Meet our Empresarios: Santo Domingo Taqueria
Hacienda CDC’s Empresarios programming supports entrepreneurs to start, grow, and scale their businesses. Read more about our featured Empresario and learn about our amazing community of small business owners.
Business Name: Santo Domingo Taqueria
Country of Origin: SE Oaxaca, TeMexico
Significance of Name: The name of the restaurant came from the name of their hometowns Patron, Saint Dominic (Domingo de Guzmán) —a Saint they pray to. They initially chose the name without much consideration and although they would have changed it, they decided to keep since the clients were already accustomed to it as their popularity grew.
Goals for Business: The goals for Santo Domingo Taqueria is to continue to grow until one day they can expand by opening a new location or getting a bigger menu where they can have a bar and waiters. They are currently content with where they are and what they have achieved thus far however.
Gloria and Abraham’s Story
Meet Gloria Martel and Abraham Carassco who originate from a small town in southeast, Oaxaca, Mexico. After Abraham decided to migrate to the united states in 1984 to work in the crop fields in California. He lived there from the time he arrived up until 1989 when he decided to move to Portland Oregon. Gloria decided to follow along and moved to Oregon in 1991. They have been living in Portland Oregon ever since. They got married and had 3 kids who are now college graduates.
They opened up their business in 2006 when Gloria's brother in law—who owns a foo cart—suggest they buy or start a business. That influence and the fact that they were tired of working for someone else is what led them to rent a location to open up a business. It was a tough decision because of how much work this meant and having small children didn’t help. They opened up their restaurant which offered a traditional Mexican menu on the corner of Killingsworth & 42nd Ave. A year later when the location next door to their restaurant opened up they decided to rent it to open up a new business with the goal of connecting the two to be able to provide a wider arrange of goods. This was a sort of goods and import store where you can find various things from clothing to medicine. These are very popular in the Latino community because they are one-stop-shop stores that will usually have everything you need. They ran both stores for 10 years until 2017 when they decided to close the goods store to focus on growing their restaurant business.
Around 2011-2012 they heard about Hacienda CDC who was providing entrepreneurial courses to help business owners run their business more efficiently. They initially doubted the program and did not want to share their personal business information because it was something they considered very private. Thankfully they decided to assist and realized the benefits of the program. They say owe the skills which have helped them run and grow their business to where they are now vs how stagnant they felt prior to receiving help.
It was in 2015 when the Portland Mercado opened, and the Empresarios Program became more established where they continued to learn and to receive direct help which they say has helped their business grow. They learned about how important things such as promotion and budgeting is which has helped them stay afloat during these harsh times of COVID-19.
About Santo Domingo Taqueria
Abraham and Gloria, owners of Santo Domingo Taqueria, arrived at this country from the same Region Mixteca of Oaxaca at very young ages, Abraham at 17 and Gloria at 21. Abraham came to work in the fields of California and Oregon and Gloria to work in housekeeping, both in different industrial sectors but always thinking about how to improve and reduce the poverty of their families back home.
In 2006, they entered the world of commerce by starting their restaurant, Santo Domingo Taqueria, which has sustained and improved every day since then. Thinking about how to maintain and teach their new family of 3 children born in this country, in 2007 they acquired a clothing and accessories store attached to the restaurant where they worked and had the opportunity to keep the family together for ten years. Thanks to these risks and despite all the time-consuming work in the business, their children have managed to study at the university and have graduated ready to forge their future.
Gloria and Abraham now focus solely on the restaurant and look for new strategies to expand their business without neglecting the services. The important thing for them is to preserve and share with the community the authentic flavors of their Region Mixteca Oaxaqueña. And at the same time, they hope to contribute to this country by creating job opportunities in the community, thus achieving the American Dream.
Learn more about our Empresarios program and other businesses at the Portland Mercado.