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CHICAGO -- There is a 17,000-square-foot factory in this city's
ethnic Little Village neighborhood that is home to third-generation
tamale maker Alejandro Castro, his grandmother's handwritten recipe for
mole sauce -- and a protracted public-relations battle with the
nation's largest bank by assets, Bank of America Corp.
Family-owned La Guadalupana Wholesale Co., Inc. and its Charlotte,
N.C., lender tangled for months over the Castros' failure to make
payments on a $400,000 credit line and who was to blame for the default. The Mexican-food maker, calling itself David in a struggle against a
banking Goliath, lined up support from local politicians, a pastor, the
local Hispanic chamber of commerce and the League of United Latin
American Citizens. It also organized a prayer vigil outside Bank of
America's Chicago headquarters with marchers clutching portraits of La
Guadalupana's immigrant founders and the Catholic Patron Saint of
Mexico, inspiration for the company name.
After weeks of public heat, La Guadalupana agreed to end its
campaign, and Bank of America began talks with the company for a
financial settlement, according to people familiar with the process.
Whatever the outcome, the episode underscores how vulnerable large
banks have become to public-relations campaigns and political pressure
mounted by troubled small-business borrowers. This is especially so for
institutions that have received billions of dollars in federal bailout
money. Read the full story here: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123966623199215191.html
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