Jorge Miranda, 22 (left) eats a meal with his wife Maria Vasquez, 22 and their daughter Leslie Miranda, 2 at Taqueria Hidalgo Garcia in Bessemer, Alabama on August 1, 2023. Miranda left Honduras alone and arrived to the U.S. in 2014. Miranda says it feels good to just go somewhere and eat and feel welcome. Daughter Leslie grabs salt to add to the tomatoes but after a few shakes, her mother says, “ya”—enough. The family is multinational and daughter Leslie will soon have access to Mexican and Honduran citizenship in addition to being from the U.S.
Photo by Kathryn Styer Martínez / NABJ Monitor
By Kathryn Styer Martinez
Estela Garcia, 58, loves to eat bread, so much so that she started baking telera, a Mexican bread, in 2005 in her home. She started selling breads and pastries out of her van, visiting her local Latino neighborhoods. People would call her “the van lady with the bread.”
Her passion grew and she opened a bakery called Panaderia y Pasteleria Hidalgo in August 2020 in Bessemer, Alabama. The town is at the southern edge of Birmingham and has drawn a bustling Latino community.
Garcia’s husband, Eliazar, runs the adjoining business, Taquería Hidalgo Garcia, in honor of their family name and Hidalgo, the Mexican state where they lived before making Alabama their permanent home 18 years ago.
Estela Garcia, 58, flips doughnuts cooking in a bath of oil with wooden sticks on Tuesday, August 1, 2023 in Bessemer, Alabama. She cooks the doughnuts for about 5 minutes. She puts chocolate frosting on the ones that come out darker. The flavors are better together she said.
Photo by Kathryn Styer Martínez / NABJ MonitorEstela Garcia pulls freshly baked conches out of the oven on Tuesday August 1, 2023 in Bessemer, Alabama where Garcia runs Panaderia y Pasteleria Hidalgo. Garcia started baking bread in her home in 2005 now she runs a successful business where she gets to provide a space for her community to gather—and eat.
Photo by Kathryn Styer Martínez / NABJ MonitorLeslie Miranda, 2, shrieks with joy while her parents buy ice cream treats after eating next door at the Garcia’s taqueria at the Panaderia y Pasteleria Hidalgo in Bessemer, Alabama on Tuesday, August 1, 2023.
Photo by Kathryn Styer Martínez / NABJ MonitorFreshly cut pineapple cake sits on a plate, waiting to be portioned out onto individual plates at the Panaderia y Pasteleria Hidalgo in Bessemer, Alabama on Tuesday, August 1, 2023.
Photo by Kathryn Styer Martínez / NABJ MonitorMagda, 35, adds doughnuts to her tray at the Panaderia y Pasteleria Hidalgo in Bessemer Alabama on Tuesday, August 1, 2023. Magda, originally from Puerto Rico, has been living in Alabama for 9 years. She says Estela Garcia’s doughnuts are some of the best she has ever eaten.
Photo by Kathryn Styer Martínez / NABJ MonitorEstela Garcia, 58, takes photos of her creations to post on the bakery’s Facebook account on Tuesday, August 1, 2023 in Bessemer, Alabama.
Photo by Kathryn Styer Martínez / NABJ MonitorEstela Garcia, 58, frosts a tres leches cake for a client in the kitchen of her bakery, Panaderia y Pasteleria Hidalgo in Bessemer, Alabama on Tuesday, August 1, 2023. Clients send photos for Garcia to replicate, she then adds a bit of her unique style to the design.
Photo by Kathryn Styer Martínez / NABJ MonitorElena Salazar, 31, kneels to pick something up in the corner of Pasteleria y Panaderia Hidalgo in Bessemer, Alabama on Tuesday, August 1, 2023. Salazar works at the bakery with her mother-in-law, Estela Garcia. Salazar’s two children, TK and Silas, 4 months old, sit in the corner while the mothers work.
Photo by Kathryn Styer Martínez / NABJ Monitor
The family represents a growing Latino population in Alabama. Bessemer, which is just a 20 minute drive from Birmingham, has seen its Latino population grow 42% between 2010 and 2020, according to an AL.com report.
Latinos still make up only 5.3% of the state’s population, but Bessemer, a town of 1,497, has a higher share, 5.7%, according to the U.S. Census.
Driving down the main street after 6 p.m., the change is evidenced by an increase in taco trucks and signs in Spanish with the red, green and white colors of Mexico’s national flag.
Abraham Garcia, Estela’s son, has noticed the change. He said more Latino-owned businesses have cropped up in the past five years in Bessemer, especially since the pandemic.
Beatrice Rico found the Latino neighborhood in Bessemer while visiting Alabama from Georgia earlier this week. She stopped at the panadería and bought ice cream treats with her husband. A Latina herself, she said, “I didn’t know there were that many Latinos (here).”
By Sydney Ross After four years, Dorothy Tucker’s presidency of the National Association of Black Journalists comes to an end. Taking office in 2019, she is only the second person to ever hold the position […]
Be the first to comment