
{"id":23582,"date":"2012-02-09T10:31:16","date_gmt":"2012-02-09T15:31:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/?p=23582"},"modified":"2012-02-08T17:08:40","modified_gmt":"2012-02-08T22:08:40","slug":"carrboros-hispanic-owned-eateries-overcome-obstacles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2012\/02\/09\/carrboros-hispanic-owned-eateries-overcome-obstacles\/","title":{"rendered":"Carrboro\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Hispanic-owned eateries overcome obstacles"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_23586\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-23586\" style=\"width: 400px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/2012\/02\/09\/carrboros-hispanic-owned-eateries-overcome-obstacles\/latinorestaurants_web\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-23586\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/LatinoRestaurants_web.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"LatinoRestaurants_web\" width=\"400\" height=\"300\" class=\"size-full wp-image-23586\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/LatinoRestaurants_web.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/LatinoRestaurants_web-113x84.jpg 113w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/LatinoRestaurants_web-150x113.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/LatinoRestaurants_web-100x75.jpg 100w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/LatinoRestaurants_web-360x270.jpg 360w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-23586\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Alfonso and Isabel Guzman of Carrboro have opened a new grocery store, Tienda don Poncho, while their taco truck, Captain Poncho\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Tacos, is undergoing renovations. PHOTO BY JEREMY GERLACH<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>By Jeremy Gerlach<\/strong><br \/>\n<em>Courtesy of the Carrboro Commons<\/em><\/p>\n<p>According to the 2010 census, there are no Hispanic-owned restaurants in Carrboro. There are chain Latin-themed establishments, yes, but none are owned by anyone in a Latino community that comprises more than 13 percent of Carrboro\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s population.<\/p>\n<p>Yet on any given morning, you can walk past tienda after tienda \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and by night, taco truck after taco truck. Why are the numbers \u00e2\u20ac\u201c or lack thereof \u00e2\u20ac\u201c hiding the Latino food industry from the Carrboro consumer?<\/p>\n<p>Jos\u00c3\u00a9 Torres is a community specialist at the Carrboro branch of El Centro Hispano, a Durham-based grassroots organization dedicated to strengthening the Triangle\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Latino community. He says that Hispanic businesses, especially in the food industry, often fly under the radar.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Latino community in Carrboro is full of businesses that may be smaller or less advertised,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d says Torres. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Some are so small that the census doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even count them.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153El Centro Hispano tries to help [businesses] network through our community outreach, but they also have had some innovative efforts of their own,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Torres says. Carrboro\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s taco trucks, for example, have taken to Facebook, Twitter and other social-networking sites.<\/p>\n<p>Despite these efforts, he still does not know how many Hispanic-owned businesses actually exist in Carrboro.<br \/>\nAnnette Stone, director of the Carrboro Chamber of Commerce\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Office of Economic and Community Development, was also unsure.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We help businesses of all demographics find loans,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t worked specifically with the Latino community.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Alfonso Guzman, owner of Captain Poncho\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Tacos, has been in the food industry for three years, since moving to Carrboro from Mexico. He ventured an educated guess.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I would say there are about four to five taco trucks competing in Carrboro today,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he says. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It changes, because sometimes you are making money \u00e2\u20ac\u201c or sometimes you have to pack up for a while.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>While his taco truck is undergoing renovations, Guzman has opened up a permanent sister store, Tienda don Poncho.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s nice to have a grocery store too \u00e2\u20ac\u201c but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s harder to advertise,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he says. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153With the taco trucks, you can just go right to the customers.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>According to Guzman, the four Carrboro-based, Hispanic-owned taco trucks are Comida Mexicana, Costa Sur, Taquer\u00c3\u00ada de Jalisco and Captain Poncho\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Tacos. Permanent grocery stores and restaurants include Tienda don Poncho, Don Jos\u00c3\u00a9 Tienda Mexicana, Toledo\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Taquer\u00c3\u00ada and Taquer\u00c3\u00ada Tres Amigos.<\/p>\n<p>Isabel Lin Guzman, a local immigration attorney and Alfonso Guzman\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s wife, said that the biggest difference between Hispanic-owned businesses and the larger chains is the authenticity of the venue.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We take the time to make [Tienda don Poncho] a real Mexican grocery store, just like it would be in Mexico,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she says. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s smaller and it might not show up in the ads, but we want people to know that businesses like ours are the real thing.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Torres says that in addition to the lack of exposure, entrepreneurs like the Guzmans face issues like loan availability.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Most of these businesses only need very small loans to start up, and we try to educate them and refer those individuals to the right sources,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d says Torres. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153But even micro-loans are still difficult to get.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>That said, he foresees a growth of Hispanic-owned businesses in the area.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The community here is well connected, and the businesses are networking now too,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he says. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Carrboro\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Latino community is making some real innovations.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p><em>Jeremy Gerlach is a UNC student writing for the Carrboro Commons, a bi-weekly online lab newspaper for Jock Lauterer\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Community Journalism class at the School of Journalism and Mass Communication.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>According to the 2010 census, there are no Hispanic-owned restaurants in Carrboro.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":23586,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[275,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-economy","category-features"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23582","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23582"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23582\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23596,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23582\/revisions\/23596"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}