Pursuing their American dream

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Tuesday, March 11th.

Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Mary Reichard.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher.

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: Chasing the American dream—one recipe at a time.

For many immigrants, that dream means moving to the land of opportunity and building a better future through hard work. And for more than a third of immigrant-owned businesses, that means food.

REICHARD: Today, WORLD reporter Jenny Rough will introduce us to a family from El Salvador who make family recipes to support the family.

JENNY ROUGH: Yaritza Galves loves her mother’s cooking.

YARITZA GALVEZ: Think of it kind of like a tortilla puffed up. And then we stuff it with cheese.

Especially pupusas, the national dish of El Salvador—a small country in Central America where her parents were born.

YARITZA: So it’s made out of corn base. And it brings mozzarella cheese. And usually the traditional ones would bring pork or chicken or beans.

Her family makes thousands of pupusas each day.

GONZALO GALVEZ: I’m going to say, at least 3,000.

That’s Yaritza’s dad Gonzalo. But sharing this authentic homemade recipe has long been the idea of Yaritza’s mom, Isui.

Yaritza’s family owns Pupusa 503 Salvadorian Kitchen in Charlotte, North Carolina. And by family, I mean family. Yaritza’s parents and uncle partnered up to open the business.

YARITZA: The partnership between my uncle and my mother is wonderful and it works. The girl that came out there, she's my cousin. My aunt, which is sister to my mother, is in there. But anybody up here is also like my brothers, sister, or cousin.

As a boy, Gonzalo lived in a region of El Salvador that was so remote, there were no cars. To get anywhere, he walked.

As a girl, Isui didn’t even realize other places existed outside El Salvador. When she finally learned of America, she heard the streets were painted gold and believed it.

Gonzalo and Isui legally immigrated to the United States in the 1990s, separately. A few years later, they met through a friend at a Spanish-speaking evangelical church.

After they married, cooking became Isui’s passion. Here’s daughter Yaritza:

YARITZA: She loves to cook and that’s her love language to show to other people.

Gonzalo used to leave $20 on the table before he left for work. Isui spent it on groceries and experimented with dinners.

GONZALO: It was my wife’s dream. She used to tell me, it can be a tiny, tiny one, but I want to have and run my own restaurant. I want to share with customers all these great dishes ideas that I have.

Yaritza says her mom’s decision to put family first delayed her dream.

YARITZA: She kind of took a step back and she raised us. She became a stay-at-home mom, and my mom saw for us to finish school, finish high school.

Growing up, Yaritza witnessed her mom’s faith in God as she waited for him to make a way.

YARITZA: My mother is a woman of prayer. My mom's determination of opening this place up comes from her believing that God has been with her always and would help her reach her dreams.

Husband Gonzalo agrees.

GONZALO: She had no doubt God was directing her in this.

When an opportunity finally arrived in 2020, the circumstances seemed terrible.

YARITZA: We opened mid-COVID.

Gonzalo Galves at Pupusa 503 Salvadorian Kitchen in Charlotte, North Carolina Photo by Jenny Rough

Restaurants were shutting down, not opening up. But the Galvaz family trusted God’s timing.

YARITZA: It was like very chaotic around us, and in the world, and it was a huge learning curve because we had a pandemic, plus opening up a new restaurant, which we have never done before. But I honestly think just because God knew when the time was going to be, it just all fell into place.

In the kitchen, the cooks work in perfect rhythm.

SOUND: [Chopping veggies]

Some women chop, slice, and grate veggies, meat, and cheese.

GONZALO: Everything here is like homemade cooking. So everything is very fresh.

Another chooses the stuffing options—

KITCHEN COOK: Frijole, frijole.

—and mixes the ingredients into a dough ball.

GONZALO: So these are corn flour tortillas.

SOUND: [Patting dough]

Next, she pats the dough into a flat circle until it looks like a pancake. A little oil—

SOUND: [Pupusa sizzling]

—and onto the griddle it goes.

Flip it once and then it’s ready to eat.

GONZALO: You cut into the pupusa, you grab a piece of it, then add some of the cabbage salad on top, grab some of the dipping sauce and eat it all together.

The family’s faith is evident. Praise music plays in the background. A copy of the 10 commandments hangs on the wall. Yaritza’s grandfather, a pastor, has handwritten Bible verses from 1 Kings 19:8 and Acts 27:34.

YARITZA: Which both speak about food and how unique and special it is to share food.

Yartiza says some customers push back against the Christian atmosphere.

YARITZA: Maybe you guys should switch up the music, or the sales would skyrocket if you had alcohol in here. Or if you would play soccer on the TV on the weekends.

But that’s not the ambiance the family wants. On the drink menu: horchata, a milky blend of spices and seeds.

GONZALO: Sesame seeds.

SOUND: [Gonzalo scraping sesame seeds]

No alcohol, even though in general, it’s a huge part of restaurant culture.

YARITZA: I think one of my mom's favorite things is that, you know, in the Bible it says that God's like a God of order and peace and you know, he likes when things are in order and when things are well-mannered. And they just try and really maintain it very family friendly, and make sure the ambiance in here is always maintained at the highest level of purity we can.

Isui’s had so much success with her first restaurant, she’s now busy at her second, 20 miles away. Her pupusas, clearly a hit.

SOUND: [Bag rustling]

YARITZA: So [speaking Spanish] two chicken and cheese.

Yartiza adds her mom takes no credit for the success.

YARITZA: She would never be like, it’s my cooking that’s bringing people. Because she knows that God has given us this blessing.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Jenny Rough in Charlotte, North Carolina.

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