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Monica Peraza: Constructing the MexNet Alliance
For Monica Peraza, the moment of geographical truth came in abject darkness.
In 2003, the Mexico City-born businesswoman was working a trade show in the Javits Convention Center in New York City. That vast space, filled with thousands of panicky people, lost electricity in a widespread blackout that affected the Northeast and parts of Canada.
“There were no phones, no way to communicate with the outside,” says Peraza, 48, president of MexNet Alliance, a nonprofit that helps Mexican immigrants acquire basic business skills. “It seemed like there had been a terrorist attack.”
“September 11th shook all of us up,” she says. “We were so close. Most of the people we worked with lived in Manhattan. Firefighters in our town went to the towers on that day. We had funerals for months. It was a shocking thing.”
The subsequent blackout of ‘03 so distressed the protective mother, who ran a successful import company called Dalma, that she looked for a new home. Rules: No earthquakes. No hurricanes. Not bitter cold.
“Texas is great. Close to Mexico. In the middle of America. Weather is warmer. And people are so friendly,” she says. “It came down to Houston, Dallas or Austin. When we visited here, we fell in love with it.”
Peraza grew up the only child in a venturesome family. Her father, Augusto Peraza, was the retired owner of printing and medical businesses. Her mother, Rosanna O’Quigley, was a retired federal education worker, born in Los Angeles to a Canadian movie director who helped discover stars Antonio Aguilar and Tin Tan.
She attended a school run by American nuns, then, in fifth grade, went to live with an uncle who was studying for his Ph.D. in England. “I came back to Mexico City with an English accent,” she smiles.
She played volleyball and sang with the estudiantina (student musical group) at Universidad Motolinia and, for college, studied education at Universidad Panamericana.
“I love children,” she says. “I thought I would be a teacher for the rest of my life. Until I found out how much teachers were paid.” Coming from a family of entrepreneurs, headstrong Peraza aimed at starting a business instead.
Marriage and children intervened. She took care of her three oldest children: Rodrigo (now 25 and taking business classes at Concordia University Texas, when he is not racing cars); Maria Jimena (23, who works at LatinWorks in strategic planning); and Alejandra (21, studying public relations at University of Texas).
“I was a mommy for a good seven years,” she says. “But I was always doing something: Selling jewelry, selling shoes, studying on the side. I’m hyperactive.”
Her fourth child, Daniela, is 12 and attends Holy Family Catholic School. “She was born to a fully working mom,” Peraza jokes.
Her first go was taking over a business that leased medical equipment for on-screen use at Televisa, the Mexican television channel.
“When I came to the set for the taping, I saw they were wasting their money,” she says. So Peraza came on as a consultant, making sure all the departments put the right medical equipment in front of the camera.
Next she started a delivery company, delivering key products for Mexico’s third largest bank. She closed down that company when the family moved to the New York area.
Yet that entrepreneurial drive never went away.
“I really missed Mexico a lot,” she recalls. “So why not open a business related to Mexico? I turned to importing and exhibited at gift shows. Moved from wholesale to mass retail. Home accessories. Gifts. Personal accessories. Two years ago, we started importing food, including Gaya, the oldest and most recognized vanilla from Mexico.”
Peraza now lives in North Austin while overseeing Dalma, tailoring Mexican items to the American market. But that was not enough. Three years ago, Consul General of Mexico Rosalba Ojeda arrived in Austin.
“She gathered 12 Mexican businesspeople at a lunch to tell what she wanted us to achieve,” she says. Thus MexNet Alliance was born.
“I saw that Mexicans come to this country and don’t open their own businesses,” she says. “Most Mexicans here work for someone else the rest of their lives. They are very hard working people but they don’t have the resources or knowledge to do it.”
MexNet started by mentoring people already in the workplace, concentrating on four areas: Cleaning, cooking, construction and landscaping.
Peraza — who also teamed with Joe and Teresa Long building the Hispanic Alliance for the Performing Arts — wants to create a business school for Mexicans and Mexican Americans. She’s hoping to work with existing nonprofits like Entrepreneurs Foundation, PeopleFund, Con Mi Madre, El Buen Samaritano, etc.
“I had huge privilege of being in a seminar with Richard Branson,” she says of the Virgin empire-builder. “He had opened a school in South Africa. We just need to convert what he was doing into our culture. Teach the basics of accounting, marketing and creating or growing a business.”
MexNet’s first social event was Sabores Autenticos de Mexico, a cultural salute to the country’s independence 200 years ago, and its revolution 100 years later. Chefs and mixologists concocted a grand feast of traditional and updated dishes on the Long Center stage. Sabores was such a hit, MexNet will employ the concept for an annual fundraising gala, the next slated for Sept. 16, 2011.
“It was a great way for people to know who we are,” she says. “At no other party would you could see all these people together, especially Mexicans and Mexican Americans together.”
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