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Maria Contreras-Sweet
Embracing and Opening Doors to Hispanics


A trim, elegant woman in a Chanel-style suit delicately accented with matching silver jewelry, Maria Contreras-Sweet sits comfortably in her sleek corner office, but while the awards pile up on her granite countertops and the media buzzes constantly around her, it quickly becomes apparent that it wasn’t just the success she was after.

Contreras-Sweet’s career has come a long way due to the hard work and perseverance set in her childhood. Her mother worked in a chicken packaging plant, enduring long, dangerous days on her feet in freezing conditions. She wrapped her hands in cloth to ward off the cold, but also as a buffer against the whirling blades. Eventually, her joints became inflamed, and as she rode along with her mother to the doctor’s office, to translate questions, answers and diagnoses, she would ask her mother, ‘why? Why continue laboring under such harsh conditions?’ “She responded, ‘I’m doing this so that one day you’ll be able to work in an office, and maybe be a secretary,’” Contreras-Sweet says.

Years later, California Governor Gray Davis did ask Contreras-Sweet to be his secretary. As secretary of Business, Transportation and Housing Agency for the state of California, she wielded a $14 billion dollar budget overseeing the state’s industrial and financial infrastructure. The first Latina in history to take a seat in the California Governor’s cabinet, she says it was there that the idea for Promerica Bank was born.
“When I worked for Governor Davis, I was in charge of regulating banking,” she says. “I was asked to authorize an Asian-owned bank one day. It made me ask the question, with a Latino population our size, why aren’t there any banks specializing in that market?’ It just makes good business sense,” she says, noting that small businesses are a central backbone of the American economy, and Latinos have long been known for their entrepreneurial spirit.

The first Latino-owned bank in California in 35 years, Promerica opened its doors late last year, thanks to the dedication of Contreras-Sweet, its founder and chairwoman. Not restricted to serving the Latino community, Contreras-Sweet still made sure that every aspect of Promerica was constructed with its target audience in mind. In the lobby, masterworks of Mexican artists hang as a courtesy of one of the bank’s investor families. Discrete teller lines provide spaces for seated conversation. An office is always kept available for small business owners who might need a place to meet with other professionals. In a back corner, soon, a small cocina will be installed, serving fresh, fruit-infused water and light refreshments. “We do everything around food,” she laughs. And in the basement, a learning center is sprouting up, in which clients will be able to take fully accredited business classes taught in an intimate environment in association with the prestigious University of Southern California.

Even the architectural layout was designed to put Latino professionals at ease. “People in our community like to know that they are talking to the person in charge,” she says. “That’s why our president’s office is the first one in line as soon as you walk through the door.”

To explain her business philosophy, she tells the story of the letters she would write with each promotion, dispatches meant to share with her grandmother the growing list of her accomplishments. “She said to me ‘it’s not the position you hold, it’s what you do with the position you hold,’” she says. It was a lesson that would guide her approach to all her future endeavors. “Any time I’ve gotten an opportunity, I’ve always asked myself, ‘how can I share this opportunity?’”

It was natural, then, that Contreras-Sweet would get into politics early, inculcated as she was with a strong desire to give back to her community, coupled with her determination to make herself the most informed, engaged citizen she could. “Coming from Mexico, which was much more of a one-party system at the time, and a different perspective, I really see the power and beauty of American democracy,” she says. It was that kind of enthusiasm which allowed her to work her way up from assisting a state assembly member, to becoming a cabinet secretary in the Governor’s office. It was a passion she wanted to pass along to other young Latinas, like her daughter. That prompted her, 18 years ago, to create the Hispanas Organized for Political Equality (HOPE) Foundation. Contreras-Sweet saw the Foundation as a way to train succeeding generations in how to wield political power and broaden their civic influence. Like everything she is involved in, it has more than achieved its goals. “Look at our list of graduates,” she says proudly pointing towards their Web page. “There is nothing but talent at HOPE.”

As her career has jumped from one pinnacle to another, she says she has never planned out the next step. Still, a clear denominator has run through all her varied positions—from selling 7-Up to working for the state assembly, to managing her own consulting firm, every task she takes on she turns into an opportunity for building bridges. “It’s just second nature,” she says. “I naturally look for what we all have in common.”

Recently, Harvard University announced that they believe when Contreras-Sweet opened Promerica’s doors, she became the first Latina to found and chair a publicly traded company. This May, the California Latino Legislative Caucus will acknowledge her trailblazing with a Latino Spirit Award, whose past honorees include Oscar de la Hoya, Carlos Santana, Rita Moreno and Andy Garcia.

But if success for Contreras-Sweet can be attributed to a combination of talent, drive and determination, it must be noted that it also stems from one other very important source—her family. For instance, back when Gov. Davis offered her the opportunity to make history, she says she had to make one call first. She had to convened one of the weekly Contreras-Sweet board meetings to weigh the pros and cons. “I thought, it’s a chance to make history, but at what cost?” she says. Her family, it turns out, thought it was a small price to pay. Her husband scaled back his commitments, her three children shouldered a little more responsibility, and she made her famous move up to Sacramento. “To this day, every time any slight bit of affirmation comes my way,” she says. “I always say, it was the family who made it happen.”

By Mindy Farabee