Hispanic Enterprise - June/July 2008 - (Page 31)

DAVID LIZÁRRAGA HAS DEDICATED HIS LIFE TO HELPING HISPANICS BUILD BETTER LIVES, BUSINESSES AND DREAMS. By Jennifer LeClaire D avid Lizárraga is, in some ways, a living legend in East Los Angeles. But he’s not a movie star and he’s not a rock singer—he’s a social activist who has brought positive change to the community he has served for nearly four decades. Lizárraga is the president and CEO of TELACU (The East Los Angeles Community Union). It’s the largest Community Development Corporation in the United States and the 54th largest Hispanic business in the nation. TELACU’s mission is service, empowerment, advancement and the creation of self-sufﬁciency—a neverending task that will keep Lizárraga busy for years to come. As if TELACU doesn’t keep him busy enough, Lizárraga also serves as Board Chairman of the United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (USHCC), seeking to help other Hispanic businesses to succeed by serving as an advocate for free trade, access to capital, housing crisis solutions, comprehensive immigration reform and energy alternatives. “In a national economy where the Hispanic business community is a vital contributor, it is crucial that we continue expanding opportunities in the global marketplace,” Lizárraga says. “The USHCC has been working diligently to strengthen relationships with our neighbors in Mexico, Central and South America, as well as in the Caribbean. This November, Latinos will be the driving electoral force that will elect the next President of the United States.” The Birth of TELACU Lizárraga has seen many presidents come and go in his tenure as president of TELACU. But his focus on the vital importance of Hispanic business in his state has not changed. Partly thanks to his efforts, HISPANIC ENTERPRISE the number of Hispanic-owned ﬁrms increased by nearly 30 percent from 1997 to 2002. Today, he’s as dedicated as ever to seeing more progress for Hispanic businesses in California and beyond. Lizárraga has served as president of TELACU since 1973. He’s not the founder of the organization, but he is the mastermind behind a group of companies that focus more than $550 million in assets on improving the lives of people and families. Lizárraga is a Latino pioneer who has modeled the way for many others to follow in his footsteps. * “EACH JOB WE CREATE PUMPS NEW LIFE BACK INTO OUR COMMUNITIES THROUGH HARD WORK WITH DIGNITY AND SELF-RESPECT. “ cline that scarred the community with boarded-up businesses, blighted neighborhoods and forsaken factories. “The greatest toll was not economic, but human,” he recalls. “As a young man walking the streets of my neighborhood, I saw much more than empty buildings. I saw the despair in the face of a man who has lost the means to provide for his family, and the hopelessness in the stare of a mother who sees no future for her children.” It was this imminent threat to the human spirit in East L.A. neighborhoods that brought together a dedicated group of community leaders to form TELACU. While the challenge was monumental, the approach was straightforward: to provide people with the tools for true self-empowerment and self-sufﬁciency, and with opportunities to use those tools to improve their lives. Paul Chavez, the son of Cesar Chavez, founder of the United Farm Workers, see something special in Lizárraga and his sense of mission. “I think David—like my father—is a visionary,” says Paul Chavez. “They would see things that never were and would basically say, ‘Why not? Why can’t we do something with this?’ ” Building a CDC Empire When Lizárraga became president of TELACU in 1973, he secured $10 million in federal funding through the Community Development Corporation (CDC) program. Through strategic real estate investments in the East Los Angeles community, he grew that $10 million into $100 million. TELACU would soon purchase an abandoned 55-acre factory site and build the TELACU Industrial Park to bring jobs to the community. 31 “TELACU was born out of a community’s deep desire to improve the lives of its people,” says Lizárraga, who played an active role in the Chicano movement of the 1960s before deciding he could do more good working from within the system than trying to change it from the outside. In the 1960s, Lizárraga explains, East Los Angeles was abandoned by major companies that the community had helped build for generations. It was then plunged into a devastating economic de- June/July 2008

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Hispanic Enterprise - June/July 2008

Hispanic Enterprise - June/July 2008 Contents Briefcase: BIZBUZZ: Business Briefs Briefcase: Dynamic Trends Briefcase: Q&A Briefcase: Trendsetters BizLife: BizTech BizLife: Travel Feature: Target: Hispanics Cover Story: A Legend in His Own Time Feature: Top 25 Franchises Success & Motivation: The Talent Scout Education: Success by Degrees Finance & Investing: A Tough Sell Social Events: Emerge Dallas Politics & Government: The Accidental Americans Managing: Deconstructing Networking

Hispanic Enterprise - June/July 2008

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