Thread: Envoy represents Mexicans

Envoy represents Mexicans

He reports home on life in Tennessee
By JANELL ROSS • Staff Writer • August 28, 2008

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In two months, Nashville businessman Salvador Guzman will offer his biannual report to Mexico's government about how Mexicans live in Middle Tennessee.

He'll say the U.S. economic downturn hit Nashville-area Hispanics particularly hard. And he'll talk about anti-immigrant sentiment and policy he believes makes their recovery more difficult.



"Things are completely different right now, completely different than how they used to be in the 1990s or even the early 2000s," Guzman said. "There's really a lot to talk about."

Guzman knows first-hand what it takes to become a success in a foreign land. Raised in Degollado on Mexico's west coast, he came to California in the 1970s to work the fields with his father. Today, his U.S. holdings include two Spanish-language radio stations, nine La Hacienda Restaurants in Tennessee and Alabama and a pair of Nashville supermarkets that specialize in Latin American merchandise.

In a single hour inside Guzman's office at one of the Supermercado La Reyna stores, one gets a sense just how large Guzman and his influence loom.

During a quick meeting near the tamale wrapper display, a woman secures a commitment from Guzman that at least one of his stations will participate in a family day at the Nashville Zoo. Two men drop by at different times, each wanting to discuss a possible business opportunity. Guzman's wife wants to talk about the store.

Guzman is so talked about that rumors have swirled that one of his restaurants is under investigation for unpaid wages. He insists that no investigation exists and people are confusing his restaurants with a Murfreesboro chain. Spokesmen with the U.S. and Tennessee departments of labor said there are no public records of a labor investigation at either Guzman's or the Murfreesboro restaurants.

These days, his attention is on his role as adviser with the Institute of Mexicans Abroad, a powerful organization that recruited him to observe his countrymen in Middle Tennessee and report back.

In 2006, the institute succeeded in getting Mexican nationals living abroad the right to vote in Mexican elections. Around the same time, they persuaded Mexico to match three government dollars for each dollar that citizens living abroad sent home specifically for public projects such as roads, plumbing and schools.

Before the U.S. economic downturn, that program was transforming some communities and giving Mexican citizens living outside the country a political voice, said Jose Louis Gutierrez, a former advisory board member.

And, because of advisers' reports, budgets for Mexican consulates in the United States have tripled, Gutierrez said.

"There is a movement in Mexico to recognize the contributions of migrants to this country and give them a voice," said Gutierrez, who is now director of the Illinois Governor's Office of New Americans. "Anyone who participates in that process of transmitting information from the United States — anyone — is at this point playing a very important role."

Through his father, Guzman gained his legal permanent residency and the right to work in the United States — ultimately becoming a dual citizen. He worked a job in a meatpacking plant in Illinois before returning to Mexico to earn a doctorate in veterinary medicine. After years of practice and the realization that he probably would never earn enough to own a home in Mexico, Guzman decided to move permanently to the United States.

His first job upon his return was busing tables at a Chattanooga Mexican restaurant in 1989. In a 19-year span, Guzman transitioned from bus boy to owner of multiple businesses and property on either side of the border.

"I still believe there is opportunity in this area, but there is also a lot more for the Mexican immigrant to deal with," Guzman said. "Life is not easy."

Businesses struggle
Take Nolensville Road, a commercial strip known for several stores carrying goods from immigrants' home countries. This year, a bakery, two mini markets that sold Latin American goods, a restaurant and a car lot have closed. Several other area businesses also have changed hands, Guzman said, many of them in financial trouble.

The Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development's most recent data indicate that at 8.6 percent, Hispanic unemployment is higher than that of any other group, topping the state's overall
6.9 percent unemployment rate.

The reason stems mostly from the fact that so many Hispanic workers were once employed in the hard-hit construction industry or related businesses, Guzman said.

He also cites "aggressive" police patrols that make immigrants afraid to patronize businesses in the area.

Metro police have a different perspective.

Metro Police South Precinct Capt. Mike Alexander met with Hispanic owners of businesses along Nolensville Road about six weeks ago. He said the decisions to patrol Nolensville Road heavily, make efforts to talk with pedestrians and merchants and to react when traffic violations are observed are all part of the effort to reduce commercial robberies and other crime.

"We target our efforts in that area in hopes that a visible police presence in that area would be a deterrent to criminals," Alexander said. "Persons who are driving with an appropriate driver's license and obeying the law certainly do not have any reason to be fearful of any interaction with the police."

Guzman said he also expects Nashville's English-only ballot initiative to be a topic of discussion during his report to the institute in Mexico City. If it is placed on the Nov. 4 ballot and passes, it would limit Metro government communication to English unless the council made exceptions.

"My dream here is that there will be a time when the Latinos, the Mexican can be proud to say, 'I am a U.S. citizen of Mexican origin,' as the Irish and the Italian-Americans can do now," Guzman said.

Contact Janell Ross at 615-726-5982 or jross1@tennessean.com.

http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll ... /808280400

"There is a movement in Mexico to recognize the contributions of migrants to this country and give them a voice," said Gutierrez, who is now director of the Illinois Governor's Office of New Americans. "Anyone who participates in that process of transmitting information from the United States — anyone — is at this point playing a very important role."

"Office of New Americans"? Speechless.

Is Mr. Guzman even an American citizen or is he here for the sole reason to suck America out of money and report to the Mexican government?

The Institute of Mexicans Abroad is a seditious, agency of the Mexican government whose sole intent is to do everything it can to change our laws at all levels for the benefit of illegal alien Mexicans...and ultimately to keep the illegal alien remittances flowing into their country. Our country shouldn't allow these foreign government agencies to operate on our soil. I can't imagine that Ronald Reagan would have allowed such.

Some more garbage,why don't you go to mexico and report on how your people are treated like slaves payed practically no wages while a select few are the richest people in the world all the while mexicans live in anguish.Start with that why don't you.

Report on that and leave our country and whats left of it alone.