Maria Del Carmen Mercado Roso

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María del Carmen Mercado Roso was born in and lives in the Barlovento neighborhood of Barranquilla. It is an ancient community, which was invaded. It is extremely vulnerable. It is characterized by the activity of recycling. Since she was little she was involved in making food because her parents did. They did this on the outskirts of the ancient town river. They worked in this area because of its proximity to a branch of the largest river in Colombia, El Magdalena.

She is the oldest of four siblings. She lived with her mother and the abandonment of her father. That is why she saw the need to help with the household chores and with the business when she was barely ten years old. She helped in order to get her younger siblings ahead. This prevented her from going to school. Reading and writing were not a practical necessity, and they were not important to the families of that era.

Repeating her parents’ history, María del Carmen had twins after becoming engaged. At first, her spouse supplied the basic family necessities. But, after a short amount of time he abandoned them. She had to work very hard to get her family ahead. Without an education, and with the knowledge of the work she learned as a child, she started to sell “arepas de huevo” (egg-filled savory corn cakes), empanadas, “caribañola” (small pie made with dough or puree of yucca that is filled with stew like ingredients and then fried), and fast food in the towns that are close to where the festivities for the national holidays are held.

As a result of her second relationship, which lasted a short amount of time because he died, she built a house and educated her children until they had a technical career. As time went by, she acquired the restaurant that her mother left her when she died. The restaurant is now in her house, and her daughter and her sister work there.

Financially helped with two loans, which she successfully repaid, from the Mario Santo Domino Foundation, she has been able to make on-site improvements to the infrastructure. With her third loan, María will buy chairs and utensils. Her customers have increased, and when they arrive they have to wait for empty spaces to eat. Everything then turns into chaos. She will also buy rice, pork ribs, bacon, chicken, vinegar, oil, vegetables, and capers; which are the ingredients for making pies, “hayacas” (cornmeal, meat and vegetables wrapped in banana leaves) or special foods; which are made from bijao leaves. This is one of her specialties. This way she takes advantage of the consumer habits that the customers have this time of year, and she will increase her sales.

María’s daughter helps her with reading and writing to participate in the business trainings. Together they apply what they have learned to benefit the restaurant. Her happiness, tenacity, love of work, deliverance, sacrifice and constant work stand out to us. She has overcome adversity to give her family an improved well being. Her greatest goal is that her children be able to continue with the business. The business will be technically updated and perpetuated through the new generations. Her greatest worry is the labor instability that reigns and puts the economy at risk. Therefore, they direct their efforts towards keeping their best customers and getting a greater number of customers to buy with cash to minimize the risk.

Translated from Spanish by Ginny Kalish, Kiva Volunteer

María del Carmen Mercado Roso, nació y habita en el barrio Barlovento de Barranquilla, antiguo comunidad de invasión, altamente vulnerable y caracterizado por la actividad de reciclaje. Desde pequeña estuvo vinculada con la actividad de elaboración de alimentos, porque que sus padres ejercían este oficio a las afueras de la antigua intendencia fluvial, que funcionaba en el sector, por su cercanía con un brazo del rio mas largo de Colombia “El Magdalena”.
Hija mayor de cuatro hermanos vivió con su madre el abandono de su padre, fue asi como se vio en la necesidad de ayudar en los quehaceres domésticos y en los propios del negocio cuando apenas contaba con 10 años de edad, para poder sacar a delante a sus hermanos menores, esto impidió que estudiara, pues la lectura y escritura no era su necesidad práctica y no era importante en la concepcion familiar de esa época.
Replicando la historia de sus padres, María del Carmen después de comprometerse tuvo hijos gemelos y al principio su cónyuge suplía las necesidades básicas de su familia, pero en corto tiempo los abandonó, teniendo que trabajar fuertemente para sacar adelantea su familia; sin estudios y con el conocimiento del oficio aprendido desde niña, comenzó a vender arepas de huevo, empanadas, caribañola y comida rápida en los pueblos cercanos donde se realizaran las fiestas patronales. De la mano de una segunda relación, que por su muerte duró muy poco, construyó su casa, educó a sus hijos hasta llevarlos a realizar una carreta técnica y con el correr del tiempo adquirió el restaurante que su madre dejó al fallecer el que hoy funciona en su vivienda y en él trabajan su hija y su hermana.
Apoyada financieramente por la Fundación Mario Santo Domingo, con dos créditos reembolsados exitosamente, ha logrado adecuar la infraestructura de su negocio haciendo mejoras locativas. Con su tercer crédito, Maria comprará sillas, utensilios, pues ha aumentado su clientela y cuando llegan deben esperar a que se desocupen los espacios donde almorzar y en ese momento todo se vuelve un caos; igualmente invertirá en la compra arroz,costillas de cerdo,tocino, pollo vinagre,aceite, verduras y alcaparras que son los ingredientes para elaborar pasteles, hayacas o comidas especiales,armadas con hojas de bijao, que es una de sus especialidades y asi aprovecharà la costumbre de consumos que tiene la clientela en estas épocas del año, para aumentar sus ventas.
María De la mano de su hija que la apoya en la lecto escritura, participa en proceso formativos empresariales y juntas aplican lo aprendido en beneficio del restaurante. En ella, resaltamos su alegria, tenacidad, su labor de amor, entrega, sacrificio y trabajo constante, pues se ha sobrepuesto a la adversidad para bridarle a su familia un mejor bienestar; su mayor anhelo es que sus hijos puedan continuar con el negocio, tecnificado y perpetuándolo atreves de las nuevas generaciones, su mayor preocupación es la inestabilidad laboral que reina y pone en riesgo la cartera, por ellos dirige sus esfuerzos a conservar sus mejores clientes y a conseguir mayor numero de aquellos que compren de contado para minimizar el riesgo

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