BURLINGTON — Organizers of the Fiesta Unidos (United Celebration) in Burlington said the event was a successful first step toward bringing the Chamber of Commerce and Spanish-speaking business owners together.

The Saturday festival included food and merchandise vendors, live music and a reina, or queen, contest. The chamber hoped the festival would boost its Spanish-speaking membership.

The chamber does not track ethnicity, but chamber office manager Lisa Swanberg guesses few Hispanic-owned businesses have joined.

Fiesta Unidos Co-chairman Navor Tercero said the festival is about the two groups networking together. He said Chamber of Commerce members and Spanish-speaking businesses understand networking and work well within their isolated circles. He’s trying to bring them together, which he said will be an ongoing process.

“Both parties really need to seek each other as a friend or as an asset and need to continue to pursue each other,” Tercero said. “It can’t just be that we put on this event and everything is fine and dandy.”

He said Spanish-speaking business owners understand networking instinctively.

“The Hispanic community does that organically,” Tercero said. “There is no word for networking in Spanish. It doesn’t exist.”

He said people make recommendations, refer each other, but only within Spanish-speaking communities. The 370-member chamber also works within its own confines, and he wants to expand both networks by bringing them together.

The event at least convinced Marta Ortiz, owner of Variadades Marta in Burlington, to consider what the chamber can offer her.

“I’ve never been part of a chamber,” Ortiz said. “It makes me aware that there is a chamber and for me to look into what it does.”

The event did not spur a membership surge immediately afterward. In fact, Swanberg said they’ve received no additional memberships since the event. But she and others are hoping this forged a relationship and will continue to grow over time.

Next week, festival organizers will meet to debrief and make plans for next year.

Tercero wants the festival to take place closer to Sept. 16, Mexico’s Independence Day. He said many attendants of Fiesta Unidos over the weekend enjoyed the celebration, but did not understand what they were celebrating.

Swanberg said she wants more space next year and hopes that having a full year to plan, instead of a couple months, will help.

* Aaron Burkhalter can be reached at 360-416-2141 or .