Get to know our amazing individuals and organizations as we get ready to celebrate them at our 2023 Latino Leadership Awards on September 21st!
We've been sharing a little about the folks and agencies our city (you!) nominated to be recognized for their contributions and positive impact, promoting Latino progress across sectors in the Scenic City! Take a look at our nominees for Latino Business of the Year & New Latino Business of the Year!
Latino Business of the Year Award recognizes Latino-owned businesses in the Chattanooga area that serve as an economic backbone of our community and are critical in the cultivation of Latino progress in our city.
2023 Nominees: Latino Business of the Year
The Local Juicery + Kitchen
Luis & Gisela Contreras
Venezuela, Peru
Our mission at The Local Juicery + Kitchen is to create an environment where everyone feels welcome regardless of shape, size, color, sexuality or nationality. We want to spread love for humanity and create a SAFE space for everyone. We put all our love and energy day in day out to achieve this. Life is health, life is love, life is friend, life is family. The belief is that with love, acceptance, vulnerability, honesty and empathy we can build community around us!
Luis and Gisela with their business The Local Juicery + Kitchen have created a safe space for diverse community members with a focus on wellness. Not only will you find them in their business, but you will find them providing motivation, encouragement, and advice to other Hispanic businesses around the city.
Supermercado El Sol
Carlos Perez
Guatemala
"I am originally from Guatemala. I arrived to the United States in 1991 with a dream of improving myself and providing for my family. Tennessee gave me that opportunity in which it was a business where I began delivering vegetables in a van. Year after year the business grew and I was given the opportunity to open an official store providing fresh vegetables and groceries to our Chattanooga community. I thank this great community that opened the doors for me to be able to provide a little of our home land to their own homes." - Carlos Perez
Supermercado El Sol has been welcoming the community with open doors since they opened in 2019. They have allowed many Latinos in our Chattanooga community to host events in their space, have supported efforts to serve and care for the community, and most recently were the very first grocery store to donate to La Paz Chattanooga’s new food pantry in April 2023, supplying culturally relevant foods. Perez and El Sol host outside businesses inside and around their property, slowly building an entrepreneurial hub for Latinos off of E Main St.
LogistiX, LLC
Carlos Garcia
Colombia
"Hands-on has been a theme of Garcia's career. He came to the U.S. in 1999 from Colombia to attend Covenant College, and worked multiple jobs to make ends meet. He washed the undercarriages of trucks at a truck stop in North Georgia, and valet parked cars at a downtown Chattanooga hotel.
After earning a degree in organizational management in 2005, he went to work for North American Credit Services, rising through the ranks to a role as director of training and development. But he had the urge to start his own business, and eventually jumped into entrepreneurship, first as a founder of a company that resells whiskey barrels, then launching a commercial cleaning business that grew to 67 employees before he sold it to focus on expanding LogistiX.
Now LogistiX, the business that began in 2016 with a simple 'yes,' has completed more than 6,000 projects, including warehouses and fulfillment centers across the U.S. and in Canada. The company outfits massive warehouses for large-scale, online retailers – a business that has boomed in the last two years.
"Through my years working for somebody else, I learned the best way to change people's lives is by giving them a good living," Garcia says. "The more we grow, the more families I'm able to support."