BARBARA LEDESMA BROWN, President, Orange County Hispanic Chamber of Commerce

When Barbara Ledesma Brown was sworn in this month as president of the Orange County Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, it was a milestone for the Latino community. She’s the first woman president of the chamber, the county’s largest Latino business organization. Brown, 49, was also the first woman elected to the Fountain Valley City Council in 1980, and its first woman mayor in 1987. She is also an executive assistant to County Supervisor Roger R. Stanton. She recently spoke with Times staff writer Cristina Lee.

What do you hope to achieve during your yearlong term?

We plan to do more conferences on doing business with Mexico.

On May 14, for example, we’re organizing a trade conference in Irvine with the states of Sonora and Baja California. The governors of the two states will be bringing 30 Mexican business people to participate in a trade show. Already, 160 members of our chamber have signed up to attend the conference.

What role do you see Latino business people playing in Orange County?

One of the things we get here almost daily is requests for us to recommend prominent members of the Hispanic community to serve on advisory committees on health care, education, government and for business organizations. Every area of our society wants to touch base with the Hispanic community.

The problem is they’ve always put us on advisory committees, and we need to put an end to that. We need to put more Hispanics in the policy-making committees. We need more Hispanics on the board of corporations.

I’m on the advisory committee of Santa Ana 2000--a quasi-government organization whose goal is to improve the city of Santa Ana in the 1990s--and the Newport Harbor Art Museum. I’m called to advise people who want to increase their communication with the Hispanic community.

But the time has come to say enough to advisory positions. We want to be involved in the decision-making process. We have talented and qualified individuals within Orange County’s Hispanic community, and we need more of them to sit as board members of corporations and institutions that directly impact our community.

Our broader goal is to bring the chamber to the forefront of the current free trade negotiations between the U.S. and Mexican governments. We’ve met on several occasions this year with the staff of Gov. Pete Wilson to give our input on the free trade agreement, and we will be inviting more Mexican business people to discuss trade opportunities with local companies.

What is your long-term goal for the Latino community?

Education. We cannot have successful businesses if we don’t have an educated work force and educated consumers. The future prosperity of Orange County’s Hispanic community lies in knowledge. Without proper education, they won’t be earning as much in the workplace and, as consumers, their buying power would be limited. I’m committed to improving the lifestyle of my community, and I know that in order for that to happen, we have to educate the young folks in our community.

I believe that the Hispanic community has a lot of potential that has yet to be realized. My goal is to open more doors and opportunities to them, especially to our youth.

What would the North American Free Trade Agreement among Canada, Mexico and the United States mean for Orange County?

A: Some folks feel that the agreement will take business and jobs away from them, but I don’t. I see economic growth, more jobs and more opportunities for local businesses.

Our county’s biggest problem is illegal Mexican immigrants. Their presence is stretching to the limit the social and health services in our community. We see the trade agreement as a long-term solution to this tide of illegal immigration. Increasing trade with Mexico can help improve their quality of life, and this can stem the flow of illegal immigrants when their standard of living improves in the years ahead.

How have negotiations for the free trade pact affected your organization?

We’re close to 500 members now. We started off with barely 60 members, but in the last four years we’ve been growing so fast that we did not need a membership recruiting program.

We now have three account executives who handle new membership, and they said they could hardly keep up with the calls they get daily from local companies wanting to join our organization. We have 17 corporate sponsors, and we want to double that by the end of my term, and I think it is doable.

How do you plan to get young Latinos involved in your organization?

We need to stand out as role models for many Hispanic students. I want to have at least 100 high school Hispanic students from various local public schools to join us at our installation dinner next April. If they attended this year’s event, they would have seen and met several Latino role models.

Our speakers included: the U.S. treasurer, Catalina V. Villapando; former California Supreme Court Judge John Arguelles; former Florida Governor Bob Martinez, and Judith Valles, who is the only Latino woman president of a community college in California.

Many young Hispanics need to have role models to see the opportunities they have and what they can achieve if they try.

Who is your role model?

My maternal grandfather, Valente Sanchez. He came to this country to escape the revolution in Mexico during the early parts of the 20th Century. He instilled in us a love of this country. He often said that if we studied hard and worked diligently, there’s nothing we cannot achieve in this country. That’s part of what’s driving me all my life, and I hope to pass his wisdom to my children.

I pursued a degree in microbiology at Mount Saint Mary’s College in Los Angeles and graduated in 1964, and 20 years later I got a master’s degree in public administration from Cal State Long Beach.

On her new position at the chamber . . .

“It shows that our board of directors (is) not threatened by a woman in a leadership position. In fact, (the board is) very supportive.”

On the chamber’s role in the upcoming presidential election . . .

“We have a policy of not endorsing any candidate, but we try to expose our members to the political process by giving them an opportunity to listen to policy issues put forward by the Republican and Democratic parties that impact the business community.”

On her priorities . . .

“My goal is to open more doors and opportunities to the Hispanic community, especially to our youth.”

On the U.S.-Mexico free trade agreement . . .

“We need to educate Hispanics (in the United States) on the pact’s benefits and to encourage them to participate in the debates on the pact.”