My abuelo, abuela and mom moved to Hialeah in about 1974 having immigrated from Cuba in 1969 and 1972, respectively, after a short stay in New Jersey. “Where I saw the Twin Towers go up from our apartment in Hoboken,” she would always say.
Abuela Maria and “Pipo” met at the hospital in Pinal de Rio, Cuba, where she cleaned, and he cooked in the hospital cafeteria.
My grandparents went in search of the American Dream when they opened La Española Restaurant at West Hialeah Plaza on West 4th Ave and West 71st Street a few years after moving to Hialeah. It was a small hole in the wall in the corner unit of the shopping center. The business included her brother, Gustavo Mitjans, and his wife, Esther Mitjans.
It was an entirely a family run operation. Pipo and Abuela María would cook, Tio Gustavo and Esther would run the bar and the front of house. My mom was server for a short time during her high school years.
The restaurant business is notoriously difficult and it wasn’t any easy on them. They often worked Monday through Saturday coming in at five in the morning and closing in the evening— but it was a living. I don’t think they ever took more than a few days off in all those years they owned the restaurant.
The modest success of the restaurant allowed both my abuelos and tio abuelas to fulfill the American Dream and buy their first homes a few blocks from each other, own cars, and later provide an education to their kids and nietos.
One of my earliest memories is going to the restaurant. I must have been three or four before it closed. My abuela always escorting me through the kitchen with an abuela’s death grip so I wouldn’t touch any of the stoves or fryers.
In later years, Abuela Maria would boast of the business they built and how it grew to be a popular spot in the neighborhood and City of Hialeah employees.
I would later come to meet some of these people when I started my career in public service. They confirmed the food was good and their visits were frequent. Confirming Hialeah is just one big family and somehow, some way, we all share in the experience.
Like so many families, Hialeah gave my grandparents the opportunity to build a new life after the revolution took so much from them. I still think of them every time I drive by shopping center and what they were able to accomplish in such a short time after arriving here.