate Professionals (NAHREP) Denver and the Colorado Hispanic Bar Association (CHBA), respectively. At the same time, we were able to better understand the critical factors that allowed each one of them to attain success in their entrepreneurial and professional activities.
Sofía Aguilar became an immigrant to the US at the age of six. She and her family left her native México to settle in Houston, the city where she was raised until adulthood. Because of this, she’s not afraid to call herself a “Texan.” Her professional activities forced her to move a little bit further north, but she remained in the American west in the state of Nevada. While there, Sofía entered the electronic security business and got involved with large scale projects for ports, airports and oil facilities.
Her desire to see her niece grow up took her back to Texas for a short period of time. In 2008, Sofía got a proposal to move to Denver to start a new company in the electronic security field, which she had mastered so well. The time to begin this start up wasn’t the most favorable. Sofía arrived in Denver in August of that year and did so without knowing anyone. Thirty days after her arrival, the most severe financial crisis in the American economy after the 1930’s depression from the last century, exploded.
Door to door
“I would arrive with the contracts ready to be signed by the clients and I couldn’t get ahold of the people I’d negotiated with. They were laid off. From 30 clients, only two remained. What have I done?” she wondered. However, Sofía didn’t falter. “I didn’t accept failure. I wasn’t going back to Texas empty-handed. I had burnt the ship; I had invested all my money in this entrepreneurship. Furthermore, I even sold my house to come to Colorado. But I wasn’t going to give up,” she explained.
Going through that experience allowed Sofia to corroborate that “whoever wishes to do something, can do it.”
“I understood that life can change overnight and therefore you mustn’t presume anything. I started knocking on doors again. I began developing very small projects for the residential market,” she confessed. A few years later, that Enterprise, A-1, got the success Sofia was looking for. “We identified a niche in the market, the buildings’ administrators; we diversified and absorbed other companies in the industry,” she said.
Creating millionaires
That entrepreneurial drive comes to Sofia via family inspiration. “In my family, you can identify five generations of businesspeople. Women in my family have been businesswomen and they really stood out in their careers. One of my aunts managed to become the second highest person in the hierarchy of Teléfonos Mexicanos, at a time when most women were meant to be just housewives,” she shared. Sofía says that she always keeps top of mind the lessons that her father and grandfather gave her as a child to become successful when doing business.
With all that personal experience, Sofía is now the president of the Board of Directors at la HCC. Here, Sofía wishes to give a boost to the financial and business education for high school students. “We’ll design a curriculum and will get scholarships and mentors for those students. We have the opportunity to educate the youth so that they can turn into millionaires,” she proclaims. Sofía believes that, if they turn into wealth creators, Hispanics will be able to claim the share of power that belongs to them as a community.
Homeowners
Suzette Velasquez Reed agrees with Sofía about the necessity to educate the Hispanic community about financial matters. Suzette anticipates that NAHREP will dedicate a big part of its events in May, June, July and October 2020 to elevate the training level for professionals in the real estate business in Colorado. As the president of NAHREP, Suzette deems it necessary to educate Hispanic youth in financial matters. She announced that NAHREP will relaunch the financial principles classes that were taught in Denver schools.
She acknowledges that there’s a substantial reason to educate youth in the finances area. “The Hispanic community must break the circle of poverty. That can only be achieved once Hispanics turn into homeowners. When purchasing a property, people are providing stability for their families and they are setting the foundation for the next generations so that family can accumulate wealth,” pointed out Suzette, who also works as mortgage broker.
The real estate field has a special meaning for Suzette. “At home, I wasn’t given any instruction regarding finances. I learned it by myself. And after I fully understood personal finances, this changed my life. I purchased my first property when I was still almost a teenager; I purchased a house even before my parents purchased theirs. Three of my four sons have purchased a property early in life. And my daughter, who still hasn’t bought one yet is in the midst of the process of acquiring it,” she said.
Practicing as an attorney at law
Suzette landed in the real estate business after a long career in the vehicle dealerships industry. She started her own business of property appraisals and she managed it quite successfully until legislation turned that activity into an unprofitable business.
Suzette’s entrepreneurial curiosity got her involved in the mortgages market. For several years, she worked in the mortgages department for Chase Bank, until she started her own business in this field.
Throughout her professional career, Suzette also pursued interest in legal matters. Then she decided that it was time to go back to school. She obtained her bachelor’s degree and enrolled herself immediately after graduation in the “Juris Doctor” course. Suzette finished her legal studies and is close to taking the exam that will allow her to work as an attorney at law. She has plans to work on a reform to the legislation that affects youth that commit minor offenses. “The current legislation turns minorities’ youth into delinquents,” she asserts.
Suzette worries about the “luck factor” of the migrant population in the USA. She herself has also lived the experience of being an immigrant. Suzette was born in Texas, but at a very young age her parents took her to live her mother’s native country of Venezuela. She came back to America when she was 13 years old. “My father, who is an American, wanted us to get to know our roots and encouraged us also to learn Spanish,” she recalls. Just like Suzette, Annie Martínez, who is American, grew up with the full knowledge of her cultural roots.
A Young president
Annie was born and raised in Hialeah, in the south of Florida, the center of the greatest concentration of Cubans residing outside the island itself. “I lived surrounded by peoples who spoke just like me, and we shared the same culture. Thus, I felt that distinct sensation of being perceived as a whole different person to the Anglo population once I entered college,” she confessed. That experience, close to discrimination, didn’t put a dent in Annie’s entrepreneurial spirit. She found her calling and has devoted herself to fulfilling it.
As soon as Annie graduated as an attorney, she moved from Florida to Colorado. It was here that she took and passed the bar to practice law as an attorney. “Since I arrived in Colorado back in 2014, the people from CHBA embraced me. I feel they were part of my family,” the attorney asserts. Annie became president of CHBA after being secretary and then vice-president of the board of directors of the organization. “I’m the youngest president of CHBA,” she said.
Supporting social causes
Annie’s exceptional knowledge about the organization she presides over isn’t affected by her youth. “During 2020 we’ll pay attention to election-related matters. We’re going to do a follow-up of the redistribution of electoral circuits to ensure that the vote of the minorities is well represented. We’ll also provide support to those campaigns aligned to register new voters,” she says. Annie highlighted that CHBA will continue supporting legal clinics and those migrant clinics that support the needs of the Hispanic community.
As a lawyer, Annie works as a “Guardian ad Litem,” or children’ public defender. She is frequently hired by several district courts to defend the interests of minors related to their parents’ divorce, with abandonment circumstances or with delinquency. Martinez also participates in the Denver Justice Project, which facilitates the ongoing discussion between the Denver Police and the community. Martínez has also put her legal knowledge to the service of the working team that provides assistance to individuals facing evictions.