SAN ANTONIO, Texas – Ramiro A. Cavazos, who hails from the Rio Grande Valley and is president and CEO of the U.S. Hispanic Chamber or Commerce, was one of the keynote speakers at the 2023 NADBank Summit.
His presentation was titled, “Near-shoring and the Impact for Hispanic Business in the Border States.” The event was held at The Westin Riverwalk in San Antonio.
During his remarks, Cavazos rattled off a number of statistics to reflect the growing importance of Latinos to the U.S. economy.
“I work for the US Hispanic Chamber. We represent 300 Latino chambers. Five million Latino owned businesses. The fifth largest economy in the world. It is $3 trillion. And that is the 63.5 million Latinos that live in this country. Between 2010 and 2021 the Texas population grew 18 percent. This year we became majority Latino, 40.1 percent. But, during that same time, the population grew 18 percent. The Texas economy grew 39 percent. One half of all the jobs in the US in the last 20 years have been created here in Texas,” Cavazos said.
“And we will continue to grow. I mentioned we’re the fifth largest economy in the world at $3 trillion. China has 1.4 billion people. India has 1.3 billion people. We’re just 63.5 million Latinos. But our economy is larger. Just the Latinos in the US (is larger) than the economy of India, with 1.3 billion people. So we are powerful. We need to own our own power as a community. Humility is no longer a virtue. It’s respect but it is no longer a virtue.”
Cavazos then explained why companies need to invest in Latinos.
“I just wanted to share that the reason that companies now need to invest in us is because we have 200 corporations that are members of our chamber in the United States Hispanic Chamber. But they know the population growth of the Latino is unstoppable. They know that we create more businesses than non-Latinos, per capita. We have better credit scores. We have more money in the bank and sadly, only 40 percent of applicantions for loans are approved. And we’re going to change that with our access to capital program,” Cavazos said.
“We are in workforce ten years more than anyone else in the US because we start earlier and we last longer. We are healthier people. We live longer. We have fewer accidents. And that’s because we take care of each other. It’s part of our culture.”
On the subject of health, Cavazos said: “We might have diabetes or heart disease or all these things. It’s a paradox. They call it the Latino Paradox that Latinos live longer, have a higher rate of of survival, because of our strength and our vitality, in spite of obstacles. Because we’re used to overcoming obstacles.”
Cavazos added: “And last but not least, we’re the fastest growing consumer in the US. And so we’re gonna keep buying products. We’re going to keep filling those positions as a workforce. They need us. If today we filled all the positions that were available in the US with people who are here that are undocumented or (here) legally that do not have a job we would still have 4 million vacant positions in the US. (It is) because our fertility rate is 1.6 per family. It used to be 2.1. And even in Mexico, it’s 1.7. So we’re going to need to bring in more H-1Bs, more people to work.”
Editor’s Note: Here, below, is an audio recording of Ramiro A. Cavazos’ remarks. He is introduced by Jesse Hereford, head of strategic partnerships and stakeholder engagement for NADBank.
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