Background 

Creando Ando 2.0 is a reiteration of Hispanic Advocacy and Community Empowerment through Research’s (HACER) project Creando Ando that took place in Rochester, Minnesota. The purpose of Creando Ando 2.0 was to empower Latine members interested in starting their own business by offering an introductory level entrepreneurial workshop in Spanish. HACER used Region Nine Development Commission’s 9-county region (R9) as the focus area of recruitment and was supported by Region Nine throughout the project with outreach efforts and presenters.
Region Nine is a diverse region in Minnesota the Latino community composing 6.4% of the total st 1 population according to Census information as of July 1 , 2021 . Within this region the Hispanic/Latine population is “expected to grow by approximately 12 thousand Hispanic or Latin(x) residents between 2018 – 2053.”2 The Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) projects a 2.2% decrease in workforce participation from 2020 to 2030 due to the Baby Boom generation leaving the workforce, and signaling a need for younger populations to till the roles occupied by the Baby Boom population. In 2019, the Hispanic/Latine population had the second highest labor force participation rate

in R9 (74.4%), falling behind those that reported having Two or more race (79.4%). Therefore, as the region continues to change demographically, there may be an opportunity for Latines to fill future job vacancies.
In addition, it is important to note “entrepreneurial immigrants play an increasingly important role in the economy through job creation, innovation, and GDP growth [and] in Minnesota, there were over 18,000 immigrant entrepreneurs as of 2018.”4 Furthermore, “entrepreneurship is another bright spot for Mexican-born immigrants [and] their entrepreneurship rate is almost two percentage points higher than the rest of the foreign-born population in Minnesota. ”4 Therefore, there is a need to nurture and offer resources in Spanish to those who have an entrepreneurial mindset, hence the creation of the Creando Ando workshops.
It was originally proposed that HACER would not work with Blue Earth to keep Creando Ando 2.0 focused more on rural counties (populations of less than 20K), however, after further discussion it was concluded that it would be best to include this county in a limited capacity. This was decided based on the possibility that those from Blue Earth would want to start a business in a surrounding county because there are not as many established Latine businesses in the surrounding eight counties, and those in Blue Earth are centralized to all of the eight counties.