Business is a mother-daughter affair for Latina banker.

For Ramona Banuelos, banking is a family business--one she got "dragged into, kicking and screaming."

Banuelos' mother is Romana Acosta Banuelos, treasury secretary under President Nixon and a founder of Pan American Bank, which in 1964 became the first Los Angeles-based Hispanic bank.

Ramona Banuelos had just started college in Long Beach in 1976 and was working at her family's other business, Gardena-based Ramona's Mexican Food Products, when her mother asked her to help out at Banco del Pueblo, an Orange County bank her parents had recently acquired an interest in.

"My mother called and said she needed help and I was to report to work in Santa Ana after school that day," Banuelos remembered. "I told her I didn't want to learn about banking. I was working at Ramona's. She said, 'You're going to learn.'"

To top that off, her new boss, "a manager from hell," told her that he'd make it his business to ensure she never worked in another bank again. But Banuelos outlasted him, learning how to do just about every job, though she eventually decided to go back to Ramona's.

She stayed at the food business until 1981, when her mother called again, this time to make her Banco's chief cashier. Today she is chief financial officer at Pan American Bank, which is still run by her mother, who retains the titles of chairwoman and chief executive.

Pan American's mission is the same as it was in 1964: serve Latinos and others who have difficulty receiving services from mainstream banks. The bank is small; it has three offices and reported assets of almost $43 million. Among its bread and butter products are mortgages, car loans and certificates of deposit.

Banuelos said she impresses on customers the importance of depositing money in a community bank that will invest back in the neighborhood with its loans. Now, she's going after the younger generation.

"I tell them it's a great way to start saving," she said. "Buy a CD and forget about it. You're helping the community even though you don't live here anymore."

Banuelos would love to grow the bank but the biggest obstacle is finding good help. Pan American competes against big outfits such as Banamex, now a unit of Citigroup Inc.

Most native speakers know "street Spanish," but learning the financial lingo, "is practically a different language," she said. Trained staff are prime targets for banks opening new branches looking to capitalize on the growing Latino market.

Banuelos has experienced that herself. She recently received a call from a recruiter, whom she hastily dispensed with.

"'I can't leave. My Morn won't let me,'" she told the recruiter. "He hadn't done his research."