Martin Cabrera Jr. was supposed to become an architect.
Growing up in Chicago’s Little Village neighborhood, the son of Mexican immigrants had little exposure to the financial world. His family worried about paying the mortgage, not investing in the stock market. But a high school economics teacher introduced him to a stock market simulation, and what began as a classroom exercise changed the direction of his life.
Cabrera went on to study finance and, in 2001, founded Cabrera Capital Markets. Today, the firm is among the largest Latino-owned investment banks and institutional brokerage firms in the United States.
But for Cabrera, building a financial institution is only part of the equation. The more consequential question is who gets to participate in the opportunities that capital creates.
“And I tell folks, we need to control the capital because that’s how you control the agenda and control the purse strings.”
During our conversation in Las Vegas, Cabrera pointed to a $550 million real estate development in Chicago, expected to include approximately 750 residential units alongside commercial space.
The project illustrates an approach he believes more Latino businesses should embrace: being intentional about where their money goes.
“But we’re using our Latino attorneys, Latino contractors, Latino engineers. We’re being intentional about circulating those dollars within our community.”
For Cabrera, that means looking beyond individual business success. A development project can create opportunities for contractors, engineers, attorneys, and other businesses that might otherwise struggle to access projects of that scale.
He also knows what it means to fight for a seat at the table. Despite Cabrera Capital’s track record, he says prospective corporate clients have sometimes questioned the firm’s capabilities because of its Latino ownership.
“Sometimes they look at us and they say, hey. They’re brown firm. Their quality might not be that good.”
His response has been to let the work challenge those assumptions. But he believes the broader financial system must also reconsider how it sees Latino businesses.
“But those companies need to look at Latinos not as consumers, but as entrepreneurs.”
At AVANCE Global, Cabrera offered a practical challenge to the executives and entrepreneurs gathered around him: commit to doing business with at least two people they met at the conference over the following year.
It is a relatively small proposition from someone accustomed to operating in financial markets worth billions. Yet it captures his larger argument: creating wealth is not only about how much capital a community generates, but also about how deliberately it puts that capital to work.
