In the recovery of western North Carolina, a big chapter will be that of small businesses. Almost two months after Hurricane Helene, the question of how and with what resources small business owners will survive remains. latin business still does not have a clear answer.
While they wait for additional funding, low-rate loans and results of grants, small businesses in general and small Latino businesses in particular resort to creativity, community support and the desire to move forward, to stay standing after the storm.
Estimates indicate that material damage and recovery needs in the western part of the state exceed 53 one billion dollars , according to the North Carolina State Office of Budget and Management. But with such a large number it can be difficult to see the severity of the situation in the appalachian mountains.
In areas like River Arts DistrictIn the city of Asheville, the percentage of destruction of businesses, restaurants and art studios reaches 80 percent . And in Buncombe County alone 400 commercial buildings were destroyed or severely damaged, including premises with multiple tenants.
In this article, we spoke with Latino small business owners to learn how they overcome challenges and find ways to overcome adversity. These are the stories of four businesses that struggle to stay afloat, and face the storm with effort and hope.
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Start again
September 26 was a quiet day at the Guajiro Cuban restaurant. The team had heard the flood warnings, but no one was really worried. Its location in the River Arts District of Asheville, near the French Broad River, had never been a cause for alarm. The river was there, yes, but between them and the water was a greenway, a park and a street. No one thought the water could cross them. But at 5 a.m. the next day, the situation was different. Tropical Storm Helene had swept everything away.
They were unable to salvage anything: the food truck, the newly installed kitchen, the outdoor tables, the first floor of the Cotton Mill art studios, and even the new interior space, prepared to welcome customers in the cold months, were all destroyed.
“It was total destruction,” Jannette Montenegro told Enlace Latino NC , with a mixture of resignation and despair. Guajiro is more than a restaurant. It is a family business that also includes the art building, and what the water took away was everyone's livelihood.
“Suddenly, the whole family was out of work,” says Jannette. She ran the marketing and art studios at Cotton Mill. Her son and daughter-in-law ran the restaurant and food truck. Her cousin was the cook.
When the water receded enough, the whole family set about cleaning up the mud and figuring out how to move forward.
They created a help fund (where you can still contribute) and with personal savings, plus some loans, they managed just a few days ago to reopen Guajiro Cuban Confort Foodtruck in the Hi-Wire brewery, in the Biltmore neighborhood, in Asheville.
The fact that Guajiro (at least its food truck) has reopened less than two months after the disaster is something to celebrate.
According to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), more than 40% of affected businesses never reopen their doors and approximately 29% close permanently within two years following a severe natural disaster.
Resilience and Latin flavor
It is possible to grow in difficult times. And that is what the Mexican restaurant and market is trying to do. La Bamba, managed by Fernando Uribe (originally from Durango, Mexico) in Swannanoa, the area most affected by Helene in Buncombe County.
“I think we're blessed. Everything around us was flooded, but nothing happened to our restaurant, so we decided we were going to try to help in any way we could,” Fernando Uribe explains to Enlace Latino NC And he's right: his restaurant is on Highway 70, next to the Swannanoa River where almost everything was washed away.
It wasn't easy. For almost three weeks, La Bamba was closed due to a power outage. Fernando Uribe had to pay his employees every two weeks, the meat was spoiling, and his most loyal customers were left homeless.
“Luckily, I had taken out a loan for the restaurant a little while earlier, and with that money I was able to stay afloat, pay people, and hold out until we opened,” he says.
Fernando applied for disaster loans with the Small Business Administration (SBA).
It was part of 12,970 small businesses in Western North Carolina that did so: of that number, Only 137 received a credit offer and 108 actually took it for a total of $3,990,170.
On October 15, the SBA announced that it had exhausted the funds allocated to its disaster loan program, suspending new offers until Congress approves additional funds.
“Thank God we are doing very well,” they say at La Bamba. Since they reopened their doors, they have doubled the number of diners. The reason? For Fernando Uribe, it is due to the groups of Latino workers who are in the area working on the reconstruction of the town of Swannanoa.
"I think that even though there's free food elsewhere, they prefer to come here." While the restaurant's future is uncertain because the workers will eventually leave, La Bamba is taking advantage of the momentum and running campaigns to donate up to 25% of its daily profits to families who have lost everything.
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From frustration to solidarity
Macario Jimenez had everything ready: it was an important weekend for his business. He had filled his two food trucks with all the food needed to participate in the Haywood County Fair festival in Waynesville and he was also preparing to debut that same Sunday at New Belgium, Asheville's most famous and tourist-friendly brewery.
But on the afternoon of Thursday, September 26, she learned that both events had been cancelled: Hurricane Helene was approaching with promises of flooding and very strong winds.
"And the truth is, I was really frustrated. I had already bought all the food, and what was I going to do with it all? Besides, the forecast said it would stop raining on Friday, so I thought they were exaggerating," Macario recalls today with a smile, knowing that nature had other plans.
For Macario Jímenez, adversity was transformed into the opportunity to help others.
“Luckily, my house was fine, my two trucks were fine, and I had all this food, so I started that same weekend cooking for people and helping out with hot meals when there was no power or water.”
During those days, he participated mainly in activities organized by the Latino community. He was at the Tierra Fértil market in Hendersonville, in Latino parking lots in the Fletcher area, in the Enka-Candler area (where a large part of the Latino community in Buncombe County lives).
“It was a pleasure to donate our burgers to the community during these difficult times,” says Jimenez.
His food truck is called Taste and specializes in hamburgers. “We give them a Latin touch; they're not your typical American hamburger,” he says. His most popular burger, for example, features poblano peppers and pico de gallo.
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Standing without help
Gladys Najera López never imagined that water would enter her Hispanic store, “Gladys,” located in the town of Boone, one of the highest areas in the Appalachian Mountains in western North Carolina.
“It was unexpected for us,” he tells Enlace Latino NC “It was very shocking what happened, seeing all that destruction.” Receiving severe weather alerts is common, she says, in her area, so she did what she always did: she didn't pay much attention.
Gladys's shop is located near a stream called Winkler Creek and a little far from the center of town.
The flood affected her, but didn't destroy her market. "Two feet of water came in, and we lost all the merchandise on the first shelf, two large freezers, and a large order that had arrived the night before," she says.
According to his calculations, the financial loss in merchandise and equipment exceeds $20. Add to that the week he couldn't open due to a power outage while he cleaned up the mud and refurbished his business. Sales also plummeted: "There are fewer people, and those who come buy much less."
Gladys' case is like that of many Latino businesses that do not qualify for the aid that is arriving in dribs and drabs from the State.
"I haven't been able to apply for FEMA, I haven't been able to apply for anything because they're asking for social security, and I don't have one," he explains.
“I wish there was some organization that could help us, even just a little bit, so we could get back on our feet,” she asks.
Gladys is 54 years old, originally from Oaxaca, Mexico, and has lived in the town of Boone with her family for 16 years. She opened the store 11 years ago and it is her main source of income.
Latino Businesses in North Carolina and the United States
In North Carolina, 9.1% of workers and 8.6% of business owners are Hispanic, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration's (SBA) 2024 Small Business Profile report.
Additionally, the Hispanic American Chamber of Commerce reports that there are 178,000 Latino-owned businesses in the state. These, along with the Latino population of 1.2 million, contribute more than 30% to the state economy each year.
Nationally, more than 63 million Latinos represent 19% of the United States population.
With a economic contribution Collectively, the $3.2 trillion Latino-owned enterprise, with nearly 5 million Latino-owned businesses, generates more than $800 billion in annual revenue.
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