A Travel to Success: Delgado Travel Connects Immigrants to their Homes
By Chelsea Leung and Hannah Cho
Linda Eichner strode across the pristine lobby of Delgado Travel in Jackson Heights and greeted customers and employees alike. Her black heels clacked across the cool linoleum floor as she made her way to her polished wooden desk.
The firm was founded by Eichner’s father, Hector Delgado, an Ecuadorian immigrant, to help immigrants from Central and South America.
“Coming [to the city] as an immigrant, my father felt there was a need to support his mother back in Ecuador,” said Eichner, 41, who is the vice president of the agency. “He wanted [his business] to become a little more personalized for people from Ecuador.”
The business has offices in New York, New Jersey, Chicago, Ecuador, and Mexico, where it offers services in money transfers and exchanges, travel and telecommunications. It also provides courier services, access to Ecuadorian publications and has its own radio station, Grupo Radial Delgado.
Delgado Travel’s close connection to the Ecuadorian community formed because Delgado is active in the Ecuadorian and Hispanic community in Jackson Heights.
“Since [my father is] very involved with different social and group gatherings [in Jackson Heights], he was able to spread his name and services,” said Eichner, who has worked at Delgado Travel since she was 16 years old.
Jackson Heights, renowned for its strikingly diverse streets, is home to tens of thousands of residents of varied ethnicities. It was founded in the early 20th Century as an ethnically white neighborhood but transformed into a racially diverse melting pot by the end of century.
The typical age of Delgado Travel’s customers ranges from 25 to 35 years old, although there is also an older generation that ranges from 45 to 60 years old, Eichner explained. While those who send money to Mexico are mostly male, those who send money to other countries are equally made up of men and women.
Delgado Travel, however, only provides money transfers to Mexico, Central America and South America, with its main business being Ecuador, Mexico, Peru, Colombia and Honduras.
Eichner assumes that some of her customers are undocumented, but the company’s policy is not to ask. After a certain amount of money, however, undocumented immigrants must bring in some sort of documentation, even from their home country, that “shows they are who they say they are,” Eichner said.
“We don’t discriminate,” Eichner said. “Undocumented immigrants can still send money back home.”
New York City officially licensed Delgado Travel in 1986, 13 years after Delgado entered the money transfer business. The license, which is proudly displayed in one of the front windows, is very important to the company, Eichner said.
Also important to the company are their employees, who are trained extensively.
“The training we provide to our employees is very important because they need to be up to date with different regulations,” Eichner said. “We make sure that they’re certain that the person who is in front of them is who they say they are. I think the regulations are very important.”
Most of the employees are also Ecuadorian. Unlike the customers, however, the employees do not need to send money home because many of their families also live in Jackson Heights.
Eichner is extremely proud of the way Delgado Travel has greatly benefited the Jackson Heights community, as evidenced by the steady stream of customers entering the spotless glass doors.
“I am forever grateful for the service Delgado Travel has provided me and my family,” said customer Martes Torres Llano through a post on the Delgado Travel website, delgadotravelusa.com. “It’s nice to have a piece of home and a connection to it right in my neighborhood.”
