Economic Stories

Struggling for the American Dream

Published on Tuesday, 02 September 2008 00:00

With a pink Bluetooth head set perched on her right ear, Gloria González stands behind a counter crowded with colorful pastries and a few check-out computers, ready to take orders for food or ring up customers.

González owns and runs Carrboro’s Don Jose Tienda Mexicana with her husband, putting in many more hours than she did when they worked at another store in Carrboro, but she said the chance to buy the store was too good to pass up.

“The first owner had seven stores, but then he sold every one,” González said. She said the previous owner’s financial problems led him to offer her family the store for a cheap price.

But González said the family had trouble finding money to buy the store.

“We wanted to apply for a loan, but the bank said it wouldn’t give us a loan,” González said.

After putting in applications with three different banks, the family was still out of luck.

Read more: Struggling for the American Dream

A Warm Welcome: Despite barriers, Hispanic homeownership may be the fix for national housing crisis

Published on Tuesday, 02 September 2008 00:00

In Ecuador, Carlos Abad, 66, owned two homes, one he built himself in the city of Quito and another five-bedroom villa outside the capital where he and his family went when they wanted to relax. Since his move from South America, it has taken Abad seven years to purchase a house in the United States.

“I am retired in my country, and here I work,” said Abad, who lives in Morrisville, N.C., in a translated interview. “A year and a half ago we wanted to buy a house. The price, the location, the distribution of rooms all were obstacles. So was the process of looking for one that fit economically and fit the family's interest.”

Before last November, Abad was one of the majority of Hispanics living in the United States who did not own a home. When he first arrived in the United States in 2000, only 45.7 percent of Hispanics were reported to own a home compared to 71.3 percent of whites. By 2010, there are projected to be about 28.7 million homeowning Hispanics in the U.S. – 60 percent of the total Hispanic population.

Read more: A Warm Welcome: Despite barriers, Hispanic homeownership may be the fix for national housing crisis

Traveling the Mexico-North Carolina bus route

Published on Sunday, 15 June 2008 09:14

DURHAM — There wasn't much time to say goodbye. As they sit in their Ford Explorer waiting for the bus to come by that will leave them a country apart for the next 10 months, Edith Santiago Dolores and Noe Sanchez Reyes don't dwell on the reality of the situation. The wife and husband just hold hands.

But the truth is that after a year-and-a-half trying to make it in the United States, time has run out for Dolores. Unable to find work because her medical degree is not recognized here, she's headed to Tuxtepec, Oaxaca, Mexico, where a job offer in a pharmacy awaits. "Over here I would start from the bottom," she says. "There I have the degree I need."

The story is different for Reyes, who has found what he sought in the United States — a steady income working alongside his uncle at a local tire shop. He doesn't want his wife to leave, but he knows he must stay. "It's hard, but I have to because I need to work," he says. "I have no choice."

Read more: Traveling the Mexico-North Carolina bus route

Latinos and banking: An uneasy combination

Published on Sunday, 15 June 2008 09:06

As her 3-year-old son pulls car keys out of her purse and giggles as they rattle, Elisabeth Sierra and her husband read over loan forms. The Sierras, of Willow Spring, N.C., have come to the bank to refinance the loan on their Ford F-150 pickup truck.

In the eight years since they moved to the United States from Mexico, this is their first trip to a bank to establish an account.

“We just save our cash at our house,” Sierra said in Spanish through a translator.

Latinos are the fastest growing population segment in North Carolina and are making a huge impact on the state’s economy, but they often lack the resources – checking and savings accounts, access to sound loans and ways to build credit – to become financially secure. As local and national banks rush to fill the void, they face cultural and institutional barriers to reaching this untapped market.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. estimates that half of the United States’ Latino population does not have a basic checking account.

Read more: Latinos and banking: An uneasy combination