Harvesting The Impact Of Hispanic Contributions

Written by Alfonso Vidal, President of Vidal Plastics, LLC a plastic custom compounder located on the Westside of Evansville.

Mr. Vidal is also a regular contributor to the City-County Observer

Almost 25 years ago my wife and I arrived in Evansville and almost immediately this region embraced us and made us feel welcomed. We were two immigrants looking for a place to call home for our new family. At the time, Evansville was full of opportunities for two Venezuelan bilingual engineers with master degrees ready to tackle life. 25 years later Evansville is even more welcoming and presents itself with more opportunities for all and especially for the Hispanic community.

Evansville has offered Hispanics many opportunities and many, like us, took on the challenge and ran with it. This land of conservative family values with fertile farming soil and solid manufacturing traditions was primed to accept the seeds of a new crowd of peoples with similar values ready to engage the opportunities offered by this land. 

You may have read in the past the stories about some of the restaurants in this area and I am sure you have your favorites. It could be some of the more established ones like Los Bravos or Acapulco or Los Portales, or maybe some of the newer ones like Los Alfaro’s or Gollita Peruvian Cuisine. It could be the flavors or the owners or simply the location that makes it your favorite. We also know about the contributions of working Hispanics in our factories, construction sites or in the fields picking our food. However, this time I would like to shine a light on a few examples that show the diversity within the Hispanic community, the many professionals and business owners that complete the picture of how Hispanics have taken advantage of the many opportunities available and in turn have made tremendous contributions to our region.  

I might be biased, well yes, but I think that one of the best examples of successful women in Evansville is my wife Daniela Vidal. She is the chancellor at Ivy Tech Community College in Evansville. Her previous roles as Chemical Engineer working at Procter & Gamble, Mead Johnson, and GE Plastics, combined with her academia work at USI and her work in the community with HOLA (Hospitality and Outreach for Latin Americans) and other non-for-profits made her a prime candidate for the position when it was vacated by Jonathan Weinzapfel. 

Another long time Latino resident of Evansville that identified the opportunities presented to him many years ago is Manuel Ramirez. Ramirez, a Puerto Rican from birth, has built a very successful State Farm agency. He was the first Latino insurance agent in this region. He also identified a growing demand when he started Ramirez MA, Inc. This company supplies primarily the auto and hospitality industries with products and services as an MBE certified organization. Just like Daniela, Manuel was president of the Board at HOLA giving time and talents for the community.

Brant Flores owns PMG Tree & Landscape Co. I am sure many have gotten to know PMG as a reliable and creative landscape contractor, you might have even seen PMG trucks driving around, but did you know that Brant also owns Triad Demolition and Dismantling? Originally from Chicago, IL Brant and his family live now in Newburgh and is deeply invested in our community. As the 4^th President of HOLA and a board member at the SWIN Chamber of Commerce, he considers Evansville, as well as his employees, most of them Hispanic, a vital reason for his success. Brant has also certified PMG as MBE/DBE/ACDBE contractor opening many opportunities in commercial, state and federal work. Triad Demolition and Dismantling has a primary focus on steel-related demolition projects. Brant has become, in a relatively short period of time, an established Latino leader in Evansville and a force to be reconned with.

Really cool barbershops in town are the three locations of CHINNOS. Alexis Rivera (better known as Chino) first moved to Evansville from Puerto Rico in 2002 to pursue a better future, he attended Roger’s Academy of hair where he achieved his cosmetology license. While he was working for One Main, Alexis noticed the need for a Spanish-speaking stylist and started cutting his friends’ hair for free but soon he had a growing list of people wanting a Chino haircut. In 2015, Chino and his wife Maytes decided to start a Latino salon that mainly catered to men but quickly shifted from a place where Latinos could go and listen to Spanish music and have a conversation to a place that welcomed everyone.  It is very common for their customers to enjoy the Hispanic culture while getting a haircut and practice Spanish. Alexis is now also the Creative Director at Roger’s Academy of Hair and Maytes has been one of the key players in starting the HOLA Latino Festival at Bosse Field and continues to be very involved with the community. They both also pursued and completed degrees in Accounting. 

USI has new leadership and under its new President Ron Rochon this institution is enjoying a renewal. I have always believed that immigration is key to the revitalization of a particular region. Helping to bring talent to Evansville from other places in the world is Gina Schmitz. Originally from Nicaragua, she graduated from the University of Mobile in 2009 and achieved her MBA at USI in 2020. With her current role as an International Admissions Coordinator, she has been instrumental in the growth of USI’s international partnerships and the recruitment of students from across the globe and enhanced the multicultural diversity in the region.

When I think of the saying, “the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree”, I think of the Barreras, a very close-knit family originally from El Salvador.  Several siblings decided to come here and invest all their savings establishing a Hispanic market in Huntingburg, Indiana in 2002.  The store thrived and led to the opening of additional stores in Evansville and the region, including Owensboro, KY, and Clarksville, IN. The Americas (Evansville) and Hispanoamerica (other locations) have been very successful and supported this family since 2002. Angelina Barrera, now established in Evansville, brought her children to this country to study. They have now graduated and opened their own businesses as well. Jonathan Barrera is a graphic designer with many projects ranging from book designs, magazines, posters, flyers, logo design, and exclusive branding. Brenda Barrera graduated as an esthetician starting also her own business. Gerber Barrera owns a paint and body shop.

We can find many Hispanic professionals working at local corporations adding their talents to the diversity pool. Worth mentioning is Jonas Cueche, a young bright Venezuelan that came to play baseball at Oakland City university. After he finished his degree, he started working at Old National Bank and has been a leader in helping this corporation with its Latino market initiatives. 

Hispanics professionals have also contributed in many areas including the defense of our Nation. Roland Rosario graduated from the Air Force Academy and made us all proud by serving for 9 years in air-weapon exploitation, test, design, and production in various stations including one tour in Iraq. He then came back to Evansville to work for Vectren in a variety of projects, most notably he led Vectren’s collaboration on the Post House project downtown with cutting-edge technology solutions to conduct research in the Post House on grid-interactive building technology.

In my view, one of the ideas of bringing diversity into a region is to rejuvenate the existing businesses’ status quo. A prime example is the very successful business relationship created by a well-known Evansville staple, Pet Food Center, and SAS Imports, Inc a Hispanic-owned business. The Fritsche family produces and exports high-quality natural dog treats in Venezuela. In 2017 they decided to re-open SAS Imports, Inc., a family-owned business distributing natural dog treats nationwide. In addition, in 2019 they launched the e-commerce arm of the company called Nero’s Treats. Venezuelan native and relative to the Fritsches, Kay Parra, moved to Evansville to manage operations and the relationship with Pet Food Center and other customers. As an engineer, Kay has also recently become an adjunct instructor for Ivy Tech.

¿Qué pasa Midwest? is a bilingual podcast that tells the stories of Hispanics in the Midwest and it is currently in its 4^th season. It means, what’s up Midwest? The show’s creator, Paola Marizán, brought the concept to local PBS station WNIN FM. Recently, ¿Qué pasa Midwest?, won the Edward R. Murrow National Award for Excellence in Innovation. The award recognized ¿Qué Pasa, Midwest? for Season Four of the podcast which explored the Hispanic community’s relationship with politics, voting, and the electorate.

Lastly, Vidal Plastics, my own company, is a custom compounder of plastic raw materials focusing in the injection molding sector. We are ISO 9001:2015 and also MBE certified, allowing us to produce materials for many industries, including the automotive industry. I have always been very thankful for the many opportunities that I have been blessed with and for this reason I have always worked hard to give back to the community that we call home. When we founded HOLA, I became its first President of the Board and through the years this gave me the chance to develop invaluable knowledge while serving in many organizations across Indiana, including three different appointments to state commissions. 

These are just a few examples of the variety of Latinos that have weaved themselves into the fabric of this community, adding color and enriching the cultural tapestry.  Hopefully, you have noticed the diversity that exists among the many people of Hispanic descent. Not only the different countries, Mexico, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Colombia, etc but also the diversity in backgrounds, education, family history, occupations, immigration status or migrant generations.  

It is difficult to quantify all the contributions of the Hispanic Community to this country, state, and region. However, these few stories should provide a sense of the importance of diversity in our region. These few people, like many of others more not mentioned here, have come to this country and established themselves in Evansville.  We chose Evansville to call home, Evansville has embraced us and together we are successfully moving the region forward. The harvest is now and it will continue to bear the fruits of the hard work of this new, young immigration that has planted its seeds here in southern Indiana.