Culture a major part of businesses
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This article was published 21/05/2019 (2348 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
At just 25 years old, Jesse Lemus is well on his way to building a Latin American food empire in Winnipeg.
The young entrepreneur has opened two grocery stores and a restaurant in the last two years and has his sights set on becoming a national distributor of products from South and Central America. Despite those lofty goals, Lemus remains connected to his roots.
“My mom has always had that entrepreneurial mindset from a young age and my dad is a very hard worker,” he said. “They’ve always inspired me.”
Lemus owns Latinos Market, which has one location in Osborne Village and a second in St. James inside the former King’s Theatre building (1769 Portage Ave.). He purchased his first store outright in May 2017 and had little more than $2,000 to stock his shelves once all was said and done.
Lemus enlisted some of the skills he picked up from working at Mercadito Latino, the restaurant and store his parents own on Sargent Avenue.
“I tried to invest it and stretch out those $2,000 as much as I could,” he said. “By the end of that December we had a full store and lots of happy customers and we just started to grow and grow and grow.”
He opened the St. James location in Novembers and stocks staples and comfort food from Mexico, Chile, Peru, Argentina, Brazil, Peru and Paraguay as well as some items from Portugal and Spain.
Lemus was born and raised in Winnipeg by two parents who immigrated to Canada to make a better life for themselves.
His mother is from El Salvador and started her own frozen chocolate banana stand before having to leave the country due to civil war. His father was an X-ray technician in Guatemala and came to Canada looking for work in his field — however, the equivalency requirements cut that goal short.
Instead, the couple started a cleaning company and purchased a lawn care and snow removal company before buying Mercadito Latino in 2011. Lemus spent a lot of his childhood at their job sites.
“I’ve seen that transition for my parents coming from an apartment to their first house and having more commodity,” he said.
Opening Latinos Market has allowed Lemus to find his own business success.
In March, he opened Bokados Restaurant on Edmonton Street and has been juggling cooking in the kitchen and managing both grocery stores. On top of all that, Lemus, a former elementary and high school language teacher, runs Spanish classes two nights a week at the St. James Latinos Market.
“I try to incorporate cultural diversity in my businesses and any project that I’m involved in,” he said. “I’m a cultural and language ambassador in any way I can be — it’s just part of me.”
Over the years, he has made connections with Folklorama and has helped start the Latin Roots and Las Aguilitas dance groups for the El Salvador pavilion. Both groups practice out of the Latinos Market on Portage Avenue and Lemus has organized a film festival fundraiser in June to purchase handmade folk outfits for the dancers.
“Lots of people visit this business because they want to see what it looks like inside or what has changed,” he said. “I think it would be neat because many people saw their first movies here so they have many memories of this theatre.”
The film fest starts at 4 p.m. on June 9 with a screening of the children’s movie Coco followed by an 8 p.m. screening of Selena. There will be snacks and live performances by the dance groups and local musicians throughout the day.
Visit facebook.com/latinosmarketstjames for more information.