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The year-round program will offer Hispanic owners a chance to network, participate in educational forums, and attend structured peer sessions to help them set up and run their businesses, said Jose Gonzalez, executive director of Conexion Americas.

A kick-off event Nov. 4 will feature a keynote address by Camilo Cruz, a popular Hispanic author and motivational speaker. The free forum will be held from 5:30-8:30 p.m. at the Jack C. Massey building on the Belmont campus.

Conexion officials say they have no definitive data on how many Hispanic-owned businesses exist in Nashville, although they estimate that 130,000 Hispanic people live in Middle Tennessee.

"We have no trouble saying there's at least 700 or 800 Hispanic-owned businesses, but that's just a gut feeling," Gonzalez said. "What we do know is that Hispanic businesses are getting started at a very high rate, much higher than the non-Hispanic businesses."

Maitane Tidwell, owner of Inclusive Communications and marketing and fund-raising coordinator for the project, said over 1,000 invitations have been sent out. She anticipates between 200 and 250 people will show up for the first meeting.

The business group is an outgrowth of classes at Belmont that Conexion Americas has sponsored the past three years to help ease the path for Hispanics trying to set up businesses in the United States.

Business owners have several networking opportunities in Nashville, Gonzalez said. But Avance! is different in that it is conducted in a Spanish-speaking environment, Gonzalez said.

"So we're not reinventing the wheel, we're just doing it for the first time in a way that it seeks to bring in this emerging Hispanic entrepreneurial base," he said.