Tri-Cities group is opening doors

When Blanca Torres tells people about her most recent business brainchild, she hears a common reaction: “Why didn’t somebody else ever think of this?”

The Tri-City woman’s idea is to unite consumers and businesses from the Hispanic and non-Hispanic communities by organizing the Latino Business and Consumer Expo.

The event, set for April 6 at the TRAC Pavilion in Pasco, is a joint effort between Torres’ company, Expo NW, and the Tri-Cities Regional Chamber of Commerce.

She expects more than 100 businesses to participate and to attract a crowd of about 5,000.

“It’s important to become aware of how to reach out to the Hispanic community,” said Fernando Avalos, a Hispanic Chamber board member. “If non-Hispanic businesses would learn how to reach that market they will be more successful.”

Avalos is a loan officer for Countrywide Home Loans in Kennewick, the first business of about 35 so far to sign up.

The country’s estimated 42 million Hispanics are expected to have buying power of $928 billion this year, according to the Association of Hispanic Advertising Agencies, based in McLean, Va.

Last year, the Hispanic community in the Tri-Cities and Yakima, which numbers about 168,000, spent $2.3 billion, according to the Larson Northwest Hispanic Market Report.

The concept of Torres’ expo is captured in her slogan – Abriendo Puertas, or Opening Doors.

“We want to be united as one community,” said Leonor Panduro, office manager for the Hispanic Chamber. “We wanted to open the doors for non-Hispanics to do business with Hispanics and Hispanics to do business with non-Hispanics.”

Torres also is working to organize a similar expo in Seattle.

The idea for the April expo developed after Torres organized the state’s first Quinceaera and Latin bridal expos in Pasco and Seattle.

Torres attended many expos for her husband’s company, which owns the bilingual paper tu Decides, and said she felt particularly disheartened after attending a bridal expo.

“One thing that was apparent was that the Hispanic community was absent,” she said. “I was really saddened by it.”

So Torres – who was born and raised in Pasco, lives in Kennewick and is building a house in Richland – organized the August event in Pasco to fill the Latin niche and attracted 5,000 people.

“It was a huge success,” she said.

Torres is in the thick of organizing April’s expo.

Murillo Auto Sales Inc. of Richland has donated a car to give away and Qwest Communications has signed on to be a major sponsor.

“I think it will be successful with the diversity of businesses,” Avalos said. “People will see a number of small and big businesses with different services that maybe they were not aware of.”