from small beans to corporate beanstalks

In the 1840s, a London bookbinder crossed the Atlantic with his six children sans a wife and mother to help care for them and proceeded to raise his children on a farm in Illinois. The eldest of these children went on to work for the Chicago Tribune and rose in the ranks. A few years later, he became the manager of the Detroit Tribune and then part owner of the Detroit Daily Advertiser, eventually using insurance money to start his own paper. This new paper, The Evening News, was much different from other printed news outlets at the time, appealing to the working class, utilizing advertising and common speech to appeal to this new class that was previously ignored. Later, his younger brother started working at the paper as an office boy. This office boy, with the help of family in the form of loans, went on to own and operate some 25 other newspapers.

This corporation grew to be one of the most successful and expansive media conglomerates in the US: The E.W. Scripps Company.

Much later, in the mid-20th century, a Jewish-Hungarian immigrant who was only one of two people in her family to survive the holocaust as a young girl, brought her son to Queens, New York, while the young boy's father stayed behind in Europe. This young son, with dreams of becoming a rock star, changed his name to reflect one of his idols and formed a band. While disbanding and forming new bands, he also held odd jobs on the side. In the 70s, he finally found a group of band-mates with whom he fit and this group set out to be the ultimate rock group.

Three decades later, KISS became a mainstay in the music world with Gene Simmons as a marketing genius, first turning their music into music business and furthering his business to encompass many successful ventures of which most are aware of.

Around the same time but much further away, on a tiny little island very few people in the world knew about outside of those countries who occupied this island, a young man working for a bank pre-WWII decided to work as an insurance agent. When the war put his business on hold, he came back afterward, quitting his job at the bank and selling insurance by himself working out of his own home.

Years later, the patriarch of the Calvo family, Eduardo Calvo, expanded his business to encompass many other companies, becoming what is arguably the most successful family business on the island of Guam.

All three are examples of men who started small, worked hard and created a successful corporation based on that hard work. Further, all three went on to create families that benefited from their ventures, all the while instilling such virtues in their families.

All of this considered, I often wonder why people choose not to look into the readily available information about these families' origins when extolling the virtues of hard work, the little man, the self-made, the small businesses.

Recently, Eddie Calvo, an established politician - as many others have been from this same family - ran for the highest office in our local government. And, as expected, words were spoken about the monopoly his family has on the island and, more, could not separate the politician from the family business as Eddie has tried to do, personally. The Calvos and Eddie, in particular, were accused of not understanding the plight of the blue collar, the small business-owner, the people who were not born into wealth but had to work hard for it. Apparently, opponents don't seem to care about how this family started. They don't bother to get to know the people of this family, where they come from, how they raise their children or what they expect of those children who choose to be a part of the family business.

They've also ignored the simple fact that Eddie Calvo's opponent is not exactly the patriarch of a blue-collar family, that Gutierrez, for all he's said about being for the people, has not lived the hardships of the same people, what with his own mansion, his own money, his own ranch, he equally has been spared the struggle.

It makes me consider a comparison to another hugely successful and ridiculously wealthy family the world is all too familiar with: The Hiltons. One daughter was kicked out of school as a teenager and had to earn a GED. Another successfully graduated from high school with an actual diploma but, like her sister, chose not to pursue higher education and instead, also rode the coattails of her rich family. Both sisters used money endowed to them, but not truly earned, and a known family name to start their own businesses.

The Calvo family could have easily copied this model. But they did not. Like many others in the Calvo family, Eddie had to go to college and earn a degree, further earning a place in the family business.

I accept that the recent generations of Calvo family probably don't truly understand the struggles of the working class and those with significantly fewer possessions and opportunities. It's hard to understand a life one has been spared from. But this does not mean that a person born to opportunity does not understand the value of hard work. It also does not mean that such fortunate people are incapable of caring for those less fortunate.

One of the things Gutierrez's supporters have used to backup the claim that Gutierrez cares for the people is the fact that several people - not many and not most - have received help from Gutierrez, whether the aid was significant in bettering their family's lives or if it was a small, genuine act of kindness, the assumption being that Calvo does not have his own litany of kind acts under his belt. So where are the people who Calvo has been kind to?

Well, I'm right here. Upon being discharged from the hospital following the birth of my first son, a hurried Eddie Calvo raced down the hallway to exit the hospital. As he glanced over his shoulder briefly and spotted me, he proceeded to walk away when he turned to look at me and my son again. Despite his obvious rush, he decided to turn around and come to see us. As a new mother enamored with my newborn son, I was pleased to see someone excited so see my son as Eddie Calvo congratulated me and told me what a blessing becoming a parent was.

Just a couple short weeks later, as I celebrated the new life in my family, I mourned the loss of another life having lost my father. Because my father was the brother of a well-known politician and a beloved priest, his hospital viewing upon his death was not limited to family members. Many agency heads and politicians came to pay respects to my father. There was no separation of parties. Democrat leaders offered me kind words and comfort. There was no separation of current politicians and former ones. Public figures who did not hold current office also came to pay respects. Around this time, Eddie Calvo also learned that we were barely scraping by living in a small apartment on one of his family's properties that was previously just small enough for two adults, not big enough for our growing family. He made an offer to help us find a larger room that we could afford. We didn't take this offer but it was nonetheless appreciated.

During this hard time, I spoke to several public figures who were only one of many people who crowded the church during my father's funeral. And with the exception of a certain politician's wife, none of the other figures left me with a sense of politicking. They were a comfort when I needed it most.

There was one particular former politician who wasn't there, just as he wasn't there when my grandmother, his cousin, passed away five years prior.

I realize I am one person. But it would be naive to assume that I am only one of a small few.

Evidenced here is a person who came from a fortunate family that did not have a start in fortune. Evidenced here is a person who was capable of helping those who did not have his fortune and a kind person who cared about someone other than himself.

Most importantly, evidenced here is a success story of a small business of one growing into successful business that has housed, clothed, fed and educated a wealth of further generations of this successful family.

From my perspective, Eddie Calvo is a prime example of what small business ventures can create.