Connecting Communities with Threads of Love: How Hilo de Amor Is Giving Back with Help from TEDC Creative Capital

Table of Contents:

Finding Inspiration in Threads of Love
Hope Found in Handmade Tote Bags
Swift Growth and a Need to Learn the Business Ropes
Gaining Entrepreneurial Knowledge and Growing in Vision
Driving Toward the Destination with Confidence

For Esther Wright, owner of Hilo de Amor, every business has a heart. For her, that’s a heart to help others—especially the people of Oaxaca, Mexico, where she was raised. By promoting Oaxacan culture and traditions to people all over the world through original handmade products, including their signature tote bags, Hilo de Amor is able to help makers in one of the poorest states in Mexico prosper. The business is thriving and making a difference—with a helping hand of financing and education available through TEDC Creative Capital.

Finding Inspiration in Threads of Love

Esther’s life journey brought her from Oaxaca to the United States in 1999. She found a role she could grow in at a wireless company, and with her drive to succeed, she climbed the corporate ladder. She enjoyed the work, but after 16 years, her body began showing signs of stress, and she realized she needed to shift.

“I always say changes happen for three reasons,” Esther says. “The first one is by choice. The second one is by accident. And the third one is by necessity,” Esther says. “I got to the limit of necessity because even though I was comfortable there, I was not doing what I was supposed to do in life.” When her doctor recommended that she make time for rest, she agreed. She took a year off and traveled to her home state of Oaxaca, Mexico, to heal and get back to the basics.

After reevaluating her life and her job, Esther decided it was important to align her work with her purpose. “It’s like you need to do what you are born to do,” she says. Joining her father, a retired pastor, Esther helped local pastors in Oaxaca, serving everywhere there was a need, including hospitals, retirement homes, and, as fate would have it, the local prisons. And that, she says, is where her new journey began. 

Hope Found in Handmade Tote Bags

While ministering at the prison, the inmates asked if Esther could help them. When she asked what they wanted, they explained they needed help selling the tote bags they made to support themselves and build positive changes in their lives. This handmaking of totes is a tradition passed down from generation to generation in Oaxaca. Each tote is woven with thread made from recycled plastic and takes approximately 10 hours for the prisoners to handcraft. Esther bought several totes from the prisoners, intending to give them away to friends. 

But her father had a different suggestion that would lead her into a life-changing venture. He advised her not to give the bags away but to sell them and give the money to the prisoners. She loved the idea. So when she returned to Oklahoma, she sold the bags and gave the proceeds to the pastor in Oaxaca who served the prisoners who made them. And that’s how Hilo de Amor — Thread of Love — was born.

Swift Growth and a Need to Learn the Business Ropes

Eager for ongoing ways to sell the totes and continue giving back to Oaxaca, Esther nabbed a booth at Mercado Day (Los Festivales y Mercados) in the Kendall Whittier district of Tulsa. In those early days, she was so new as a business owner that she didn’t know she needed a tax ID number. Yet her sales were so successful that she sold out of the totes in a single day, with customers begging to know when she’d be back with more. So, she arranged to ship the prisoners’ totes to Oklahoma regularly.

But she was still learning the ropes as an entrepreneur, which included realizing that cash flow and profits matter, even if your goal is to give and serve others. “We sold the bags for seven to eight months without making a penny,” Esther says. “We did it only to help the prisoners and the pastor who served them. We were paying for the shipping and other transaction fees.” 

Her husband finally told her, “I know you are passionate about this, but take this work as a business. You already help enough.” Esther agreed—and the results were amazing. During her first month of treating the sale of the totes as a business, she received an order from the production team of Acapulco, an Apple TV+ comedy series—something so incredible she thought it must have been a scam. But the order was real, and she realized that good things were happening because she was doing good. 

Gaining Entrepreneurial Knowledge and Growing in Vision 

Still, Esther knew she needed to learn more if she was going to keep Hilo de Amor successful. She learned about TEDC Creative Capital after attending a forum hosted by Governor Kevin Stitt for Latinos. She asked what resources he could provide to her and other business owners like her who needed entrepreneurial guidance. He suggested connecting with her local bank, which suggested she check out the entrepreneurial development programs at TEDC.

As Esther attended the TEDC program, she began to rethink her approach to finances. She’d been raised to believe in paying cash for everything, and she didn’t believe it was acceptable to borrow money. So, even though the program she attended awarded her a chance at a loan, she initially rejected the opportunity.

But after she read up and learned more about business loans, she realized that using TEDC’s financing options could help Hilo de Amor grow. TEDC’s staff was a great resource as she considered what to do. “They are wonderful people and so understanding,” Esther says. “They gave me the time I needed, and when I was ready, I went in and applied.” She’s using her TEDC loan to refresh the shelves and materials that make up her kiosk at Mother Road Market.

Driving Toward the Destination with Confidence

Since getting her loan and learning more about running a thriving business, Esther has expanded Hilo de Amor. The shop now employs a group of artisans in Oaxaca to add details such as zippers, tassels, and linings to the totes the prisoners handweave. She offers a wide variety of authentic handmade Oaxacan accessories, including backpacks, handbags, wallets, hats, jewelry, culinary treats like chocolate and mole sauce, and more. 

In the end, Esther likens owning a business to driving a Lamborghini. It’s a nice car, and it helps you get somewhere faster, she says, but you have to know how to use it. “If you don’t know how to drive the Lamborghini, you will crash on the way because it’s not like a normal car,” she says. “TEDC is the Lamborghini that gives you what you need to get to your destination faster, as well as the tools to avoid crashing on the way.”

At this stage in her life, Esther is happy to be pursuing her passion for helping people through Hilo de Amor. “When lots of little businesses help their area, then everybody gets better. It’s really cool to see that we’re helping them have employment and helping people here as well. It all adds up.”

That sense of a rising tide floating all boats wouldn’t be as possible without organizations like TEDC lending their help. “I want to thank the team at TEDC for what they do,” Esther says. “We are community, and as we grow our community, we make it better. That’s what makes us so amazing as a community. I love how TEDC works together with other local bankers and businesses, and they support us. They call. They show up in support. I really appreciate that.”

TEDC Creative Capital exists to serve small businesses and startups to find their footing and thrive in Oklahoma. As a community development financial institution (CDFI), TEDC offers flexible, non-traditional capital and funding vehicles and foundational entrepreneurial educational programs to equip local business owners to successfully navigate their needs and find their footing in their local economy. Learn more about how TEDC’s knowledgeable, helpful team can assist you in attaining your small business goals.