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“Undocumented”
were doing, I wanted to do it, too. So I was always coming up with new business ideas. For instance, from the balcony of my home I could see men unloading all of the trucks at the Mercado in the early morning, and I started noticing that they didn’t have any food, coffee, or water. There was no one there in the early morning to serve them. So I said, “We should sell them tortas!” I didn’t even make sandwiches for myself at that age. I had a nanny to do that when I was hungry in the morning, and I figured all those men must get hungry in the morning, too. So I made my nanny get up extra early and make tortas at five o’clock in the morning, and I turned that into one of my first entrepreneurial endeavors: selling food and lemonade to the dozens of men who unloaded the eighteen-wheelers. But I hadn’t yet learned the importance of recognizing and celebrating teamwork. I was too proud of myself to share the credit or profits with my nanny, who did all the work. Instead, I spent all the profits on candy. Over time there would be women selling breakfast food and coffee to the drivers and deliverymen in the early morning. But growing up, I had a monopoly on the fast-food breakfast business. Everyone in my family was entrepreneurial, and even though I didn’t get to see my mother nearly as often as I wanted, I knew how far she had come in life. I knew she was a force to be reckoned with in the business world, and I wanted to be just like her. My mom, Luisa, was stunningly beautiful. She had long legs, shiny long hair, and delicate features. My grandparents didn’t have money when she was growing up, so she really was one of those poor Mexican children who had to work in order to help support her family. She was the second oldest of six, and when her older sister married in her teens and moved out of the house, my mother was forced to drop out of school to become the primary care-
My (Underground) American Dream HC F2
Chapter 1
2016-06-20 13:21:44
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