[Essex News Daily] Hispanic entrepreneurs have a new resource to help them establish and maintain successful businesses in West Orange.
The West Orange Hispanic Foundation was created by Deputy Mayor Rodolfo Rodriguez and downtown business owner Ysabel Strowe shortly after Rodriguez’s position appointment in February for the purpose of helping township Latinos learn how to set up a local business and assimilate into the community. The group, which the deputy mayor said now has approximately 100 members, currently meets once each month at the Holy Trinity Episcopal Church, though it plans to eventually expand to every other week. Anyone is welcome to join.
In addition to becoming involved with the West Orange community, it is just as important for Hispanic immigrants to assimilate into U.S. culture, Strowe said. Strowe, who has owned Ysabel’s Beauty Salon downtown for the past 10 years, said learning English after moving here from the Dominican Republic in 1997 allowed her to attend beauty school and eventually graduate from college with a business degree. Speaking from experience, she urged other Hispanics to embrace this country in a similar manner.
“We are here, we have to adjust to the culture,” Strowe told the Chronicle in a May 7 phone interview. “If you want to contribute to this country, if you want to grow in this country, you must adapt as an American.”
To help the Latinos in that process, Strowe said the Hispanic Foundation is promoting the English as a second language class given by Holy Trinity. The course, which is offered every Saturday from 3 to 5 p.m. in the church dining hall, is entirely free and open to the public.
The Rev. Miguel Hernandez, who runs the ESL class, told the Chronicle that, though the course just started, it has already attracted six to eight regular attendees. Hernandez explained that he teaches “survival skills” that every non-English speaker should know, such as the alphabet and how to ask for directions.
That is not the only service Holy Trinity offers for Hispanics. Hernandez told the Chronicle that his church provides a Mass in Spanish every Sunday at 12:30 p.m., which he said has grown exponentially since beginning six months ago. In fact, the minister said he has received plenty of positive feedback for the work Holy Trinity is doing for the township’s Latino population.
“A lot of people are happy to hear that, for the first time, they can come to a place where they can learn English, for example; where they can get some support and where they can come for Spanish services, because they did not have that in West Orange,” Hernandez said in a May 11 phone interview. “This will help them to stay local.”
