From struggles to success: How Latino contractors are finding success through connection and community

By Emma Peterson.

Spanish-speaking spaces are creating a nationwide network of support and opportunity for Latino contractors.

In this Coffee Conversations webinar, Heidi J. Ellsworth sat down to talk to Amparo and her daughter Jaqueline (Jackie) Sancen from Latinos En Roofing along with The Coffee Shops™ own Itzel Najera to discuss the challenges and successes of Latinos and Latinas in the roofing industry. Amparo is the founder of Latinos En Roofing. She founded the company because she realized that no matter how welcoming English-speaking events and communities are, there was still a gap for Spanish-speaking contractors. Amparo explained, “When I started this business, I was by myself and years ago, I had a really bad situation where I lost a half a million dollars on one project, because I don't have the right connections. And I felt by myself, I felt alone. When I started to recover and think about that tragedy that happened to me, and I started feeling like, ‘Okay, this has happened to me because I'm by myself. What happened with my other contractors?’”

From there, she founded Latinos En Roofing, which Jackie is now the marketing and events coordinator for. During the early years of Latinos En Roofing, Jackie admits she had her doubts, sharing, “To be completely honest, I thought my mom was a little bit crazy about it, just because she was investing her own money into Latinos En Roofing, to host the place, bring the food, all of that. I didn't see the vision. But slowly as I started seeing, and I started meeting the people and seeing the impact, that's where I was like, ‘Wow, it makes sense, everything that she's doing.’” And the impact of Latinos En Roofing has been great.  

From Spanish-language trainings to simply creating supportive space, Latinos En Roofing is working to help Latino contractors grow their businesses and dreams. Amparo explained, “We're nationwide, and we help and support a lot of new companies. Also, a lot of companies already in business, but that are missing something... We support each other. We are not thinking about competitors. We support.”

Itzel, who is The Coffee Shops’ Spanish language coordinator, echoed Amparo’s sentiments, saying, “One of the things I was seeing often was that a lot of contractors didn't feel like they will be able to say, ‘Hey, I need help.’ Instead, they're like, ‘No, I'll try to figure it myself.’ So the fact that there are places like Latinos En Roofing, or now that we have our RoofersCoffeeShop en Español, there's going to be more out there for them, more to look at and know where to go and they're going to feel more comfortable in going to trustworthy organizations that absolutely are going to take care of them and not take advantage of them.”

Read the transcript, Listen to the conversation or Watch the video to learn more about how Latinos En Roofing and RoofersCoffeeShop en Español are supporting Latino contractors.