Continuing to celebrate Hispanic heritage this month, one Latina entrepreneur has found success in the beer brewing industry, adding her own touch of flavors from Mexico.
Marlene Garcia, a former third grade teacher, started making beer as a hobby seven years ago, using a $125 kit she bought online. Now, she has a family-friendly brewery in downtown Salinas, where she serves beers infused with traditional Mexican flavors like coffee and cinnamon, as well as fruits like mango and tamarind.
Garcia pairs the beers with Mexican candies and paletas.
"We want to give that flavor of … well, El Sabor de la Cocina Mexicana," she said. "The candies we used to get from the pinatas, just even the moles that our parents used to make. So everything has a sabor."
The pandemic delayed the opening of Garcia’s brewery, but through the tough times, she gave back to farm workers and organized an event for free haircuts and school supplies for children in Salinas.
Her second business, a café, will open soon, and her beers will be on tap there as well.
Garcia is part of a growing trend in the U.S., as Latino-owned businesses rise at a faster rate than all other populations in the country. In the past 10 years, there have been 4% more new businesses among non-Latinos while in the same span, Latinos and Latinas created 44% more new businesses.
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The Latino community’s economic output was $2.8 trillion in 2020, according to the latest figures available, $1.1 trillion jump since 2010.
If U.S. Latinos were their own nation, their gross domestic product would rank fifth in the world.
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