April 11, 2011
A Little Piece of Your Country
There are big numbers concerning the Latino populations in the United States: There are now over fifty million Latinos and Hispanics living in the U.S. This is an increase of 43% according to the 2010 U.S. Census. Latino populations have also increased in Southern California by 28.7% through mainly natural births and immigration. The Latino population, specifically Central Americans are mainly living in the greater Los Angeles area. This has brought important effects dealing with Central American culture and economy. The increasing population of Central Americans in Los Angeles, CA, has many Latino-food based corporations such as La Tapachulteca and Pollo Campero expanding their locations from originally only in Central America to the United States.
The reason why restaurant companies such as La Tapachulteca and Pollo Campero move to the United States is to sell the products to the Central American population that would be found back in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. La Tapachulteca makes available products that are used to make the traditional foods such as pupusas, thick corn bread filled with beans, cheese, and pork. For example, the restaurant La Tapachulteca began as family-owned business restaurant founded in San Salvador, El Salvador since the year 1962. La Tapachulteca sold a variety of products from El Salvador such as loroco, a green plant used as a condiment, tortillas, made of corn, and masa, or corn dough. Furthermore, La Tapachulteca owners, Don Sergio Torres and Dona Irma de Torres, sold toys from companies like Mattel Toys, Lego, and Fisher Price in their stores. This gave Salvadorans the options to buy all traditional food products and other common household products. By the year 1999, there were thirty-two stores in El Salvador and two stores located in Southern California. Around the same time period, a Civil War broke out in El Salvador in the 1980s which resulted in many Salvadorans seeking refuge in the United States. “It’s estimated that more than twenty-five percent of its population migrated or fled the during the country’s civil war, which began in 1979 and ended in 1992. (Balona 1). Because many Salvadorans were immigrating to the United States and mainly settled in Southern California, the Tapachulteca was widely recognized as the main Central American product store. As Latinos, specifically Central Americans continue to rise the percentages as the Los Angeles residents, it is important for La Tapachulteca to remain in such locations. It is important for the Tapachulteca to be in the Los Angeles County because it is providing the common products from El Salvador and Guatemala to Salvadoran and Guatemalan immigrants living in the United States. These immigrants use the La Tapachulteca to remember where they are from by being able to eat the foods from back home.
While La Tapachulteca provides homemade products to Central American immigrants, the company Pollo Campero International has provided Central American immigrants with fast-food options they have once left at home. Guatemalan- based company Pollo Campero, is a restaurant chain company that sells fried and rotisserie-style chicken throughout Mexico and Central America. Pollo Campero has been a part of a cultural custom for passengers traveling to the United States from Central America to ship boxes filled with chicken and bring them to their friends and relatives. Since more Central American immigrants are immigrating to the United States, Pollo Campero will be opening in downtown Los Angeles next to the store La Curacao (Gaona 2). This was possible because La Curacao has purchased a franchise license for Pollo Campero restaurants and will open restaurants inside the La Curacao stores in Huntington Park, South Gate, and Panorama City, all cities located in Southern California and have heavy concentrations of Latinos, specifically Central Americans. Though Pollo Campero does not provide Central Americans with homemade foods and products, Pollo Campero has become very popular in Central America because of it’s, according to customers, flavor and spices (Gaona 2). “It is the tastiest thing there can be. I used to walk to the Pollo Campero (in El Salvador) and from three or four blocks away you can smell the aromas. There’s nothing like it. I can’t describe the flavor, but it’s my passion”, says Henry Aguilar, from the article, “Popular Latin Pollo Chain Heads to L.A.; Fast Food: Retailer La Curacao Enters Deal with Central American Restaurant Operator. Expansion is planned.” Henry Aguilar is one of the approximately millions of Pollo Campero customers shipping Pollo Campero chicken when they travel. Pollo Campero International has now annual revenue of $300 million and located throughout Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, and Ecuador. Because of the heavy patrons traveling between Central America and the U.S., the restaurant has now locations in Southern California and Central American airports. Jerry Azarkman, the owner of La Curacao, a department store that caters exclusively to Latino immigrants, says Pollo Campero is important for Central American immigrants because “It’s part of the culture. This is the kind of company we want to work with that can bring a piece of their countries to our customers.” This is proven by Henry Aguilar and many other customers, that they use businesses like Pollo Campero because it was once known to them in their native countries back in Central America. When many of these people immigrated to the United States, they still wanted to remember their culture and where they are from. Establishing restaurants in the United States has Pollo Campero access for Central American immigrants to eat the foods they seem to enjoy.
Department store chain La Curacao offers even broader products for Central American immigrants. Founded in Los Angeles, California, La Curacao has selected the Latino customer base to build a $100-million retail chain. The stores offer credit to people with no credit history and operate an export program that allows customers to purchase merchandise for relatives in their home countries (Gaona 1). La Curacao is also the one-stop-shop for a range of services, including Internet services, communications services, travel arrangements, and restaurants, or Pollo Campero. Though the La Curacao does not provide products native to the Latino communities, it provided them with resources to live in the United States (Curacao.com). La Curacao provides services that can be used by Latino communities living in the United States and connects them to their countries in Central America and Mexico by sending products, having telecommunication systems, and providing credit. For Central American immigrants, this also means that they will be able to communicate with their families in Central America, and travel back to Central America. Because of stores like La Curacao, which target Hispanic and Latino communities, Central Americans are helped to live in the United States and remain connected to their native homes.
Though companies such as La Tapachulteca and Pollo Campero have immigrating along with the fifty million Latinos now living in the U.S. (Census 2010), it has also benefited non-Latino communities. The culture and food of Central Americans have been very popular for not only Central Americans themselves but for non-Latino people. For example, the Salvadoran culture is comprised of having many food styles and dishes. In the article, “A Taste of El Salvador Deltona Eatery Serves up Traditional Bite”, one of the most popular dishes requested is the pupusa. As a reminder, the pupusa is a made from a combination of pork meat and stuffed with vegetables all in corn flour patty. Another restaurant called “The Portillos” says that they at least serve three-hundred pupusas every weekend, largely to Salvadorans and other customers who hail from Central America (Balona 2). Furthermore, very popular dishes like pupusas will attract non-Latino customers. “Even our white American customers ask for it, especially when they see Salvadorans and Central Americans eating it with their hands and want to know what it are”, says Cindy, from Deltona Eatery. This shows that not only Central Americans are able to eat dishes such as these. For companies that move to where the Central American populations are in the United States, such as La Tapachulteca and Pollo Campero, many non-Latino communities living in the United States will experience a bit of culture from Central America.
As the 2010 U.S. Census shows, the Latino population is the highest booming population in the United States. In California, over half of the entire populations are Hispanic or Latino. As these people continue to migrate to the United States, companies that once originated in the Central America will also expand to U.S. locations. This is to bring remembrance of Central American countries and sustain parts of Central American cultures for immigrants. Because many of Central American communities immigrated the Southern California region, specifically Los Angeles County, these businesses such as La Tapachulteca and Pollo Campero, are also founded in Los Angeles. Establishing themselves in Latino-based locations did not only make them successful and vital for Central Americans. These companies have also sustained themselves for long because they have remained very well at sustaining the uncommon, ethnic foods originating from the ancestors of the Central American immigrants.
Works Cited
Balona, Patricio G. “A Taste of El Salvador Deltona Eatery Serves up Traditional Bite”. News Journal. Daytona Beach, Fla.: Sep 25, 2008. Pg. 1-3. ProQuest Database.
Gaona, Elena. “Popular Latin Pollo Chain Heads to L.A.: Fast Food: Retailer La Curacao enters deal with Central American Restaurant Operator. Expansion is planned.” Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles, Calif.: Mar 4, 2002. Pg. 1-3. Proquest Database.
2010 Census Data. http://2010.census.gov/2010census
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