Transcript
Alejandro Flores-Muñoz: I am in a mission right now to showcase that entrepreneurship is a viable option for folks regardless of your immigration status. Every single person in my family, and along with others in my community can have the right tools to get started and to start entrepreneurship.
I come from a family of merchants. All my life I have seen one way or the other that we have been bringing in income to our household through some sort of hustle.
What has currently been missing in our society is to recognize that the seller who is selling flowers or is selling flan door to door is a businessman or business woman. Most of the time we only see them as someone who is selling out of need. We have to treat the person, even if small, like an entrepreneur. Because in that moment we will give them the wings to say, “What’s the next thing I need to do?”
This year in Colorado, we were able to pass a law that allows undocumented people to obtain business licenses. As a small business owner and as a voice for the community, I was able to walk into the state capitol and give testimony as to why we should pass a law that will allow every Coloradan in the state to contribute to the economics of this state so we can become vibrant again. I decided in 2012 to launch my own business and I started a sunglasses business, and that propelled me to the things that I have now, a food truck, a catering business, vending machine business. But it was the steps of me watching my mom growing up and learning from that and growing that. That's what allowed me to get into entrepreneurship.
I've realized that I've had to redefine what success looks like for us as a community and what is attainable for us, and I'll tell you, I know I don't have it made yet. I know that I have so much more to learn. I have so much more to grow. However, I am in a position that I wouldn't have otherwise not been if it wasn't for the groundwork that other folks have put in before me.
