Community: Maria's Store
Home is wherever your family is, and Maria’s home is definitely in Oregon now.
She was born in Zacatecas, in the high mountains and plateaus about 350 miles northwest of Mexico City. She was the oldest girl in a family of 11 children.
Today, Maria owns El Tepeyac, a Mexican store and bakery at 1854 North Lombard. El Tepeyac is the hill where the Virgin of Guadalupe appeared to Juan Diego, a humble Aztec man. Images of the Virgin adorn the walls of the store – she even appears on Maria’s business card.
Maria has put a lot of herself into the store, and it shows. Walking into El Tepeyac is like stepping into a shop in central Mexico. It is lively, almost chaotic. Piñatas festooned with crepe paper dangle from the rafters. Brightly colored gifts, clothing, and sandals cover one wall, phone cards and assorted gizmos cover another.
Mexican imported foods line the central aisles: cornhusks for making tamales, manzanillos in sugar cane, hot and hotter peppers and salsas, cookies and candy. Mexican beer, Mexican-style cheese, and eggs fill the coolers along with sodas like horchata and tamarindo. Need a Mexican spice? To the right, all the way back.
And of course, pastries and breads fill a rack at the rear of the store. These are genuine Mexican pastries that Maria bakes in her store, with pink or yellow sugar crusts, red fillings, white frosting, or baked in the shapes of seashells or squash.
Mounted high on a rear wall, just to the right of the pastry racks, the television is on, pouring jingles and chatter into the background.
Just like Mexico. But Oregon really is home now. Maria has worked hard to get here.
She married her first husband when she was 17. He was “muy guapo,” very handsome. She was 18 when her first son was born, but soon her husband started drinking and bullying her.
Over the years that they were married, they moved several times between Mexico and the U.S., living in Chicago and Atlanta. And all the time, their relationship got more violent and difficult. She left him or he left her more than once, and each time, she took him back, even though he abused her. One night, he choked her until she passed out. Another time, he broke her nose, and once her jaw.
Finally, Maria had enough. She went to her sister’s house in Zacatecas and made a plan to join the rest of her family in the U.S. She already had her Social Security number from living and working in the U.S. before, but didn’t have a work permit or any other documents.
She went to Tecate, just east of Tijuana. Border crossings had always been very easy before, but this time, it was very difficult.
She sent her children across the border with her brother, who had proper immigration papers. Then Maria paid a human smuggler – a coyote – to take her across the border.
First the coyote sent her to a ranch house outside town, and she had to wait there for almost two weeks as more people arrived. Eventually, 40 people were living in two small rooms, only beans to eat, and no one could leave. They were virtual prisoners, waiting to cross the border. Finally, men came to take them across the border. Maria didn’t recognize any of them – the man she had paid was not among them – but she decided to go with them anyway.
As they approached the border, they could see a lot of U.S. immigration police – the border guards. The coyotes told the people to split into two groups. They told Maria to go with the younger, healthier people, who were going to run across the border and hide on low ground. The other group was going to cross the border and then go up a hill and hide. The coyotes’ helpers on the U.S. side of the border would come get everyone and take them to safety.
Maria could see that the group that was going up the hill was meant to distract the border guards so that the other group could make it across. She could run pretty fast and knew she could get across the border, but she didn’t trust the coyotes. Maria didn’t like the way they looked at her, and felt very threatened. She had made friends with an older couple, who were being sent up the hill, and decided to stay with them to be safe. Her group was sent to the hilltop, and just as Maria had suspected, they were quickly caught by the border guards and sent back to Mexico.
Her next attempt saw Maria walking alone at 3 AM down streets cruised by prostitutes and drug dealers – and she got caught and sent back anyway. Finally, 3 weeks after her first attempt, she made it. It was a huge relief to be safe and see her children again. Her parents were living in Portland, so she moved here with her children.
She got a good job at a food processing plant, where she met her second husband. She was through with “guapo” men, and this time picked a man who treated her with respect. She and her second husband had twins together, and she was able to gain U.S. citizenship, as well.
When the food processing plant closed, she decided to open a store. Maria borrowed money from her family for a down payment, and her whole family pitched in to help remodel the store and get all the equipment installed. They’d come to the store after they got off their day jobs to help out. It took a year to get the store going.
Since then, she added the fresh bakery to her store and dreams of expanding her business. She has even become certified as a mortgage broker and wants to open an office to serve the Latino community.
It’s a lot of work, but she’s home here in Portland, surrounded by friends and family, including her children. And the lively, colorful interior of her store – the Virgin of Guadalupe looking over it all –reflects Maria’s warmth as well as the rich culture of the Mexico she came from.