And let me tell you, us that come from Latin America, that come here with a dream, we're some of the hardest working people and some of the most creative people, and some of the most, you know, humble people that you'll ever meet, because we walk around every single day not being able to fit in into a country that we come in to want to add value to.

[Michael] Funding for this program comes from the Mike & Gillian Goodrich Foundation with additional support from the American Advertising Federation of Roanoke.

They're not the rich and famous.

Their profit comes not from the thing they sell, but the good they do.

Our nation has more than 1.5 million nonprofits that employ one out of 10 Americans.

Providing services that otherwise go unfulfilled, keeping our community connected when all else fails.

But nonprofits often lack the tools to properly promote themselves, to inspire more donors and volunteers and clients to their cause.

That's where I come in.

I've been in the nonprofit world for nearly 20 years.

I connect nonprofits with marketing professionals who donate their time and expertise so that at the end of the day, these life life-giving organizations can do more, do better by creating more, that's right, buzz.

(gentle music) America was founded on hope and opportunity.

And for folks from Hispanic countries, that dream is as alive today as ever, but navigating a foreign land and language is hard.

Your child's schooling, documentation and citizenship, job training and entrepreneurship, healthcare, buying a home, and on and on.

Immigration is not for the faint of heart.

Thankfully, in Birmingham, there's a nonprofit full of heart, the Hispanic Interest Coalition of Alabama, or HICA, whose people and promise we're featuring on today's episode of "Buzz".

Hi, I'm Carlos Aleman.

I'm the Chief Executive Officer of HICA, the Hispanic Interest Coalition of Alabama.

So, my name is Tiffany Sepulveda Kahlon.

I am an attorney recruiter.

I am also the vice chair of HICA.

My name is Bebe Goodrich, immediate passport chairman.

I've been working with HICA organization for six years now.

[Carlos] HICA serves Hispanic and immigrant families here in Alabama.

We've been around now for 24 years, and our mission is to make sure that when someone comes to our state, that they have a welcoming community to receive them.

So, we do that through family services, legal immigration services, college access and workforce development programs, and also, economic development programs so that we move families from stability to empowerment.

Right, so coming from a more diverse city, I came from New York to Birmingham.

I see that there a lot of the Latino community is not seen as thriving, or as contributing, or taking away resources that could otherwise be used for other things, and that's a misconception.

The people that I've met here, the friends that I've made here, are extremely hardworking, are seeking opportunities to not only become parts of the community, but to thrive and to contribute to the community.

And so, I feel like HICA does an excellent job of helping people get there.

I am not Hispanic.

My mom's family's from the Middle East and my dad is about as Caucasian as they get.

What brought me to HICA about six years ago was threefold.

First of all, my mom's family immigrated to the United States, and I recognized through stories the challenges that the immigrant population experiences.

Secondly, I've been a small business owner since 2012, so about 11 years.

And through workforce engagement, I've understood, again the challenges that not just first generation, but people who don't have expansive networks.

And then the third thing is, I'm raising children in Alabama.

And I understand that to create the best environment for my children, we have to have an environment where people want to come, thrive, and succeed.

And part of that is engaging first generation Americans, getting the immigrant population here established and building opportunities for people to flourish.

We've seen a tremendous growth in terms of the organization, but also our community.

If you think about the fact that in 1990 there was 26,000 Hispanics in the state of Alabama and then in 2020 there's 265,000, we've seen a tenfold increase and the necessity for our programs is ever greater.

So, we wanna make sure that we're growing alongside of our community so that they can receive the resources and services that they need to thrive in our state.

For example, if you're a victim of violent crime and you feel like you can't reach out to your local law enforcement, because of your citizenship status, this is an opportunity where you can come speak to somebody in your native language and get the resources that you need and feel comfortable and safe in that.

The challenges that we face really revolve around language access and immigration status and poverty.

And so, HICA is structured really to try to solve for those programs.

I think our families come here, because they want to create opportunities for themselves and their families.

They want to be able to live in a safe community, a tranquil pace of life.

And I think that the South and in Alabama in particular, is able to offer that to them.

Latinos and the South have a lot more in common than they have differences in.

Think about our reliance on family, think about our reliance on faith, and our shared love of pork.

If we can come together across these three things, we're gonna be a lot more successful, we're gonna be a lot more welcoming, and we're gonna see that we have a lot more in common.

(Fernanda speaks in foreign language) [Michael] HICA is structured around five programs to address the needs of the community.

The first, is family services that seeks to connect people with the resources they need to navigate crises, such as the one suffered by Fernanda Oreosteri who immigrated from Mexico in 2005.

In 2008, as she attempted to fight off a burglar who broke into her home, she was shot four times, leaving her in a coma.

Media reports about the crime, brought HICA founder Isabel Rubio and her attorney husband, Freddie Rubio, to her hospital bedside.

Her words here are translated by HICA immigration case manager, Morelia Tinajero.

(Fernanda speaks in foreign language) So, at that time, I was wheelchair bound.

I was not able to make any sort of movements as far as my arms, my neck, and my body.

I felt like I was once again a child and a child being nourished, being taken care of to be able to survive.

It was a hard time at that point, because my husband had to continue to work.

So, when I first came to HICA, it was in search of psychological help.

So, they were able to provide me that resource and be able to have somebody come and take me to my appointments, because at that time, I couldn't even drive.

So, they were able to find somebody here to take me and to translate for me, interpret for me throughout that time.

And I was able to get all of these services free of charge.

And while I was going through this process, they were able to help me and provide me with the information as far as the U visa, the humanitarian visa, where if someone here in the United States suffers a crime, they're able to obtain some sort of status from that crime.

My husband has also received those same services here at HICA.

He was able to obtain better employment and we are sure that he will obtain better in the future.

I want to say thank you so much to HICA for all the help I received here, thank you.

(gentle music) [Michael] Thank you, thank you.

Thank you too.

Our second program is our citizenship and immigration program, and that's where we provide high quality, low-cost, legal immigration services to folks who are looking to adjust their status.

So, that's naturalization, that's family petitions, that's permanent residency, that's docu renewals.

And we want to be able to do that, because we wanna make sure that if someone can be in our community and find stability that they're able to achieve that.

For us, naturalization is the most important civic engagement tool in our toolbox that allows you to unlock everything that a community is able to offer you.

My name is Gilberto Herrera, and I'm the president of the HICA Junior Board.

Well, I'm an immigrant in this country and I was a resident for a while, and I didn't think citizenship was gonna be attainable.

I reached out to HICA for assistance and they made the process not only extremely easy, but made it possible.

So, I've been a citizen of the United States for a year now, because of HICA.

So, I immigrated to the United States fairly young.

I was about seven or eight, I can't quite remember, it's been a long time.

My grandmother decided to leave Panama and I guess she wanted to chase the American dream and brought me here along with her.

As a matter of fact, I was told that I was coming to visit and never left.

So, it wasn't until 2007 that I became a resident of this country.

And as you can imagine, 2022 is when I became a citizen.

So, that's my immigrant story, and that's the reason why I make it, you know, part of my life's work to be aligned with HICA, because I wanna help people that were in my shoes, you know, to expedite their process.

It would be a lot different.

For one, I wouldn't be a citizen, because that process, I mean it felt like it was unattainable.

And then two, without HICA I wouldn't have access to the Latino community the way that I do now.

Well, for one, I'm Panamanian.

So, when I move here, I would tell people that I'm from Panama and they'll be like, "Hey, you know, I've been to Florida."

That's number one.

And then number two, they think that our culture's all the same.

Or you know, we're here for illegal reasons or to call, you know, to invoke crime and not do the right thing.

When a lot of us come over here with a dream and hope.

And we, some of us escape, you know, the harsh realities of the environment and countries that we come in, you come from.

I mean, I have friends that were, you know, facing life or death situations that risk their life to come to this country for a better life for their family.

So, you don't know what that's like of as an American citizen that was gifted citizenship when you were born here.

I would love to give a shout out to the Birmingham Barons.

They have been an amazing partner with HICA for a very long time.

And they continue to support us and continue to allow us to spread our message at one of their games each year.

Each year through their HICA night at Los Barons, which is like a Latino night where we get a special Jersey made, you know, for HICA benefiting HICA, it's auctioned off.

We get access to everyone that's at the stadium and we get to share what HICA is all about with the community in a major way.

And it helps us tremendously, because you have thousands of people in one place that get to know all about HICA.

The more successful we make our community, you know, the more peaceful you can be.

And these can be people that you can either do business with or hire with one day.

And let me tell you, us that come from Latin America, that come in here with a dream, we're some of the hardest working people and some of the most creative people and some of the most, you know, humble people that you'll ever meet, because we walk around every single day not being able to fit in into a country that we come in to want to add value to.

So, just embrace us, because we're here, and as you can see from the statistics and the data, our population is continuously growing here and we wanna not be here to bring damage, but we're here to add value to this place.

Our third program really builds on our ability to provide opportunities to our community.

So, that's where we house our civic engagement program.

That's where we do our voter registration and get out the vote.

So, once someone's achieved naturalization and is a US citizen, we want them to be involved in their community.

But now, we also saw the need to make sure that our young people had pathways for both college and career.

So, that's where we have our college access program, Escalera, but we also have our workforce development program.

My name is Mikaela Castanera and I'm a program manager with the Empowering Communities Program at HICA.

We started the Escalera Program in 2021, and we have served over 100 students in four high schools since 2021.

I'm Erica Lemus and I'm a senior at George Washington Carver High School.

My family and I moved here to the United States from El Salvador in 2012, and they decided to move here, because of the condition in my country.

They weren't earning a lot of money.

And so, they thought that when we come here to the United States, we could have a better life financially.

Escalera means ladder in Spanish and it is a college access program.

And basically, we meet once a week with students in the classroom during the school day.

And we just talk about different topics related to going to college or entering the workforce.

But what makes this program really special is that it's done through a cultural lens.

And so, there's a large focus on what is the Latinx culture and what it means to all of the students.

The students will be first generation college students.

And so oftentimes, we have to have conversations not only with the students, but with families to talk about the finances that go into college, but also, even things that might seem small to others, but letting go of your child, right?

Because a lot of our community is really family oriented.

And so, the thought of their student maybe having to go out of state for college or even, you know, just a few hours away can be really scary.

So, we kind of help bridge that gap.

I want to apply to college and major in pre-med to become a pediatrician.

HICA helped me visualize my future better, because before I didn't knew I was that going to college was going to be possible, because of my condition.

And now that with HICA I know that I can go to college.

I'm really grateful the services that HICA has provided me, because it has helped me grow and it has helped me to have more courage and to participate in more in the activities and organizations here at my school.

It have helped me get out of my comfort zone.

Thank you.

Our fourth program is our Community Economic Development Program.

We are a VITA site, so we do tax prep for over 300 folks every single year, but that's also where we house our economic entrepreneurship program.

We have a curriculum for financial capability and we wanna make sure that someone wants to become an entrepreneur, that they're able to do so.

We've helped over 300 folks obtain their business license since 2013.

Now, we also have the only bilingual HUD-certified housing counselor in the state.

We are able to allow folks to become first time homeowners in our community.

In the last two years, we've helped over 15 people become first time homeowners.

And that's a transformative experience that allows families to create generational wealth.

My name is Martha Black and I came to Birmingham when I was about 35 years, 34 years, and now I'm 72.

I have tried to buy a house, but for different situations and things, I have never been able to really go through that.

After my husband passed away, it was more difficult.

I had the dream of owning my own place, but it was just the God's timing and God providing and sending his angels through HICA.

I went to HICA, because they had that conference about if you want to own a house, come to that training.

It is just so enlightening.

They give you a step by step what you need to do, what to do first.

If you need help, they are going to give you the guidance that you need to do whatever is needed in your particular case.

Each person, each case is different and I have been really, I'm very grateful, because HICA has helped me a lot, every step of the way.

I'm grateful, if you ever need anything from me, I'm here, I'm very grateful.

Thank you, thank you.

[Speaker] Thank you.

Really, I'm very grateful.

(Speakers speaking in foreign language) (upbeat music) [Gloria] I am Gloria Glasgow, program manager of the Community Economic Development Program at HICA.

Alex Elise with General Auto Film Solutions, owner and manager.

I'm an immigrant from Honduras.

I got here in the United States in 2006.

Well, everything started 2011 when we need help with taxes.

So, that's how I find out about HICA.

We have a volunteer site for filing taxes every year.

We have volunteers for the IRS and that's why Alex and some of the members of the community come to HICA to file their taxes.

So, on that first interview that I had with HICA, they taught me about businesses.

So, I always had that on my back of my mind to create a business.

And they told me they had the support, how to help create one.

Yeah, Alex started as a sole prop, and when his business was increasing, he saw the need to formalize it and shift it into a entity.

So, he came back to HICA in 2018, and with our guidance, he was able to formalize the business.

We started with this with auto detailing only.

And business as a business owner, sometimes you struggle with things, so you have to be open mind and hear what the people say, what the people want.

So, one of the things that people request very often was window tinting.

So, in 2018 we started doing window tinting.

But keep in mind it was in the middle of the pandemic and Alex found a way to diversify his business and listen to his customers and just respond with another line of services.

So now, not only we do auto detailing, even the window tinting, but also, we have a lot more services like window tinting for houses, businesses, offices, cars, and everything with a glass.

But also we offer pane protection film, panel wraps, and all more protection for paint.

So, that's when he goes through the Camino Loan Fund was able to provide some capital for him to expand equipment and inventory and support of new services that he's providing.

Everything that I need that I don't know what to go for, I have Gloria to answer my calls.

So, without HICA I'd be lost.

I will say that immigrant is the hardest workers you ever find in the United States.

Reason why, because we come from nothing and we come with the idea of succeed.

So, that makes people, you know, to work every day and work harder and do the extra mile.

[Michael] You're taking over this town.

Well, I'm a family member, you know, as a family, as a dad, as a husband, as a friend, we have to set example for our future generations so.

All right, hey, get back to work.

(people laughing) Thank you, that was awesome.

Thank you so much, really appreciate it.

Thank you.

Our final program is the Camino Loan Fund.

Camino means the path.

We wanna to make sure that if you're an entrepreneur, you're able to access capital.

We have helped hundreds of folks start their business, but they couldn't access capital through your traditional financial institutions.

So in 2019, we took $35,000 out of our own operating, plus received the $15,000 from our community foundation to start a loan fund.

We started real small with loans that range from 1,200, $3,600.

We're now able to do loans over $100,000.

We've deployed over half a million dollars across 50 something loans with zero defaults.

And we believe that's what happens when you walk with your community and you demonstrate the importance of how to leverage capital, debt, and be able to create and grow businesses.

That's transforming not only for our communities, but for our state.

(knuckles rapping) Hey, Michael.

Hello, hello, it's great to see you.

Great to see you.

Yes, nice to meet you.

Yeah, William, right?

-Nicole?

-Yes.

Excellent, I love your truck.

[Nicole] Like he said, we started in 2016 and the menu is an authentic Mexican menu.

[William] Yep.

[Nicole] He brought a lot of these recipes from his hometown back in Mexico and it's been a great hit.

Everybody in the community loves it and we look forward to expanding in the future so.

Yeah, so you've got this food truck here, but over here there's something exciting happening.

Yes, there is.

Could you give me a sneak peek?

-Of course, let's go.

-All right, let's go.

Love it.

Wow, so this was a former dry cleaners?

-Yes, it was.

-Okay.

So, you can just imagine how much renovating we've been having to do both in the outside and inside, but it's come a long ways.

So, with HICA's help, we have gotten $120,000.

Wow.

[Nicole] Yes, and with that, we are going to be renovating right now there the kitchen.

[Michael] Okay.

And there's gonna be a whole bunch of new equipment.

Over here on this side, we're gonna have a bar with brand new furniture, cups.

It's gonna be great.

And then seating also over here on the outside to the right.

Okay.

And HICA is also gonna help us get our permits.

They've been helping a lot with that, and seeing the process, because since it's gonna be a restaurant, we're kind of new to that.

So, they're gonna help us along with that process as well.

Right, so there are different regulations from a food truck to a restaurant?

Yes.

You're great at food trucks by now, but now we're trying to figure out how restaurants work.

Yes, especially with the whole liquor license.

Like that's brand new and I thought it's a little hard to get that.

So, they're gonna help us with that as well.

Could you have done this without HICA?

-Probably not.

-No.

No, they've been a great help.

[Michael] Is HICA going to have a name on the menu of some kind?

Like is there gonna be like a HICA taco or?

You know what?

[Michael] Some kind of HICA special?

We'll think about it.

[Michael] Okay, I love it.

I love it.

Well, congratulations.

When does the restaurant open?

I'm not sure.

Hopefully, in December.

-[Michael] December?

-Yeah.

[Michael] All right, I look forward to being back here.

Christmas present.

[Michael] Christmas present?

I love it.

Well, congratulations.

-Thank you.

-Thank you so much.

During my interview with CEO Carlos Aleman, I joked that HICA did so much, we'd have to devote at least an hour of "Buzz" to fully feature its mission.

But an hour long video isn't ideal to grab someone's attention in our fast-paced social media world.

So, I asked my production manager, Van Logan, to create a one-minute video that HICA could use to succinctly share its mission with potential donors, volunteers, and clients.

And I had Van do it in both English and Spanish so that all Alabama residents got HICA's buzz.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues)