5 minute read
Personality
Stronger Together
Kristelle Siarza has founded a cooperative alliance designed to help her fellow Asian and Pacific Islander business owners bond and prosper.
BBeing Filipina is not only a lifestyle and a culture. It’s my identity,” says Kristelle Siarza, owner and CEO of Siarza Social Digital. “It’s how I run my company, how I raise my son, and how I’m planning my wedding. I’m proud of my culture. We’re known for being hardworking, humble people, and very resilient."
That resiliency has served her well as the founder of the Asian Business Collective, which she founded in July 2021. During the COVID-19 pandemic, hate crimes against members of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders has grown exponentially. According to the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism, anti-Asian hate grew by 339% in 2021, up even from 2020’s unprecedented levels. National and local headlines have illuminated the devastating results of these crimes against Asian people and business owners.
Amid this atmosphere, a personal experience tipped the scales for Siarza. When chatting with the owner of her favorite Chinese restaurant in Rio Rancho, she learned the business hadn’t qualified for federal incentives like a Paycheck Protection Program loan. The owner worried she hadn’t received it because she was Chinese. When Siarza heard about the racist phone calls the business was receiving, she knew she had to do something. “It broke my heart,” she says. She founded the non-profit ABC to serve businesses like these and now serves as the organization’s volunteer executive director. Businesses don’t have to be members to participate; help is available to anyone who needs it. While the goal is to grow the business community, safety has become a top priority.
The collaborative gathered in Civic Plaza in March 2021 with other members of the AAPI community to take a stand against racial violence.
“We will not tolerate the broken glass you see from a terrible act of vandalism. We will not tolerate a racial slur that makes you feel ashamed by the look of your eyes or the color of your skin. We will not fear that your business will shut down because of money, because of crime, or because of racism,” Siarza said in a speech during the event.
Those words hold true as the fight to protect the businesses and business owners continues.
“One of the things we’re encouraging businesses to do is speak up when you
have a crime against your business. We have to advocate for them. Sometimes our languages don’t even have words to describe the issues we’ve been undertaking,” Siarza says. “Asian cultures have commonalities of peace and serenity. It’s tough when things are fighting against us.”
Beyond protesting and advocating, ABC has approached business development on multiple fronts. It has organized workshops on employee retention and economic recovery grants, handed out free personal protective equipment, and hosted a vaccination clinic. It has also hired translators through the New Mexico Asian Family Center to help business owners understand and respond to regulations governing their businesses.
Businesses such as Talin Market, Dr. Mamie Chan Eye Care, and The Burrow Café have been involved in the organization. Jane Merzweiler, who arrived from Korea 22 years ago and owns Sushi and Saki says in one of ABC’s videos, “The fact that an organization like this exists gives me a lot of strength.”
This month it will celebrate May as Asian Pacific Islander Heritage month. ABC is also planning an Asian Expo and Marketplace for August. The festival is slated to include workshops, translation support, a marketplace, and an Asian film festival.
ABC is the first united effort among the Asian business community to represent their needs, which are often overlooked.
Siarza knows how impactful economic development and mentorship can be; she’s experienced it herself. She came to New Mexico in eighth grade when her mother’s corporate job at Gap paid to relocate the family from San Francisco. The late Dely Alcántara, founder of the New Mexico Asian Family Center as well as an educator, was the first Filipina she met in New Mexico. Alcántara mentored Siarza until Alcántara’s 2019 passing. Siarza says the leader always inspired her to give back.
Siarza has done that through her own digital marketing agency, which she founded because “I was a really bad employee.” She recalls, “I would fail at a lot of projects because I wasn’t passionate about them.”
She ultimately left her comfortable job and paycheck to found her own agency
with dual goals of disrupting the industry and creating jobs. She’s done the latter by hiring 20 team members, including five who work remotely from the Philippines.
She excels at uniting people. “I’m very happy when I’m connecting people to each other and to resources to be successful. Entrepreneurs do that all the time. That’s why I’ve been successful,” she says.
Siarza has added her work with ABC to an already full plate that includes other duties such as serving on the board for the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government and as president of the Bosque School Parents’ Association. She’s also a self-proclaimed obsessive hobbyist, who’s always trying to up her golf game or master the next video game.
However, inspired by her fiancé and son, she also tries to step back and enjoy life.
“A lot of entrepreneurs don’t talk enough about family life,” Siarza says. “Sometimes you have to step back, enjoy life, and say, ‘Damn, you got a lot done.’” —ASHLEY M.
BIGGERS
