On Wednesday, President Barack Obama nominated Maria Contreras-Sweet as head of the Small Business Administration (SBA). If confirmed by the Senate, Maria Contreras-Sweet will become the second Latino in President Obama’s second-term administration.
“Maria knows how hard it is to get started on a business,” Obama said. “The grueling hours, the stress, the occasional self-doubt, although I have not yet seen self-doubt out of Maria. She knows it herself.”
Maria Contreras-Sweet, who came to the United States from Mexico at the age of five, has been an advocate for women and a precedent for breaking barriers and assisting Latinos to reach their goals through developing organizations and businesses. When referring to the Latino community Contreras-Sweet stated, “We’re a very entrepreneurial community. We’ve learned to sell from the day we were born. We’re selling everywhere we go, and I think that’s part of our culture.”
Contreras-Sweet believes that if Latinos had more access to capital in addition to helping institutions understand the Latino culture and how to work with them, financial success is evident for both parties.
The future seems bright for the SBA as well as Latinos looking to enter the business world or just for income equality. “Maria has a lot of strength because she works in corporate America,” says former Labor Secretary Hilda Solis. “This is the new Latina leadership.”
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