As children, José González and his five siblings picked strawberries and other produce every summer outside Woodburn, Oregon, to help support their family. Today, he is the founding president of the Latino Business Alliance, a member of the Salem City Council, and the owner of Tu Casa Real Estate and La Familia Cider. But the line between the berry fields and a corporate boardroom was anything but straight. Gonzales, a Portland native and 1993 Mount Angel High School graduate, wanted to be the first in his family to “graduate from college, find a good job, and move up.” He started at Chemeketa Community College, but by then had already welcomed the first of his four children, J.J. With a family to support, he moved to Salem, found work at Arby’s and later at Boston Market. Even then, he felt an entrepreneurial spark. “We always wanted to open a restaurant for my mom,” he said. “She’s the best Mexican cook.”
Family & Community First
His parents, Pedro and Lourdes Gonzales, both originally from Mexico City, worked hard all their lives: as migrant workers harvesting crops in the fields, in an upholstery shop sewing and reupholstering furniture, and in the laundry and infirmary at Queen of Angels Monastery in Monte Ángel. Then, in 1988, the Benedictine Sisters opened the San José Shelter and Benedictine Mission to serve migrant farmworkers, and they needed a trusted, bilingual person to serve as a liaison between the ministry and the people it served. So, in 1989, they hired Pedro to run the shelter. The family lived in a prefabricated house on-site while he worked as the shelter manager for more than two decades. His wife ran the kitchen, feeding up to 300 people, primarily single men, twice a day during peak season. With his parents’ hard-working example in mind, José quickly rose to a management position at age 19.
“I thought I was on cloud nine,” she recalled. “But then my son, J.J., kept getting sick. I mean, his heart stopped once and I had to do CPR when he was a couple of months old, so we were always on tenterhooks whenever J.J. got sick or had a prolonged fever.” When her son was rushed to the hospital, her boss told her she needed to keep working because he was the manager. “That’s when I realized I needed to do something different,” she said. “I had to drop out of college for J.J. I’m working for him, and now I can’t be there for him. Something’s wrong with that image.” At home, she opened the newspaper to the classifieds and found an ad for real estate training. He passed the exam, and Century 21 in Salem recruited him, but six months later, they packed up his belongings and fired him. “I went in every day and followed up on everything, but I had no connections,” she said. “I didn’t know anyone in Salem. I was 22.” He jumped from job to job to support his family until Mario Contreras, owner of Tu Casa Real Estate, invited him to lunch. I turned down the offer several times, feeling like a failure in real estate. “I’d beaten myself up,” he said, but eventually accepted. “I don’t have any money. I’ll take that free lunch.” He convinced me in that meeting to try one more time.
One More Shot
His real estate license was still valid, so he started working for Tu Casa, where he has worked for almost a quarter of a century. Contreras provided him with basic training and mentored him, and he excelled. Then, in 2006, when his boss decided to retire and return to Mexico, he asked Gonzales if he wanted to buy the business. “I had achieved some success or at least some stability in this business,” he said. After considering the options for two weeks, I accepted. Then the US housing bubble burst, triggering the Great Recession, a severe economic crisis.
Starting Over
“Everything had to start from scratch,” Gonzales said. At one point, he and his family lived in a spare room in his brother Pedro’s house. But he remembered his parents’ example: starting with nothing and working hard to succeed. In 2003, they even achieved their dream of opening a restaurant in Salem, though they had to close it after his mother suffered an aneurysm. Fortunately, she survived.
“So the world is falling apart,” he recalled. “Our little real estate agency is struggling, and we didn’t have any money to market ourselves.” His mentor had started his real estate business by getting involved in the community, so Gonzales encouraged his agents to do the same.
“We have a lot of free time,” he said. They began volunteering by providing manual labor, helping clean up the community, caring for homeless people under bridges, and helping in any way they could. As they worked, people began asking them for recommendations of trusted bilingual professionals in law, education, real estate, insurance, and banking. When asked for a recommendation, he sought out trusted individuals—often, but not always, bilingual—with a strong commitment to the community. “I took it on as a responsibility,” he said. Gonzales was also invited to speak before local nonprofits, which he did. After about a year, he gathered the many professionals he had met. “It’s like magic is happening right in front of me,” he recalled. “I just can’t believe it.”
Leading the Latino Business Community
Before long, they formed the nonprofit Latino Business Alliance and created a board of directors with Gonzales as the founding board president. The alliance hovered in the background for the first three to five years, trying to determine where it would fit among college programs, chambers of commerce, business development centers, and other nonprofits. Since then, the volunteer-run organization has flourished with monthly meetings drawing up to 40 people, an annual event for 200, and potential offshoots in neighboring communities. The alliance employs one part-time worker and soon plans to offer loans for small businesses unable to obtain traditional financing. The real estate market has bounced back, too, which boosted Tu Casa.
“While everyone was holding back at that time, we were going out into the community, even just sharing information,” Gonzales said. “What we were doing was staying strong, visible, and present.” With the economic recovery, those in need of real estate knew where to find trusted people. Gonzales had been involved in immigrant advocacy, children’s reading, a micro-enterprise program, the sheriff’s advisory group, and the Salem budget committee. He wanted to learn and share information with others. His immigrant advocacy efforts garnered national attention and earned him an invitation to the White House in 2012. The governor has appointed him to two state boards, including the Oregon Real Estate Board.
Answering the Call to Public Office
He was also asked to run for a seat on the Salem City Council. His parents had described him as corrupt politicians in Mexico who were only out for financial gain. He wanted nothing to do with corrupt politics, but rather to serve his community, so he had to let go of those preconceived notions before running for public office in 2020. “One day I realized that I don’t think anyone is advocating strongly enough for my neighborhoods here in Northeast Salem,” he said. “If you go to Washington Elementary School, near where I live, 90% of the Latino community is Latino. The majority of the Latino community in Salem lives in the Northeast. We hadn’t had a strong enough voice for our neighborhoods.” He campaigned for office during the coronavirus pandemic, won the election, and began serving in 2021.
Building Others Up
Could you offer advice to entrepreneurs aspiring to business success? “It’s about showing up every day, being consistent,” Gonzales said. “I learn everything I can so I can share it. And just treating people well. We have to do things in a way that keeps people’s trust in us.” And, she added, helping others. “You don’t do it to improve your business. You just do it because you care. I would say just help those around you.” She buys certificates and products from local businesses to give to clients and others.
“I try to help them grow, and then it’s the same model: when the tide rises, all boats rise,” she said. “They become successful and maybe they want to buy the building they’re renting, or maybe they want to buy a house.”