A Salvadoran Solopreneur in The Paper City

By Jorge Alfredo Márquez Fagoaga, El Salvador

My name is Jorge Alfredo Márquez Fagoaga, a 40-year-old solopreneur from San Salvador, El Salvador, Central America. I’m one out of five fellows from “El Pulgarcito de América”¹ —as some people affectionately call my country—, currently living in Holyoke, MA and doing my fellowship at Entrepreneurship for All (EforAll), a nonprofit organization that partners with communities nationwide to help underrepresented individuals successfully start and grow a business through intensive business training, mentorship and an extended professional support network².

The EforAll Pioneer Valley site is managed by four incredible women: Tessa Murphy-Romboletti, Executive Director; Catalina Herrera, Program Manager; Jayne Meléndez, Program Manager; and María Moreno, Program Coordinator; and they have a beautiful coworking space right in the heart of downtown Holyoke. They represent America’s mixing salad as they have a multicultural and diverse origin: Chile, Puerto Rico, and the United States.

During a 1:1 meeting with Tessa, I learned about the ins and outs of the nonprofit organization and the way she approaches potential donors, mentors, and program volunteers. As for potential donors, Tessa taught me an important lesson: Never ask for money upfront. You first need to establish yourself as a trustworthy person in the eyes of others and that takes commitment, dedication, and a choice to live an honest life. Sometimes you may hear a “no” from others, but that does not necessarily mean they will not change their mind after you nurture the relationship and give them a second chance. As Tessa told me: “They say “no,” but I say to myself “not yet.”

In the past few weeks I have had the opportunity to meet other Hispanic leaders in the Western Massachusetts region: Liliana Atanacio, co-president of Latinas413; Iohann Rashi Vega, director of Media Engagement at Holyoke Media; José Maldonado Velez, community organizer at Neighbor to Neighbor; and Denis Luzuriaga, a visual artist and managing partner of The Cubit Coworks located in Holyoke’s Innovation District. During my in-person meeting with Denis, he gave me a tour of his dedicated workplace for entrepreneurs, professionals, and creators, and he also told me the history of the building and the reason he decided to invest in the Paper City. “When people tell me that I am going to fail [for taking risks], I don’t take it negatively, but I see it as an opportunity instead,” Denis told me. Among other things, Denis and I share the influence of Gabriel García Márquez, a Colombian novelist and one of the greatest writers of the 20th century, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1982 for his masterpiece One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967). 

On May 21, I had the opportunity to attend the ALX Business Summit, organized by Amplify LatinX and hosted at WBUR CitySpace in Boston, MA. It is always refreshing to connect with like-minded individuals, learn from industry experts, and gain practical strategies to grow our businesses. As Juan Thurman, co-founder and Managing GP of the Semilla Climate Capital Fund said during his talk: “To beat the competition, you need competitive advantage.” And that competitive advantage is the one thing I want to implement once I’m back to my home country: Teach others how to become successful independent professionals and take advantage of the digital skills and tools available out there to land new clients, improve their quality of life and socioeconomic status, and foster inclusive economic growth in our “Pulgarcito de América.”

P.S. Special thanks to my fellow Marielos Burgos for the nice picture of me shown at the beginning of this article.

1. “The Little Thumb of America,” as we are the smallest country in the landmass of the Americas. ↩︎
2. https://eforall.org/about/ ↩︎