LET’S GO

Delgado’s Health Led To Biz Change

Hector Delgado, President of Delgado Travel, with daughter and Vice President Jeanette Delgado-Savino.

By James J. Parziale

It was 1986 and Hector Delgado was in the midst of trying to plant the seeds for what one day would be a thriving family-owned travel agency that bares his name. He banked every penny, watched and squeezed every dollar, and labored through seven-day work weeks to try to support his family and propel Delgado Travel into the realm of success.

The Ecuadorian immigrant was well on his way, too. The Jackson Heights-based business was beginning to flourish, garnering close attention and fanfare from the Hispanic community starting to engulf much of Roosevelt Ave. while new branches were popping up around all of Queens.

Then Delgado, amid his professional ascent, was grounded by tragedy. After feeling fatigued, Delgado went for a checkup only to be referred to a specialist. Following a myriad of tests, a doctor at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine approached him with the results.

“Go home and get a nurse,” nonchalantly declared the doctor, sounding more like the Grim Reaper than a person. “You are going to die in less than three months.”

“And then he left like nothing happened,” Delgado said.

Agent Gets Grounded

Delgado’s emotional outpouring was tremendous. He sobbed, he prayed and questioned how he could have cancer in various regions of his body. Was there was nothing that could be done?

The doctor’s words reverberated in his soul, but Delgado decided to seek another opinion. He ventured to the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in Manhattan, and was rejuvenated with the possibility of experimental procedures that could save his life.

A doctor there gave him the name of William West, an aspiring physician trying to get permits for new cancer treatment in Memphis. He needed the guinea pigs and Delgado needed the hope, so the two were a match made in heaven.

But what would be of his flourishing business? Who would take the reigns?

His daughter, then 17-year-old Jeanette Delgado, fit the bill. A freshman at St. John’s, she was forced to leave school and steer the ship during her father’s bout.

“I left college to work because there was no one here to learn and mind the business,” said now-Vice President Jeanette Delgado-Savino who was going to St. John’s University for business administration.

“I knew what was going on. I started as a cashier from downstairs,” she said.

She diligently learned and mastered the various tasks, and worked in every department: money transfers, travel agency, the courier (packages to Ecuador) and more. She led the company in her father’s absence, and the success continued.

Delgado Travel is not only a staple in Jackson Heights, but all across the United States and the world. It services more than 200 counties in various ways and is renowned for its customer service. With some 160 total branches throughout the world, this business has come a long way.

In 1973, it was just Hector Delgado and his brother Frank, who left a few years after that. They shared a small office several blocks away from home base now, 79-08 Roosevelt Avenue.

Delgado Travel’s main office in Jackson Heights.

Humble Beginnings

Delgado recalled the difficulties. “I had a very little office,” he said “Back then there weren’t many Spanish people around. It was very, very hard.”

He tried to market the grassroots way with flyers at Flushing Meadows Corona Park where he found a giant conglomerate of Hispanics congregated to play soccer. At the time, he was paying the rent at his office and “even cleaned it in order to save money.”

He was very involved with the Ecuadorian community, going to parties, organizational meetings, fraternizing with soccer teams, searching for Hispanic clientele.

“There were days when I didn’t have the money to pay the rent,” Delgado said. “The banks would not give me money or loans. I had to sweat it out. Whatever [money] I made I didn’t take profit, just a small salary, and I saved the money to open up other offices. Whatever money I had I just reinvested it.”

And seemingly with each passing year, he opened an office, then another, then two and so on. The growth was systematic. Today, Delgado Travel has 28 offices in New York, four in Chicago and one in New Jersey. It has 70 offices in Delgado’s native Ecuador, and another 26 in Mexico.

 

Delgado Travel touts its customer service.

Amid the innumerable services the company provides, travel is the foundation on which the company rests. It services virtually every country in Central and South America and has ingrained itself in the communities so much so that Delgado fields requests from customers to open up new branches.

All About The Customer

“We give a good service,” Delgado, 64, said. “We don’t like to cheat anybody. If we make a mistake or [the customer] makes a mistake, it doesn’t matter, we pay for it. We will accommodate them to the point that we will buy a new ticket. Our reputation comes first.”

His daughter agreed. “We’re not in the business to make money; we’re in the business to provide a service. That’s what a lot of our competition doesn’t have... We excel at customer service. We have people on-site always ready to deal with a customer.”

That’s the advantage of going to Delgado Travel, the family-owned business that runs toy drives in the neighborhood.Those tactics build bonds with customers and keep them and their children coming through the doors.

“We try and give better pricing and service. If something goes wrong [with the Internet], it’s a pain in the neck. Over here we give them better rates and service,” Delgado-Savino, 36, said. “A lot of them aren’t Internet and computer savvy. They rather work with a travel agency. It’s a generational thing.”

A Tough Struggle

By comparison, building a business seemed easy compared to a fight for life with cancer. Delgado had a seven-year battle with the disease that spanned from 1986 to 1993, a span which included never-before-used tests, surgeries and a swell of mental and physical ache.

After hearing the devastating news that he was slated to die in a matter of months, Delgado ventured to the West Clinic to give it a shot. He tried a procedure, that he described, took most of the blood from his body, put it in a machine for cleansing, and returned it into his body. He did this over a period of two years and visited his family infrequently.

“Oh yes,” Delgado said when asked if it was painful. “I used to have fevers like you haven’t seen. People used to tie me down.”

The business was in peril until Delgado-Savino stepped in. Her presence had a calming effect on the family and the business.

“It was very stressful,” she said. “I didn’t know anything about the business and I came and learned, but there was a lot of people who were supportive. I didn’t like for people to look at me as their boss. My father always taught me that if you’re going to do something, do it. If you’re going to finish something, finish. Your word is what matters most.”

All the while, her father was going for treatments every several weeks.

He was told he was recovering, and then after going every month, he became lax and went every three months. After that, he found he had cancer in the pancreas.

In 1989, he decided to have surgery to remove his kidney and undergo chemotherapy, a more conventional route but painful nonetheless. He returned to Memphis and had his kidney removed, sharing time between the center and Queens.

“There were times I remember that me and my sister were sitting here and he would just pass out,” Delgado-Savino said. “We would have to shake him. He is and always has been dedicated to being here.”

In 1992 the cancer returned again in one lung, which was on the verge of collapse. He was again treated in Memphis. He stayed there for three months at a time and visited family for two week intervals.

Patrons louging in the lobby at Delgado Travel.

Delgado recalls pacing in elevators and hallways murmuring, “I will live, I will live.” The other patients thought he had lost his marbles, but he was merely keeping up his faith. Again, after months of treatment, he was healed, and today he has chosen to run his business until the end of this year. He has plans to retire and hand the reins to his daughters, Delgado-Savino and Linda Delgado, 31.

He will spend the rest of his days with the memory of his triumph over cancer.

“I prayed and walked and talked and I put it in my mind that I was going to get well,” Delgado said.

And everything else fell into place.