Mientras trataba de decidir si dejaba su trabajo, Ilianna Salas pensó en su abuela que viajó a California desde un pueblo mexicano con nueve hijos y sin ningún plan.
He thought of his mother, who never finished school, and his father, who as a child packed sugar and rice to earn pesos.
Based on hard work and perhaps some hits of luck, had managed to be part of the American middle class.
Ilianna and her cousins, all with university studies, are the fruit of their work and the pride of the family.
Then the Covid-19 pandemic arrived, which threatened to end the family business of clothing, turning the promise of a better future into a mirage.
Ilianna, 25, decided to risk: to leave the security of a marketing work in her Alma Mater, Cal State San Luis Obispo, and make their way as a businesswoman, hoping to build a greater generational heritage and ensure the future of her family.
Pandemia has attacked Latinos with special ferocity.Its enormous effect on the middle class of the largest ethnic group in California has important implications for the economy and the future of the State.
For families such as Ilyianna, pandemic has also aroused a deep feeling of anxiety.
Ilianna does not have to look far back to see the poverty suffered by her parents and grandparents.She is present in her old photo albums and in the stories that her rose grandmother tells her.
Before the pandemic, about 38% of the Latin population of the state was in a strip of income that placed them in the middle class, a little below the percentage of whites, according to a report by the Latin Economic Institute of California.
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However, more than half of Latinos were in the lower income segment, and many of the middle class ran the risk of stinging, said Mindy Romero, author of the report.
According to the PEW Research Center, about 60% of Latinos said that they or someone in their home lost a job or experienced salary cuts in the months after the start of the pandemic, compared to 44% of the American population in general.
In the last decade, Latinos have accumulated wealth at a faster rate than other groups in California, increasing their part of the graph in the fifth largest economy in the world.If Latinos have problems, they also have the State.
"If Latinos are left behind, that will have a significant impact on the general economy of California," Romero said."You can't leave your most numerous community behind."
For Ilianna's family, the long road to American dream began in the late 1970s in the Mexican state of Colima.
Rosa Cárdenas and her children lived in a ranch near a beach where mangoes and tropical vegetation abounded.Rosa's life revolved around her husband, a farmer named Verduzco Tobias.
She got up when he did, and prepared breakfast and dinner before he arrived at the table.
Veruzco was quiet and did not relate much to the children, as his daughter Gloria Verduzco recalls.But he was very sweet and on the way to home he bought his children's package, a popular Mexican cookie brand.
Gloria had seven sisters, a brother and no concern.That changed in 1976, when her father was killed.
The story of his death is surrounded by mystery.Gloria's sister, Ghia Verduzco, says she was an uncle's work for a land dispute.
The researchers tried to blame Rosa.The afflicted widow had to defend himself before a judge.
With some of his daughters by his side, he said: “Your honor, look at these children that I have to maintain.Do you think I would kill my husband? ”
The judge released her.He decided to flee from her, fearing her brother -in -law trying to take revenge on her.
First he sent his older daughters, including Gloria, on this side of the border with an aunt.Ghia left later, with her mother.
In a new country where I did not know the language, Rosa turned to what she knew: sewing.She rented a two -bedroom house in Pacoima.
Soon his own business began.Sometimes, customers did not pay.His low education and his limited level of English prevented him from defending himself.
Even so, he gathered enough to buy his first industrial sewing machine and, over time, his first house, in an area of La Puente.
Rosa got up before the sun came out, putting bobbins with butter in the oven to heat them.After school, the children toured the short distance to her house, where Rosa met them and took them to her work in a clothing factory.
Each one was assigned a task.One put the pieces of a garment.Another placed the buttons.
Gloria does not remember that your mother will teach them to sew.They had to learn alone, watching her.
At home, they remember having hidden under the bed while police helicopters passed over.Gangs and drugs were the order of the day.
They entertained themselves leafing through fashion magazines, admiring the styles of the 80s and 90s. On weekends, Rosa took them to garage sales in West Covina.They drove on Hollenbeck Street, contemplating the beautiful houses.
Rosa never married her nine children almost alone.
Several of his daughters ended up opening their own clothing businesses.In its time of splendor, the family had up to 10 stores.All the children of Rosa, except one, bought houses in West Covina.
The majority of family members obtained the green card in the 1986 amnesty and ended up becoming US citizens.Rosa, fearful of the citizenship exam, never did.
His granddaughters, Ilianna and her sister Paulina, attended Catholic schools.They raised in a four -bedroom house, with palm trees and large front and rear courtyards, such as those of the elegant street that her mother, Gloria, had admired as a child.
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Although Rosa never tried to convince her children to leave her studies, Gloria, wanting to help her mother, left school after the tenth grade.
Later, Gloria associated with her future husband, Carlos, son of a shoemaker who emigrated from Guanajuato (Mexico) when she was a teenager.They made clothes together and sold it in a Costa Mesa market.By 2000, they bought 4kids Clothes.
It was the only physical store of the family that survived the recession of 2008 and the rise of Amazon.com and other online stores.
A weekend before Christmas last year, in the middle of a worsening of COVID-19, Gloria and Carlos went from one place to another of the store, fixing mannequins and adjusting the clothes while the passers-by, with masks, looked atthrough glass doors.Soon, customers entered through a labyrinth of halls between closely organized clothing shelves.
"Hello, welcome," Glory greeted each client, first in English and then, if he did not notice an answer, in Spanish."Did you look for something in particular? We have a 30% discount on all informal shoes and clothing."
That busy weekend before the holidays was far from the first days of the pandemic, when they had to close for months.
Carlos lost six kilos and his blood pressure shot.Gloria was about to surrender.
“I felt we were going to lose everything.We were in a very bad situation, ”said Carlos.
They owed three months of rent and had to use their savings.
“We said: no way.Let's close the store, ”Gloria said.
Their daughters convinced them to move on.
In May, Ilianna took the rental contract and reviewed it.They hired a lawyer to negotiate with the landlord, who claimed back income.
Ilianna Salas
Gloria and Carlos began to manufacture and sell masks.With the help of their daughters, they created a website and made some sales.
However, for June, they were finished.
Just when they were carrying the merchandise in their truck, ready to definitively close, the state authorities announced that retail businesses could reopen limitedly.
Ilianna helped her parents request a loan from the Federal Salary Protection Program.She saw web seminars, contacted the administration of small businesses and entered the Wells Fargo website "every minute."
Wells Fargo rejected them, without giving a reason.Ilianna requested it again in a small bank.Finally, they received about $ 17,000.
At least they were saved from the virus.No one from his immediate family ill.
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The business that Rosa launched with a single sewing machine allowed her children to open their own stores, and that their grandchildren started in the world of work.
The more than 30 members of the third generation have university studies or will go to college.They are business owners, graphic designers, musical producers, engineers, creators of non -profit organizations and much more.
Many worked in their parents' stores while they grew up.Some considered that the tasks of administration of a business were something important.Others felt joy and responsibility at work.
The grandchildren have much less dramatic stories than their grandmother's.That was always the goal.
Like his mother, Ilianna spent the afternoon after school surrounded by huge rolls of fabric and sewing machinery.
Running around the big tables where her parents worked, she and her sister had fun with "children's things."
"I remember playing there, shaving and sewing fabrics," he says.
As a teenager, Ilianna worked in the store on weekends.She felt the duty to help her family.
His father made sure that his daughters had typical exits of a prosperous family of immigrants, something that he and his mother did not have.
After the Sunday church, Carlos took them to Chinese buffets, local attractions such as Arcadia Arboretum and Tito’s Market from El Monte to eat sandwiches.When Ilianna was not in art classes, she was going to encourage her sister in volleyball matches.Annual family vacation were taken.
Recently, sitting in the courtyard of a Glendora cafeteria, Ilianna laughed while watching photographs of her childhood.There is one in which she and her sister appear with hair cuts identical to those of "Dora the Explorer".
Another black and white photograph shows the “more fabulous” grandmother of Ilianna, posing with her daughters at a family wedding, with a long shoulder dress.
Today, Rosa is a 78 -year -old matriarch, with short hair above the ears and dotted with gray hair, and worn hands.
He lives in a modest house on a quiet street in West Covina, with three bedrooms and a good -sized courtyard.
He gets up at 5 in the morning to take care of his garden.She water, pruning and harvests the fruity plants and trees of her, including huge mangoes and avocados that she keeps as a gift for her children and grandchildren, says Ilianna.
Rosa continues to sew for her daughters' businesses.For Ghia, who has a children's clothing store on the Internet, she can design a new pattern.For glory, she makes small bows and other accessories.
Hard work is so rooted in pink that it can't sit and be calm.She sometimes shows himself dismayed by her inactivity, although she has spent all day working in the garden.
"My grandmother is a charm," says Ilianna."She is my inspiration."
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In March of this year, Ilianna was back in her office at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.
His desk was empty, except for a computer monitor and some office plants.She left her keys and a check in the library for a backward article and transferred files to his colleagues.
He knew he would have to work harder than his teammates with more family heritage, just to be able to afford a house and a family.But he had his university degree and the work ethics of his parents.He trusted that he would succeed.
He decided that his future was to follow his family's business spirit.It would not be easy and he would be exempt from risk.
But pandemic made him realize that apparently stable work could evaporate.He had to risk, for the possibility of greater reward.
"Pandemia has made me reconsider in many ways," he says."If I really want to" succeed "in this society, I will have to create my own path and my own jobs, because I don't have a mattress."
In summer, Ilianna and her sister started a marketing business creating brands of brands and websites.She charged about $ 400 for each one, knowing first hand that many small companies of Latin owners could not afford much more.
He planned to obtain an MBA to reinforce his skills as future owner of a business.
Meanwhile, he had achieved a marketing work in a manufacturing company in Anaheim.His secondary activities were in the background, but they continued in her mind.
I was advancing towards something, although I didn't know exactly where.
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