Stanislaus Latino group to hold business expo

As National Hispanic Heritage Month, which runs today through Oct. 15, gets underway, the Latino Community Roundtable of Stanislaus County is celebrating with its first Latino Business Expo.

The event will be held Thursday from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the Red Event Center Bar & Grill, 921 Eighth St., Modesto. More than 90 vendors will be present. Among them will be banks, small Latino-run businesses and businesses that serve the Latino community.

“We’ll have beauty salons, those that actually sell specifically for the Latino community like quinceañera shops, party stores, we’ll have a medical doctor and insurance agents that are Latino,” said Maggie Mejia, president of the Latino Community Roundtable.

The expo will include a food court with at least a dozen restaurants and taquerias competing to be declared best Mexican food in Stanislaus County. A panel of five judges – “I’m not at liberty to disclose who they are because they don’t want to make any enemies,” Mejia said – will determine the winner.

Food tastings are included in expo admission, Mejia said, and a public vote will “back up” the judges. Each eatery will have a vote jar, and each expo attendee will be given one ticket to deposit at his or her favorite.

During the contest, Mariachi la Union will entertain from 6 to 8 p.m. On a second stage, DJ Invisible will be playing music by request.

For those who arrive with a big appetite, Mejia said, J&M Meat Wholesale has offered to prepare carne asada for the first 100 attendees, and the Red Event Center Bar & Grill will be open.

But the expo’s focus, Mejia said, really is on the vendors. “We’re excited because it’s the first one and it can only get better,” she said. “Being the first one and having 90 vendors says a lot.”

Mejia noted that Thursday’s event also will have a special guest from Sacramento: Alejandra Garcia Williams, consul general of Mexico.

Admission to the business expo is $10 for Latino Community Roundtable members and guests, and $15 general. Proceeds will go toward the LCR’s 2015 Christmas Toy Drive.

The LCR is looking for volunteers tonight and Wednesday from 5:30 to 7:30 to set up tables and decorate the Red Event Center. “Do you have teens that need community service hours? They can earn some both evenings and also on the evening of the event,” Mejia said in an email to supporters. “We will need volunteers on Thursday from 4 p.m. until 9:30 p.m.”

This story was originally published September 15, 2015 at 9:22 AM with the headline "Stanislaus Latino group to hold business expo."