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While Latino-owned businesses have seen steady growth — increasing from 5% of Delaware businesses in 2022 to 6% in 2023 — those numbers could grow even more quickly if many businesses didn’t face challenges like access to capital, lack of resources, language barriers and uneven government support.

Nationally, the Latino community contributes $3.2 trillion to the U.S. GDP.

Latino businesses in Delaware need more support from the state, according to Ronaldo Tello, owner of Delaware Hispanic Magazine and organizer of the Delaware Hispanic Award ceremony. While planning last year’s ceremony, he discovered a shared desire among Latino businesses to strengthen community ties, which led to the founding of the Delaware Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

“The state is already receiving a lot of funding through so many Latino businesses and we have to make sure that that comes back and helps them,” he said. “People said, ‘Why don’t we form something where we can help each other, where we can really connect with resources,’ and I think this cry came from the great number of first-generation business owners that we had, and many of them felt isolated and kind of disconnected from other efforts to support the business community.”

He identified common obstacles encountered by business owners.

“In that meeting, they spoke about the barriers that many times immigrants go through. The first generation has this language barrier, then there is a lack of trust because some of the resources are from the government,” he added. “We also learned that the community needed a lot of financial literacy support.”

PENNSAUKEN, New Jersey (WPVI) — Police in South Jersey were called for reports of a body found in the Delaware River on Sunday.

It happened near the Pennsauken Boat Ramp not far from the Betsy Ross Bridge, officials say.

The body was discovered at approximately 3 p.m.

So far, authorities have not released any further information on this incident.

There is no word whether or not police have identified the body.

A Delaware State Police trooper spotted a Jetta traveling at a high rate of speed on Millsboro Highway Friday night just after 8. The trooper initiated at traffic stop and contacted the driver, 40 year old Antonio Mancilla-Pertuz of Millsboro and smelled a strong odor of alcohol on his breath and saw signs of impairment. Mancilla-Pertuz was given standardized filed sobriety tests and arrested for DUI. A computer check showed he had four prior DUI-related convictions and was driving without a valid license. A search of the vehicle turned up an open container of beer.

Mancilla-Pertuz is charged with 5^th offense DUI and traffic offenses. He is being held at SCI on a $6301 cash bond.