Excelencia in Business Awards celebrate the resilience and success of Philadelphia’s Hispanic-owned businesses

Edward Garcia was employed as a deputy director with Philadelphia’s Commerce Department when a trip to Montreal for a friend’s bachelor party changed his career climb.

There came a point during the festivities when the meat lovers and vegetarians split up to find something to eat. Garcia joined the search for vegetarian food and found himself at a board game café. He loved the fun, friendly vibe and the sense of old-fashioned joy, and when he returned to Philly, he went looking for a similar place. It didn’t exist.

“It’s something I hadn’t seen, and I found it really appealing,” explained Garcia.

So he gave up his good salary and opened a board game café. “Being in commerce, you come across a lot of entrepreneurs. Being around that is really infectious,” he said.

Now Queen & Rook, which Garcia founded along with his business partner and wife, Jeannie Wong, in 2019, is the largest game restaurant on the East Coast, according to Garcia. He has expanded into a larger location at 123 South St. that includes a retro arcade and wood-fired pizza restaurant, and he opened a board game shop next door.

It’s that entrepreneurial chutzpah being celebrated on Dec. 4 by the Greater Philadelphia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (GPHCC). Garcia, who will be awarded the chamber’s Accelerate award, is one of four honorees at this year’s annual Excelencia in Business Awards, which celebrates Hispanic entrepreneurs for their innovation, resilience, and for giving back to their communities.

“It’s a shock,” said Roberto Rios, a few days before the reception where he was to accept the Above & Beyond award on behalf of the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades District Council 21.

In 1998, Rios was a senior at the now-closed Cardinal Dougherty and knew college was out of the question for his North Philadelphia family. “I had to get a job and really didn’t think about college,” Rios recalled.

A nun, noticing that Rios was one of the few seniors not going to college, sent him to the IUPAT District Council 21. During his interview, still dressed in his school uniform, he admitted he had no idea of what glazing was. “I remembered on June 5 I graduated, and on June 15 I started in the glazer union.”

Rios ultimately became the first Latino Business Representative in the union’s century-old history and has made it his duty to give back to the community, including helping to build an apprenticeship program that can lead to a good job, benefits, and an associate’s degree.

“When I talk to kids, I tell them that you don’t have to do [anything] but hard work and you can make a great career.“

“I am surprised by the award,” said Vivian Isaak of her Excelencia Award, which honors the staying power of her 32-year-old firm, Magnum Group Inc. “I think it’s understanding business goes through stages — up and down — and you need to know how to ride waves,” said Isaak, adding with a laugh, “I guess I’m a good swimmer.”

Originally from Argentina, Isaak founded Magnum in 1992 and has grown it into a full-service, multilingual communications company with a global network of over 2,500 linguists and subject-matter experts in 30 countries. While Isaak said she always wanted to work with languages, being a flourishing entrepreneur was not a part of her youthful vision.

“What I have today and what I’ve accomplished — I don’t think I could have imagined this,” she said.

“The aspect that most preoccupies us is how a development engages its surroundings and people,” Antonio Fiol-Silva once said, explaining his design philosophy. “Of course everything else has to fall into place, but without that you just have a building, not a place.”

Fiol-Silva believes in creating place, whether working on a community center in Cobbs Creek or on 2500 League Island Boulevard, a 130,000-square-foot life sciences GMP manufacturing facility at the Philadelphia Navy Yard. He brings that vision to his work as the founding principal of SITIO architecture + urbanism, a firm with a national reputation, and is receiving the Breakthrough award from the GPHCC.

Of the nation’s 5.7 million firms, about 7% are Hispanic-owned, and they generated $573 billion in 2021, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

In the Philadelphia region, Hispanic-owned businesses contribute over $28 billion to the economy, GPHCC president and CEO Jennifer Rodriguez said.

For many in the community, Rodriguez said, owning businesses is a way to create living wages for themselves and others when facing barriers to traditional employment opportunities.

“Latinos tend to hire from their neighborhoods, and they tend to give second chances,” she said.

For Garcia, the recognition from the chamber is “humbling.” He opened Queen & Rook shortly before the pandemic, and he said the GPHCC helped him and his wife keep the doors open.

“They helped us make it through the worst days of any industry, and now I’m really excited about the future.”