ROCHESTER — Wilber de la Rosa didn’t have a single customer for the first several hours after opening the doors of his Tortillas La Mayzteca. On most days, many people from the local Hispanic community would be buying fresh, handmade tortillas and locally-grown chicken.
Wednesday’s shooting
of Renee Nicole Good by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in Minneapolis followed by ICE picking up people
in Rochester on Thursday
has many in the local Hispanic community, no matter their immigration status, frightened to leave their homes.
All three Hispanic markets in Rochester notified him that they would not be opening due to the intimidating atmosphere. That meant the 120 pounds of tortillas that he and his family had prepared for the standing order for those stores would not be delivered. Other deliveries to the Twin Cities and throughout the region were also canceled or reduced.
As the only local business making fresh tortillas made from high-protein corn grown in Welcome, Minn., La Mayzteca has been typically making 12,000 tortillas from 1,500 pounds of corn on Friday, Saturday and Sunday combined.
De la Rosa,
who opened his southeast Rochester business in June,
decided to write an open letter about the situation on social media.
Jeff Kiger / Post Bulletin
“As a local Latino-owned business in Rochester, we would like to respectfully express a real concern that is currently affecting not only our businesses, but also the economic stability of our city,” he
“Over the past few weeks, many Latino-owned businesses have experienced a significant decline in sales in some cases close to 60% not because of a lack of customers, quality, or service, but because a significant portion of our community is currently afraid to leave their homes due to the perceived environment surrounding federal immigration policies.”
La Mayzteca serves more than just the Latino community, but the de la Rosas focused on Hispanic customers as a new business still getting its footing. Plus de la Rosa, who has a degree in agriculture, really wants the Hispanic community to have access to healthy, locally-grown organic food. The chickens are raised in Northfield by nonprofit farming group called the Regenerative Agricultural Alliance.
He noted in his letter that Hispanic-owned businesses pay taxes and create local jobs as an active part of Rochester’s economy. While stressing that he wasn’t asking for special treatment, de la Rosa did want to make sure all of Rochester understood why their neighbors were afraid.
De la Rosa respectfully asked for local authorities to acknowledge this situation, listen to the Latino-owned businesses and consider what local actions might be taken “to protect the economic and social stability” of Rochester.
Working behind the counter of his restaurant and tortilla maker business later that afternoon, he said business and city leaders in the Twin Cities have been very active in supporting Hispanic businesses in the past few difficult weeks. Meanwhile, he hadn’t seen much of that type of support from Rochester leaders.
However, his letter did quickly attract a lot of attention, which was followed by calls for Rochester to step up to support an important part of its economy. La Mayzteca also announced it is offering free delivery of food within Rochester.
By the late afternoon, Wilber and his wife, Magda, were busy packaging up chicken warm from the rotisserie oven, tamales and packs of tortillas for delivery. Many of the orders — seven chickens and 20 pounds of tortillas — were paid for by donations.
When asked why he decided to open for business when so many others didn’t on Thursday, Wilber de la Rosa said the strength of his family’s immigration status provides the “privilege” to be able to work like normal and hopefully help others who are fearful.
