Many new immigrants find that the restaurant industry represents their best chance at employment
Jaime Rodriguez arrived in the United States five years ago from Guerrero, Mexico.
His first stop in the search for work? A restaurant, where else?
That’s the case for any number of newly arrived immigrants, who often take jobs as dishwashers or busboys to get a paycheck and start learning the business. Many work at places owned by family members or friends and dream of someday owning a restaurant of their own.
“Their idea is that they’ll do this for a while, save some money and leverage the experience into their own business,” says Hector Barreto, chairman of the Latin Business Association. “It’s natural to work in restaurants because it’s a business they can quickly understand and often have worked in their previous life.”
Typically, immigrants start at the bottom, earning a minimum wage of $5.75 an hour. Eventually, they can advance through the ranks to servers, prep cooks or even managers. Some juggle two jobs while taking English classes.
(While restaurants are undoubtedly a point-of-entry for some illegal immigrants, all employers under the 1986 immigration reform law are required to verify the legal status of new workers, checking green cards and other documents.)
“Many folks start at chains that provide the biggest opportunities for movement,” says Sal Carlos, program director for the East Los Angeles Minority Business Development Center.
Restaurant jobs are highly prized among Latinos, according to a day labor survey compiled earlier this year by Abel Valenzuela, a UCLA associate professor of urban planning. “People know that these jobs are stepping stones,” Valenzuela said. “I’m seeing more and more of them in the front, working as waiters and moving ahead.”
Rodriguez first got a job at Koo Koo Roo working as a dishwasher before being promoted to cook about a year later. After getting raises along the way, he now earns $7.75 an hour, with benefits. Meanwhile, he takes night classes at Fremont Community Adult School in L.A.
Last month, he bought a 1984 Toyota Celica for $2,000. He’s also the proud owner of a 35-inch television. “I want to buy a computer next January,” he says. “I’m waiting for Y2K.”
Moving up through the ranks is a common pattern at Engine Co. No. 28 in downtown L.A., where half of the 60 employees have been there for six years or more.
“I’ve offered full health care benefits for employees who work 20 hours since we opened 11 years ago,” says owner Linda Griego, one of L.A.’s most prominent Latina business leaders. “It almost killed me the first year, but I would do it over again. It’s an investment that’s long-term, since I have low turnover.”
Immigrants who eventually leave such jobs and strike out on their own as entrepreneurs find mixed success.
“I’ve seen failures,” Griego says. “They often make location errors in order to save money, or they don’t realize the cost of structural improvements to a site. For many it pays off. But it takes not making big mistakes.”
Such ventures are often family affairs, like Fernando’s Taco Inn on Olympic Boulevard across from Staples Center. Owner Fernando Ojeda, 42, routinely logs seven-day weeks while running the business with his wife and son.
“I love this place and don’t feel comfortable leaving it alone,” says Ojeda, who came to Los Angeles 25 years ago from Zacatecas, Mexico.
He spent 13 years at Clifton’s cafeterias as a busboy, cashier and assistant manager before striking out on his own in 1991. Ojeda used $10,000 in savings for a down payment and the seller financed the rest, bypassing the need for a bank loan.
“We got lucky with this location. It was a giveaway by the seller,” he says. “It was slow at first, but customers kept coming back. Now, in the past two months, our business is up a lot (because of the opening of Staples Center). We are very happy.”
Any extra money that comes Ojeda’s way is sent to Mexico to help family members.
For Rodriguez, the job at Koo Koo Roo provides not only financial comfort, but the know-how to cook a meal. On Thanksgiving, he cooked a turkey dinner for the first time for seven of his family members.
“I work with mashed potatoes, green beans, macaroni and cheese and pot pies. I do everything, and there’s so much to learn,” says Rodriguez. “I love to cook, and this is a good way to get better at it.”
