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news archives
04/05/2005
Official Launching of the Hispanic Chamber
On April 5, 2005, more than 200 people came together to celebrate the official launching of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of East Tennessee (HCCET). Mr. Luis Velázquez, the Executive Director of the Hispanic Chamber, opened the event by expressing his amazement and joy for the excellent turnout and immediately introduced the Knox County Mayor, Mike Ragsdale. Mr. Ragsdale welcomed the organization to the East Tennessee region and thanked the organizers for choosing downtown Knoxville as their center of operations. He was followed by the Knoxville Vice Mayor Mark Brown, who viewed this as a great opportunity for the Hispanic community to become involved in economic development opportunities and emphasized that “we can all work together, whether Hispanics, African American, Native American or any other”. He added: “there are more things that unite us than divide us”.
The next speaker was Mr. Mike Edwards, president and CEO of the Knoxville Area Chamber Partnership (KACP), who recognized that “the Hispanic Chamber is interested in driving economic prosperity and so is the Partnership, therefore, our relationship made perfect sense”, he also added: “HCCET is a welcome addition and resource for the Partnership”. Early this year, HCCET signed a cooperative inter-chamber agreement with the KACP that includes reciprocal membership benefits and use of office space. After Mike Edwards, the next speaker was the Latino with the highest position in Knoxville government, the Fire Department Chief, Mr.Carlos Pérez. As part of his remarks, he took advantage of the opportunity to make a recruiting pitch, saying “the city is committed to hire more Hispanics and minority firefighters”. Mr. Rio Valeriano, President of Southeast Construction and Chairman of the Hispanic Chamber, concluded the initial part of the event by presenting a synopsis of how the organization came into being, recognizing the persons and major sponsors that have made possible the initial development of the Hispanic Chamber, and presented the major objectives of the organization, stressing the goal of helping Hispanic-owned businesses prosper and bridge the gap between mainstream businesses and the new Hispanic businesses.
The second part of the program provided everyone the opportunity to mingle, get to know each other and enjoy dishes from various Latin American countries, some exquisite pastry and drinks, and the good music played by the Knoxville Latin Jazz. The main contributing factors for the success of this event were having it at the Knoxville Area Chamber Partnership (KACP) new facilities at Market Square, the support received from KACP staff and specially, the hard work of HCCET board members. To obtain more information on the activities and membership in the Hispanic Chamber, you may contact Mr. Velázquez at the HCCET office by calling (865) 246-2628, or (865) 604-0049.
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