...but women have always done the real work

For 25 years, Lena Cabrera sold tacos, tamales, and other foods from within the apartment complex in which her family lived. When she, her son Angel Cabrera, and her son’s husband, Brian Ponce, decided to open a brick-and-mortar space, they signed a lease more than a year before opening Tacos Doña Lena in spring of 2020. They sat on the lease while saving enough money to self-finance the business. It takes steely confidence, detailed planning, and a sprinkle of faith to open a restaurant during a pandemic, but that’s exactly what the taquera and her family did. They struggled at first...continue reading