Va. Hispanic chamber founder believes in building bridges

Helping others is a common thread in Michel Zajur's life.

It began at an early age for the soft-spoken son of immigrants who moved to the Richmond area from Mexico in 1960.

"When my parents came here, they did not speak any English," he said.

"So my siblings and I grew up as translators and we helped them, because we learned English a lot quicker than they did," Zajur said. "There were people who helped my family. There was an uncle who helped my father get started in a business."

Zajur, 51, didn't plan to start a chamber of commerce to help those in the Hispanic community.

"It just kind of evolved that way," said Zajur, who founded the Virginia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce in 2000.

"I wanted the chamber to be something that would lend a helping hand to people," he said. "When you can lend someone a hand, that facilitates something that might have taken years to develop or never happened at all."

Working in the family's La Siesta Mexican Restaurant in Chesterfield County, Zajur had seen Hispanics come in the restaurant time and again, seeking advice and help from his parents.

It continued even when Zajur and his brother managed the business. (The restaurant closed in early January after 36 years, though his brother is still running a catering service.)

"One day, someone came in [to the restaurant] and said -- you are basically a chamber of commerce. You should just start one," Zajur recalled.

So he did.

After nearly 10 years leading the organization, he has become a recognizable face and voice throughout Virginia for the Hispanic community.

"Since the beginning, it has really come a long way," Zajur said of the chamber, which now has more than 400 members and is expanding its reach.

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Zajur spends much of his time these days working to help businesses in Virginia.

"I have yet to hear him turn anyone down that needs help," said Roger Ortega, owner of OCS of Virginia, an underground utility company based in Powhatan County.

Ortega, who is of Hispanic heritage, started the company in 1982. Zajur, he said, was instrumental in getting Hispanic-owned businesses recognized as minority contractors by the city of Richmond several years ago.

"He is a high-energy type of guy and one of these can-do types that never give up -- and very, very diplomatic," Ortega said. "In his dealings with people, he knows how to get his point across without offending a lot of people."

Zajur wasn't seeking a new full-time job, although creating and running a chamber quickly became one.

"We started from scratch," he said, though Zajur rounded up much support from business and civic leaders and donations to get the group going.

The chamber's vision, as displayed on a sign in front of its office, is "to be the bridge connecting the Virginia Hispanic business community and the community at large."

That "bridge building" idea is important to Zajur. It expresses his lifelong desire to help people reach across language and cultural barriers and work for the betterment of the entire community.

"One of my goals since I started the chamber is really just to help Richmond be more diverse," he said. "Because of the Internet and the global economy, and how interdependent we are with the world, [diversity] really opens up so many opportunities."

The organization, he said, has always sought to represent Hispanic businesses across the state, though its focus has tended toward activities in central Virginia.

The group recently hired a new director for its Northern Virginia office and has formed an advisory board there, including the owners and managers of some of the state's and nation's fastest-growing Hispanic-owned businesses.

The chamber also is developing a Web site that will provide easier access to online services for businesses across the state.

"I am expecting membership to really blossom," Zajur said recently at the chamber's office on Midlothian Turnpike, where the group also is installing donated computers in its business-assistance center.

The chamber also is making a push to help more Hispanic-owned businesses set up their own Web sites.

Zajur said he also wants the Hispanic Chamber to be an agent for economic development in the state, by forging connections in Latino nations.

The chamber recently went on a trade mission to Peru, and Zajur continues to build a network of contacts in Mexico. For instance, former Mexican President Vicente Fox attended the group's gala in 2008.

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Zajur was a toddler when his parents, Samira and Michel Zajur Sr., moved to the Richmond area from Mexico in 1960.

The family still has many relatives in their hometown of Zacatecas, Mexico, an old silver-mining town.

Though he grew up in the American culture, he also felt deeply connected to his Mexican heritage and wanted to share it with others.

Zajur sees diversity as a source of strength in a community, and he expressed astonishment at how the Richmond area's diversity has grown during his lifetime.

It's much different from when Zajur's father opened Sam's Diner on Jefferson Davis Highway in the 1960s. It was not a Mexican restaurant.

"It was tough to get anybody to try Mexican food here," Zajur sad.

But he and friends urged his father to make some authentic dishes, believing that eventually people would embrace the cuisine.

La Siesta opened in 1972.

"Now you can drive on Broad Street and just see one [Mexican restaurant] after another," he said.

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Zajur says his path would not have been the same had it not been for his wife, Lisa, a native Richmonder who also has forged bridges across cultures and languages.

They have been married for 25 years. They met at the wedding of one of Zajur's four sisters, Andrea. Lisa was a friend of the groom's family, but she was living in Pittsburgh at the time.

Michel said she instantly caught his eye. Lisa says she "liked his style and charisma."

"We had kind of a long-distance relationship," he said.

They both recall one phone conversation in particular. One night, Lisa, who was studying for a college exam, called Michel from Pittsburgh. During the conversation, she mentioned she was craving a fudge sundae.

After he hung up, "I called the Baskin-Robbins near her place and asked if they would deliver a fudge sundae," Zajur said.

It took some persuading, but pretty soon a shop employee showed up at Lisa's door with a sundae.

"He was always doing things like that," Lisa said.

At La Siesta restaurant, the Zajurs worked to create a Hispanic cultural program attended by thousands of schoolchildren from central Virginia.

Lisa, an educator, went on to found the Spanish Academy and Cultural Institute, which works with businesses and individuals to teach courses on how employees and employers in different industries can work together despite language and cultural differences.

Even when they're not working, they spend much of their time attending cultural or philanthropic events.

"Being married to Michel, I have never been bored," Lisa said.

Contact John Reid Blackwell at (804) 775-8123 or .