Meet the founder...Maria Herlinda De La Garza

Dear Friends:

I am pleased to have you visiting our alpaca collection today. I would like to take this opportunity to tell about how and why I became involved with this magnificent animal.

In 1995 I had lived and worked in the United States for 16 years. I was happy and successful. By then I was Vice President of a young company that exported private label groceries to Japan, China, Russia and Singapore. Charles C. Fitzmorris Jr., the owner of Star Traders, was a worldwide known entrepreneur and he was my mentor.

I started as his administrative assistant, and believe me it was not an easy task. Charlie Fitzmorris, a Chicagoan of Irish descent and a 1933 Princeton graduate, was voted to be the second most successful person of his generation after John Firestone Jr.

When I met him he was already 72 years old, and running a worldwide corporation with offices in England, Belgium, Spain, etc. His customers were the largest grocery chains in the world, starting in the USA going through Europe, Japan and all the way to Australia and South Africa.

He was like an army--he kept me on my toes for many years. He also guided me and taught me everything about the grocery business. During all those years I grew personally and professionally and became the vice-president of his latest company, Star Traders. For the last four years, I have been the legal representative of his last company, Willow Lake Alpaca International, Inc. Ltda. in Chile.

Within a week he had formed Willow Lake Alpacas International, Inc. and had his importation permit for 330 alpacas. What he did not have anymore was his health and the energy to go and get the alpacas himself. He needed somebody that he could trust completely; importing alpacas is complicated, expensive and almost 100% cash based. I was lucky to have enjoyed his total confidence. So this is how and why I came in contact with Chilean alpacas for the first time.

I was told that I was going to be the administrator of a three-month project. Little did we know about importing alpacas. During those days the importation rules were even more complicated than they are now. Charlie sent me to Chile with a team of three veterinarians who were experts of alpacas, an electrical generator, the latest ultrasound machine, tents, sleeping bags and 20 cases of equipment. It felt like, and was, a real expedition to the Andean Mountains.

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