Interview with Fermin Dorado

• Business 

     Dorado Engineering Inc   www.doradoengineering.com

• El Paso Times Article         PDF Format
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Duration: 1h 35m 25s      download MP3       Technical Data

• Background Transcription
  This is January 23rd at 9:47 a.m. Preparing for an interview with Fermin Dorado. Fermin Dorado is the President of Dorado Engineering at 2717 East Yandell. [The interviewer is Homero Galicia.] [This interview is part of the Paso del Norte Entrepreneurship Oral History Project.] HG: Good morning, Mr. Dorado, Fermin. I appreciate your taking time to allow us to interview you. Let me ask you, Mr. Dorado, when did you start your engineering business? FD: The business started in June 1996 when I retired from the city of El Paso. HG: How many years were you with the city? FD: I was with the city for 28 years. HG: Wow. What did you do at the city? FD: At the city, the latter 13 years I was a civil engineer for the city of El Paso. Perhaps that is where I feel that I made the most contribution to the city – especially the Hispanic community. HG: How is that? FD: When I started with the city, most of the work was being done by large firms or mainly Anglo firms. There were one or two Hispanic firms that actually got very little work from the city. HG: What year was that? FD: 90, from 80, 81 or 82 when I started. Some of these firms weren't getting any work from the city although work from the city was going to big firms, mainly Anglo firms. When I started, I started giving work to these Hispanic firms. As a consequence of that, I think, before I retired there were about 20 Hispanic firms doing work for the city. HG: What kinds of firms? FD: We had the architectural firms doing the design work, we had the engineering firms doing engineering, and we had some construction companies getting work from the city. Before they weren't getting any work. HG: Wow. What kinds of money, sir, are we talking about? FD: In the construction when I was there, you know, we handled some like 40, 50 million dollars a year. In the design, we handled about 10, 20 million dollars a year in design fees that started getting into the community. HG: How were you able to give those contracts? FD: Well, when I started, the first thing I did, you know, what I did, I established criteria for selecting firms. Before I was there, there were no criteria for selecting firms. It was just "I know you, you know me, and I will do the work." I started a selection process for firms. I actually started a rating curve... not a rating curve, but a rating system. [I] mainly did it to give these people a chance to participate. HG: So without the rating process... FD: or the process for selecting firms, nobody knew what or how it was done. HG: How was it done? FD: Mainly in the friendship type of... business type. HG: Friendship with the engineers? FD: With the engineers and the companies, you know. HG: And, historically, Hispanic firms weren't .... FD: There weren't that many Hispanic firms. You look around now man and there are Hispanic firms architectural and in engineering there at work. As a matter of fact, you can probably go to all these firms and they'll tell you I was the one that gave them their first job. HG: So when you went to the city, in [19]81? FD: That's when I became the city engineer. HG: In [19]81? FD: I'd been with the city since [19]69. HG: Ok. FD: And I found how to raise through the ranks to become the city engineer. HG: So there weren't very many Hispanic engineering firms? FD: Nor architectural firms HG: In the 70's? FD: The 70's. HG: When did they start? FD: They started mainly in the 80's. What happened is that these people that were working for these other firms started making their own firms. These people that were working for the big firms. HG: Like, give me an example? FD: Give me an example? Perspectiva. HG: You know, they used to work for other firms, national firms, that were in El Paso. When they realized that they could get jobs in design. They opened their own firm. _________________________________________________________________ For the rest of the interview transcript, please contact: Kristine Navarro-McElhaney Director of the Institute of Oral History University of Texas at El Paso knavarro@utep.edu www.utep.edu