Garland Reed spent eight years in Columbia, South America. He has an understanding of Hispanic culture, custom and traditions. And he has a feel for the frustrations of the people.

Garland Reed

So when Costa Rican businessman Ricardo Gomez asked Reed to intervene in the legal dispute pitting Gomez against a subsidiary of the Xerox Corporation in America, Reed accepted the challenge.

For the man who is president of the Mid-South Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, it was a move in line with his reputation.

“Garland Reed knows what he’s doing in the Spanish community,” said Dr. Phineas Overton, CEO of Urban Planning and Development Corporation and Consortium, and chairman of the Mid-South Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. “He’s worked with dignitaries here and abroad. He’s very vocal and very dependable.”

In Latin America, Reed started businesses and built a network of friends that included heads of state and national and international business leaders. He also launched several projects to improve both fishing industries on the Pacific Coast of Latin America and in five Portuguese-speaking countries in West Africa, where he studied the language and culture.

Once his business overseas was finished, Reed returned to Memphis to pursue other business interests. In 1988, he opened International Food Market at 3925 Barron Ave. It was the first grocery store in the Mid-South that catered exclusively to Hispanics, he said.

“Mexicans came from as far as 100 miles because we were the only ones who were selling Mexican food,” said Reed, who ran the business with his wife, Diane Reed.

He also stocked the shelves with about 10 percent of African-American products. But it was his Hispanic customers that helped to grow his business, he said.

“Hispanics don’t eat Wonder Bread. They have to have tortillas,” said Reed, noting that Hispanics in the late 80s couldn’t find the kinds of ethnic food that they were accustomed to in their country.

“So I stocked the shelves with traditional foods and specialty items,” he said, including cabeza de res (whole cow’s heads), fresh cactus, tomatillos and egusi (melon seeds).

In those days, the Hispanic population in Memphis was small, but growing, “and they needed more than groceries,” said Reed, 60. “They needed the services of an attorney and an interpreter.”  

Shortly thereafter, Reed started making plans to launch The Mid-South Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. He had known of one in his hometown of Chicago and felt there was a need for one in Memphis.

‘We had a booming business’

The chamber opened in September of 1995 as a non-profit organization for Hispanic businesses that needed “the same services as English-speaking business people,” said Reed.

“But my business demands kept growing by leaps and bounds. And I couldn’t devote as much time to it,” he said. “So it went into a state of inactivity (after about a year).”

Running a successful store kept Reed busy on weekdays and weekends, where he traveled up and down the Delta on food runs. “I would load up with food on a Thursday and wouldn’t return until Sunday night,” he recalls.

A few years later, Reed got the idea that he would manufacture tortillas. He opened “Tortilleria Dona Diana (Mrs. Diane’s Tortilla Factory) and produced 1,000-dozen tortillas an hour.

“We were the biggest tortilla manufacturer in the Mid-South, with one of the biggest ovens – the latest technology in tortilla manufacturing,” said Reed.

The tortilla factory was growing exponentially, which prompted Reed to seek a bank loan. He was approved, but the delay, he said, caused his business to fail.

“We had a booming business,” he said. “The bank had promised us a loan in writing, but delayed it for many months. It was too late then; we were out of business.”

Reed equates his experience with the bank with the plight of the black farmers who sued and won a class action lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Agriculture for discriminatory practices.

He followed the case closely and enmeshed himself in the dispute on the local level. “I was seeking a lawyer for my problems with the bank and met the lawyers for the black farmers. They agreed to help me if I helped them,” Reed recalls.

He organized a meeting for black farmers in 1998 and later was appointed executive director of the Tennessee Chapter of Black Farmers and Agriculturists Association.     

Reed’s earlier accomplishments were noted in 1996, when Memphis Light Gas and Water Division congratulated him for his business savvy and the opening of International Food Market.

Also that year, he was nominated for three awards during MEDWeek (Minority Enterprise Development Week): “Manufacturing Firm of the Year,” “Retail Firm of the Year,” and “Advocate of the Year.”  

In 1997, he was nominated for the Memphis Business Journal’s 17th Annual Entrepreneur of the Year and Small Business Awards for contributions to Memphis and the Mid-South business community.

Advisor, mediator and interpreter

Reed’s affinity for the Hispanic community includes offering his services as a mediator and interpreter. In 2001, he worked with local legislators to pass a bill to help Hispanics acquire a state driver’s license before getting a social security number.

“They were having difficulty obtaining credit, renting a home, buying an automobile, and shopping,” said Reed. “They also couldn’t open a bank account.”

Dr. Coby Smith, a planning and development consultant, educator and concept creator for the Hispanic Chamber, has worked with Reed to empower Hispanics.

“He’s a tireless advocate for the Hispanics and is helping to improve the people in the region,” said Smith, who is also a board member. “He has helped them in their businesses, helped them find jobs and helped them with translation.”

In 1997, a group of distraught Mexicans sought Reed’s help after learning that their postal money orders weren’t being delivered to their relatives in Mexico.

He helped them trace their money orders and then set up a meeting with an IRS agent, who, in turn, asked the FBI to investigate. After the investigation, the local FBI concluded that an organized crime ring that stretched across the U.S. was defrauding Mexicans.

Reed said his involvement helped to shed light on some of the inequities and discriminatory practices that many Hispanic immigrants were encountering in Memphis.

“The Hispanics are often preyed upon in this community and in the business sector as well,” said Reed, who reactivated The Mid-South Hispanic Chamber of Commerce in 2007.

“This time, I’m not interested in doing what a chamber normally does – the day-to-day activity of local businesses,” he said. “Our focus is 100 percent business. We’re building bridges to Hispanic businesses on an international level.”

The chamber has offices in the Clark Tower building and supports member-businesses in five states – Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, and Kentucky – and now some parts of Missouri.

Services include grant writing, job referrals, job training and preparation, and national and international marketing.

Reed had planned to launch a Mid-South International Business Expo in 2009, but the worsening economy forced him to table the idea.

The expo, said Reed, would connect buyers and sellers from 100 nations, including Central and South America, Caribbean countries, as well as several African and Middle Eastern countries.

“If the economy improves, we’ll have the expo next year,” he said.