Rosa Alvarez's Omnibus La Cubana in Miami specializes in serving the Hispanic market.

When Cuban exile Jose Raul Espinosa arrived in America some 40 years ago, he had no money, no job, spoke very little English-and, he had a family to support. Instead of bemoaning his fate, however, Espinosa dove headfirst into the world of capitalism with his first major purchase: an old station wagon. His plan? To shuttle passengers north from Miami to New York City for a price far below that of commercial transportation.

The Plan worked. To see Espinosa's eleven bus fleet nowadays, you'd never guess Omnibus La Cubana owed its success to the efforts of a resourceful father working to feed his family from behind the wheel of a six-passenger wagon.

Espinosa's daughter, Rosa Alvarez, speaks with pride of her father's accomplishments. "He worked harder than any of us combined," she says, her voice choked with emotion. Passengers paid $40 for the 25-hour journey.

"His first customers were mainly elderly ladies from New York," says Alvarez. When his business grew faster than he expected, Espinosa applied to the Interstate Commerce Commission for a permit to operate a motorcoach-not an easy feat, as it turned out. At the time, Greyhound and Trailways had a monopoly on the market, says Alvarez.

"We had to prove there was a need for Hispanics to have their own means of transportation because they didn't understand the English language," she says. After a four-year court battle, the ICC granted Espinosa a permit, and Omnibus La Cubana was born.

Once he possessed an ICC permit, Espinosa bought, sold, and exchanged used coaches, steadily increasing his service from two trips a week to New York to twice-a-day trips. Now, the company runs four trips daily. Two buses depart from Miami-with stops in Hialeah; West Palm Beach; Orlando; Washington, D.C.; Philadelphia; and New Jersey-bound for New York City, and at the same time two start the return trip. Two drivers alternate between driving and sleeping on a bunk in the back of each bus.

When Jose Raul Espinosa died in 1994, his wife, Rosa Espinosa, became president, and daughter, Rosa Alvarez, vice president. The company continues to grow under the women's leadership. "Even my mother can't believe how much I like buses," says Rosa Alvarez with a laugh. But certainly the company owes much of its success to the rapidly growing community of Latinos that calls southern Florida home.

"The majority of our clients have always been Hispanics who find traveling by motorcoach to be the most affordable way to vacation or visit relatives," says Alvarez. Others take the buses north to look for work in New York or New Jersey.

"We have a good reputation here among the immigrant communities because we give excellent service," says Alvarez. She tells of the time several years ago when the New Jersey Turnpike closed down due to snow. "I asked myself, `What am I going to do with 51 people stranded inside a bus for eight hours?'" she says. "So I put everybody in a hotel. And they were happy."

To market her company, Alvarez relies heavily on word-of-mouth as well as billboards, community newspapers, and radio ads. Occasionally, she'll advertise on television, after which "The telephone switchboard lights up," she says.

And don't forget the buses, themselves, she adds. With their bright colors and distinctive rainbow logo, the buses turn heads wherever they go. Responsibility for upkeep on the buses falls upon each pair of drivers, who are permanently assigned to a specific bus. "They have to keep that bus spotless, take care of passengers, and report any problems with the bus to me," she says. For the most part, though, this is not a difficult task, because Alvarez insists on reselling two or three buses every six months. "I don't want to lose the warranty on the buses because then they become very expensive to maintain," she says.

Drivers must also deal with difficult passengers who may rip the seats, drink, or smoke on the bus. "We obviously have different problems than charter companies who carry church groups to Disney World," Alvarez says. "But we let our clients know that they have to behave themselves on our trips." Alvarez and her mother run a tight ship from their offices in Miami. They recently expanded their service to include a stop in Atlanta, and they're considering a route from Miami to Chicago, where "there are a lot of Hispanics and no competition."

Wherever they set up shop, Omnibus La Cubana is sure to attract attention. "We're a women-owned company that caters to the Hispanic community," says Alvarez. "That's pretty unusual."