Carlos Castro: From Crossing the Border to Owning a Business

This week on JobMakers, host Denzil Mohammed talks with Carlos Castro, president and CEO of Todos Supermarket in Woodbridge, Virginia, a successful business employing more than 200 people. He describes the perilous conditions in his native El Salvador, why he crossed the border to America, and why immigrant business owners tend to hire people like them, in this week’s JobMakers.

Guest

Carlos Castro is the president of Todos Supermarket, which specializes in foods and services to immigrants from Latin America, the Caribbean and Africa at stores in Woodbridge and Dumfries, Virginia. Castro immigrated to the U.S. when he was 24, and worked a variety of odd jobs as a cleaner, cook and dishwasher, before he took classes, learned English, and started a construction business. In 1990, 10 years after leaving El Salvador, he became a U.S. citizen and opened the first Todos Supermarket. Since then, he has repeatedly been named one of the Fantastic 50 businesses of the year by the Virginia Chamber of Commerce and expanded to a second store in Dumfries. In addition to employing nearly 200 local residents and serving thousands of customers, he’s become an important community leader. Castro is a founder of the Hispanic Organization for Leadership and Action, and served on the boards of the Prince William Chamber of Commerce, Youth for Tomorrow, Potomac Health Foundation, Hylton Performing Arts Center, Northern Virginia Community College Education Foundation, and the Norther Virginia Workforce Development Board.