Immigrants Try to Make Ends Meet by Selling Pupusas to Neighbors and Friends [View all]

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Immigrants Try to Make Ends Meet by Selling Pupusas to Neighbors and Friends

The undocumented workers who used to staff D.C. restaurants are scrambling to support their families.

by MICHAEL LORIA SEPTEMBER 3RD, 2020

Alberto calls softly to his mom and puts down the bags in his hands when he hears a knock at the door of their Takoma Park apartment. He can guess who it is. He’s on his way to drop off two orders in Shaw, but he’ll take care of these regular customers first. Every Sunday, Alberto and his mother Johana expect to see loyal fans of their pupusas. ... It’s a neighbor and her daughter. Johana comes around the corner to say hello. She and Alberto always wear masks when working, but no mask can hide how she feels when cooking. She’s proud of her work and pleased to know how much others enjoy it too.

Alberto and Johana’s regulars rely on them. The man next door is a sous chef at a restaurant in Shaw and orders pupusas every Sunday after work. He gets in late and his order is usually the last of the day. His door is so close to theirs that he only needs to reach across the hall. There’s nothing better than homemade pupusas at the end of the week, he tells Alberto.

Pupusas are a staple of Salvadoran cuisine. The griddled masa cakes are a comfort food, and they’re how Alberto, Johana, and others in the undocumented community are currently making ends meet. Many undocumented residents don’t qualify for local or federal unemployment benefits because of their immigration status, leaving them without a governmental safety net and scrambling to provide for their families. The pupusas help.

The money these food entrepreneurs bring in isn’t much, but it covers groceries and some utilities. Some of it also gets sent to their relatives abroad. Like many immigrants, Alberto and Johana still have family members in El Salvador who count on them to provide for their various expenses, including food, rent, and health care. ... What they can earn is limited by the fact that they can’t openly advertise their businesses and don’t feel comfortable divulging their full or real names. (Alberto and Johana asked to be identified by their middle names.) They fear the consequences of being discovered by Immigration and Customs Enforcement or being fined for having an unlicensed business. As a result, they can only grow their enterprises through word of mouth.

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