Today on Our American Stories, we’re honored to share the powerful immigrant journey of Gladys Gonzalez, a true American Dreamer. Gladys once held a high-level executive position at a bank in Colombia, enjoying a successful career and a good life. But when the escalating drug war of the early ’90s forced her bank to close its operations, Gladys and her family were compelled to leave everything behind and start fresh in the United States. She arrived with big hopes, only to find herself cleaning floors and working three jobs—a humbling beginning that taught her resilience and the true meaning of hard work.
But Gladys Gonzalez refused to be defined by her challenges. Driven by a deep desire to contribute and build, she saw an opportunity in her new home and bravely launched a bilingual newspaper, planting the seeds of her own small business. Her entrepreneurial spirit blossomed, leading her to establish the Suazo Center, a non-profit dedicated to guiding other minority entrepreneurs toward success. This incredible journey highlights how one woman’s perseverance can empower thousands of small business owners, proving that with courage and community support, the American Dream isn’t just about personal gain, but about lifting up everyone around you.
📖 Read the Episode Transcript
Speaker 2: My name is Gladys Gonzalez, and I was born and raised in Bogotá, Colombia. My life hasn’t been easy, and maybe because of that, I learn in many lessons. I have learned that life can change from night to day for better or for wars, like it happened to me when I was working in Colombia, and I was so happy there. I had a VP position a bank with headquarters in New York. At the time of the Drug Dealers War in ’91, the first drug dealer had to come to these states.
Speaker 3: In X tradition, our view is the right approach is to bring to justice narcotics traffickers, to coordinate and cooperate as best as we can with Colombia.
Speaker 2: The drug dealers said, “For every drug dealer that you sent to the United States, we are going to kill seven Americans or people that works for Americans.” And at that point, the bank decided to close business in Colombia. I had working for them already nine years. It was an ‘i’ life. My salary was in dollars, so I had a very good life. I had time to share with my family. It was beautiful, but unfortunately, I had to leave the country, so I decided to move to Utah. I really had a hard life in the United States. At the beginning, I had this hope that because I was executive in an American bank in Colombia, I will be able to get a good job soon here. But it didn’t happen. I didn’t have an NBA, I didn’t have a title from the United States, only from Colombia. So I ended up cleaning floors, and for that, I was very qualified. I started from the very bottom of the ladder. I had three jobs at the same time. One of my jobs was taking care of people with disabilities. When I was finished with that job, I would go to my second job, that was to clean offices. Then I will go home to sleep for a couple of hours and get up the next day to start my routine again. On Saturdays, I had my third job, delivering bundles of newspapers to kids careers so they could drop the newspapers in the neighborhoods. I learned firsthand how hard the life of an immigrant could be. Many times I remember my kids telling me, “Mom, what would have been worse for us to stay in our country facing the drug dealers and guerrilla work or moving to USA to face this tough life?” And I will tell them, “Don’t worry, will make our way out of this someday, we just need to be patient.” I got to the conclusion that only having a business, I will be able to succeed, and I started looking what is not available in Utah, and I thought, “Hmm, there is no Hispanic newspaper here, so probably that’s what I’m gonna do.” So I just started the newspaper, and the first newspaper took us a month to do it, so you can imagine how fresh the news was since the beginning. My dream was integration. So I decided, “Okay, we will have bilingual editorials.” And so I thought, “How can I make people start placing advertising?” And I said, “I need to get a couple of companies that are powerful here.” So I went to busy with them, and I told them, “I will donate the full page in my newspaper. You don’t have to pay me anything. If you want to outreach the Hispanic community, I will give you the alpha free. But you gave me the ad totally ready,” and for them, what’s a good deal. So they said, “Okay, let’s do it.” My next challenge came when I didn’t have cash flow. So I started thinking, “Okay, I will have to close in his paper.” And at that point, I visited with late Senator Pete Suazo, and I told him, “I have to close in his paper.” And he told me, “No, you cannot do that, Gladys. That’s the voice of the community.” So he told me, “How much money do you need?” And I said, “Ten thousand dollars cash flow.” So he told me, “Have you been rejected by any bank?” And I said, “Yes.” “Do you have a letter?” “Yes, I do.” And he said, “When does all we need?” There is an organization called Utah Micro Enterprise Loan. So we can apply with the letter of denial due to a business plan, and I’ll help you to present to the committee. I got the loan, and today that I got the loan, I took up fur a copy of the check, and then at night I wrote an outline of my vision of what will be a business center resource for minorities where people will be able to get education, how to write a business plan, how to apply for loans, and at the same time, I will team up with banks to have source of capital available for them. In 2002, when preached so as of dying, I decided that I wanted to honor his legacy, and I asked authorization to his family to use his name and to create the Suazo Center non-profit. And we have served between 7,000 and 8,000 companies since the inception of the center. One of those companies is actually a change of nine supermarkets. It is owned by a Mexican woman, and we helped her with the first little store, and later on, when she wanted to open the first big supermarket in Latino, wore a team of eight people are helping her to create all the business plan, and she got a loan for 700,000. Today, she gave employment to over 500 people. For me, the American Dream is not about what the government does for us or who is the president. For me, it is about contributing our talents to work, be houses. It’s about alleviating the suffering of those needs. Is learning the language and not having fear of expressing ourselves, even if we have a strong accent. I consider myself that I have fully lived the American Dream. I continue living the American the name.
Speaker 1: And you’ve been listening to Gladys Gonzalez, founder of the Suazo Center, which helps Hispanic entrepreneurs create their own American Dream. Gladys was an executive at a bank and came to the country, and that expertise and experience just wasn’t honored, and so she was cleaning floors. But with patience and with diligence, ended up living her own version of the American Dream. A great immigrant story. Here on our American Stories.
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