Interview with Michel Zajur (2025-02-21)

Michel Zajur is the founder of the Virginia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, which has offices in Richmond, Hampton Roads, and Northern Virginia. Michel was born in Mexico and immigrated from his parents to Richmond in the 1960s. He attended J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College and Virginia Commonwealth University, while also managing a family restaurant, La Siesta. The restaurant was a community space for the Richmond Latino community, running cultural exchange programming for students across the region. He founded the Virginia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce in 2000, and shares about the various forms of economic development and community building the chamber has been involved with with the Virginia Latino community.