Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2008 , 11:04 p.m.

Tennessee: Slowdown in economy taking a toll on Hispanic-owned businesses

By: Perla Trevizo

BREAKING — About two years ago, Mexico native Carlos Perez left his job at a factory in Dayton, Tenn., to start Perez Produce, a distributing company for local Hispanic restaurants and stores.

Now, Mr. Perez said he regrets leaving a stable job at the La-Z-Boy factory because the produce business is not going well and he is on the verge of closing.

“When I first started with the business two years ago it was going well, but starting about three months ago it started going down, down,â€