Hispanic spokesman
Michel Zajur serves as a liaison with the mainstream business community

by Richard Foster
for Virginia Business Options
December 2006

Like many children of immigrants, Michel Zajur found himself translating a lot for his parents as he was growing up.
As a successful Hispanic restaurateur, Zajur also found himself translating for a lot of other folks in his community as

Virginia's Hispanic population began to explode.

"It's hard to believe this is the same city I grew up in," says Zajur, 48. He was born in Mexico but his family moved to the Richmond area when he was a toddler. In the 1960s, when his parents started their restaurant, La Siesta, he recalls, "getting people to try Mexican food was like pulling teeth. In fact, we had to grow our spices in the back because you couldn't get them." Now, Spanish spices can easily be found at any of a number of area Latino markets.

Hispanics are the fastest-growing ethnic minority group in the United States. It's estimated that some 40 million Hispanics live in the U.S., more than the population of Canada. And census officials believe that one in four Americans will be of Hispanic origin by 2050. In Virginia, state and federal government estimates place the Hispanic population at more than 450,000, nearly 6 percent of the total population.

As more and more immigrants arrived, they began asking for Zajur's help with housing or starting a business because he spoke English and knew the system. So in 2000 Zajur founded the nonprofit Virginia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce to help Hispanics get loans, start businesses and find clients or jobs in a "Spanish-friendly" environment. The chamber also hosts a bilingual federal Small Business Administration office and offers clients monthly pro bono legal advice from the Williams Mullen law firm on issues related to business or citizenship.

One of the companies assisted by the chamber is NEMESYS, an information technology business. "We relocated about two years ago [from Miami], and they helped us navigate all the nuances of doing business in the state of Virginia," says Ivan Gil, the company's president and CEO. The chamber helped Gil obtain loans, find customers, become certified by the state as a minority-owned business and join a mentoring program with Capital One Financial Corp.

The chamber was an outgrowth of the work that Zajur and Lisa, his wife of 22 years, have been doing since the late 1980s in educating the English-speaking community about Hispanic culture. Through the restaurant they started educational programs for school children. (The Zajurs have three children of their own: Jada, 16; Holly, 13 and Austin, 11.) Those programs grew into Lisa's current business, the Spanish Academy & Cultural Center. It offers immersion programs for corporate clients such as Capital One and Bon Secours Richmond Health System that want help in learning to better serve Hispanic clients.

"We were working with schools and corporations and businesses and teaching them how to make Spanish-friendly environments, with understanding the culture and understanding the language," Michel Zajur says, "But that's when I realized there's got to be something on the other side, teaching Hispanics the American culture and how to do business here."

Zajur now serves as the chamber's president and CEO. The organization has 500 members statewide and offices in Chesterfield and Fairfax counties.

The constantly traveling Zajur has made impressive statewide and international political connections in a short time. In addition to hosting Latin American ambassadors, Zajur went on a trade mission to Mexico with Democratic former Gov. Mark R.Warner, and has made several appearances with Republican U.S. Sen. George Allen. It hasn't been difficult to make such connections because politicians are eager to woo ever-growing Hispanic voters, Zajur says. "I have been a big fan of Michel Zajur for several years now, and consider him a good friend and a tireless advocate for the Hispanic community across the commonwealth," says Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, a fluent Spanish speaker.

Kaine says that Zajur's lobbying led him to sign an executive order enhancing state government contract opportunities for small, women- and minority-owned (SWAM) businesses. Zajur also successfully lobbied the General Assembly on other issues including having driver's education manuals printed in Spanish. He is troubled by what he calls recurring "anti-immigrant" legislation, such as proposals to require applicants to speak English to get a driver's license.

Illegal immigration, of course, is a hot-button topic at the state capitol and in Washington. Zajur says he doesn't favor people immigrating illegally but adds that it's a reality. He says Virginia needs to work with all immigrants because they're an important part of the state's work force and economy.

One of the chamber's biggest recent successes was persuading New Jersey-based Goya Foods, the nation's largest Hispanic foods manufacturer, to locate its new distribution facility for Virginia and the Carolinas in Prince George County. It will create 60 new jobs. Zajur introduced company officials to the governor.

The chamber was "helpful in opening doors to us and making sure we talked to the right people," says Goya Foods spokesman Rafael Toro. "It's safe to say that without the chamber, it would not have been as easy as it has been to locate [in Virginia]."

For Zajur, whether it's wooing a large business like Goya or helping a small concern get off the ground, it's all part of bringing Hispanics into the Virginia mainstream." We need to provide the Hispanic community with the education and the tools so they are part of the community. We need to involve them," Zajur says. "That's what this chamber is all about. It's a bridge for both communities."