In 2014, Lea Marquez Peterson, the President & CEO of the Tucson Hispanic Chamber of Commerce at the time, decided she wanted to expand the Hispanic Chamber south to Nogales and east to Sierra Vista and Douglas, AZ. Therefore she created three Tucson Hispanic Chamber Affiliates called the Ambos Nogales Affiliate, which was both for Nogales, AZ and Nogales Sonora, Nogales; the Sierra Vista Affiliate and the Douglas Affiliate. She appointed Directors for the Nogales (Ricardo Morales) and Douglas Affiliates (Arturo Escalante) but could not find anyone for the Sierra Vista Affiliate. In 2016 she asked Dan Valle, who had his own business consulting firm in Sierra Vista if he could serve as the Director of the Sierra Vista Affiliate and he accepted.
However, in August 2019 after a brief and very serious illness, Arturo Escalante unexpectedly passed away. This left a void in Douglas that was a very active Affiliate. After not finding anyone to fill the vacant position, Dan Valle, approached the Tucson Hispanic Chamber Board of Directors in 2020 with the idea of reorganizing the Sierra Vista and Douglas Affiliates into the Southeast Arizona Hispanic Chamber of Commerce that would operate in Cochise, Graham, Greenlee Counties and Northeast Sonora. The Board approved the reorganization and Dan was appointed as the Regional/International Director of this new Affiliate of the Tucson Hispanic Chamber.
Since then, the new Southeast Arizona Hispanic Chamber Affiliate has gained new Members not only in Sierra Vista and Douglas but in Hereford, Huachuca City, Whetstone, Bisbee, Tombstone, Benson, Willcox, Safford, Thatcher, Solomon, Pima, and Clifton as well as in Cananea, Agua Prieta, Naco, and Nacozari, Sonora with over 150 Members.
