Manolo´s Bakery 25 years Celebration
25 years of Our Bread, for Our People, and 25 years for The Future.
By Manolo Betancur – April 3 -2022
It’s quite amazing how the great dream of a courageous and humble couple became this big. It all started with my former in-laws and grandparents of my two children, a hard-working and visionary couple from Veracruz and Chihuahua Mexico.
Las Delicias became the base of what is today Manolos Bakery, a great legacy, something huge, Something that is helping to make change happen and is now in the process of revolutionizing the world.
Over the years I have said that we don’t sell bread or cakes: we sell happiness. This is still true, but happiness is not enough, we have to take action. A purpose-driven business has to evolve into the future.
We sell more than happiness, we have been delivering part of our profits to practical social change and worldwide consciousness around the human values that we have to fight for, preserve and celebrate by building community.
Manolos Bakery is a Purpose-Driven Brand with social actions for benefit of the local communities and global human interest.
We are our Bread. We Stand for Our People. We Believe in Our Future.
Before we talk about 25 years of our bread, it’s so important to mention Don Aquiles Martinez and Margarita Martinez Carrillo, because they are the reason why Manolo’s bakery exists.
I can say, it was an honor to work with them once and to learn from them.
Aquiles Martinez was one of the most visionary immigrants that I ever knew. According to what I know, he came to this country around the age of 56. He became an entrepreneur and someone who decided to create a bakery with his wife.
Margarita Martinez is a very smart and brave woman. She learned how to make bread from the best people of Mexico, from Las Delicias Chihuahua Mexico. Many of her recipes are still in the heart and daily work of the Manolos bakery team.
One of the biggest and greatest honors is to say this, we would not be here if it wasn’t for Margarita and Aquiles at the beginning of the bakery.
It’s impossible to talk about Manolos Bakery and not talk about Las Delicias Bakery.
And of course, their sons, Nezahualcoyotl and Zhenia Martinez. The son and the daughter of this couple need to be recognized as a part of this effort because they support their parents for their dream, they paid a quote of sacrifice and in Many ways, specialty Zinnia worked at the Bakery for four years to keep her parents dream alive.
In 25 years we moved from a Mexican Bakery to a Latino Bakery, and I guess I can say in our bread, that we moved from a few different styles of Mexican bread, traditional Mexican bread to a variety of bread from Mexico to Argentina.
On the bakery, this journey starts in Mexico Bakery to a Latino bakery and travels to Honduras, El Salvador, Colombia, Cuba, Chile, Argentina, Portugal, and Brazil, a tour of different flavors and textures.
In 25 years we went from a few cakes for sales, a few orders every Saturday, to hundreds, and from cero display cakes to hundreds of display cakes.
We also went from a corner bakery to a bakery that has sales in all the state of North Carolina. A Bakery that has been awarded and recognized around the nation and even internationally, for different reasons: quality and mission.
It’s time to share a dilemma that I have over the mission of Manolos Bakery:
Our Bread, Our People, Our Future.
I am not sure what is most important, our bread or our people.
Because without our people, we wouldn’t have bread. And with our people, we wouldn’t have a bakery.
What I am trying to say is that: Our people are our treasure.
Our immigrant people have had a lot of troubles in these 25 years, they suffered a lot and they have always been helping us, no matter what.
To Our people it’s the honor and the glory.
Our people mean:
Our people mean: thank you Founders.
Our people mean: thank you Bakers.
Our people mean: thank you Customers.
Our people mean: thank you to my Kids.
Our people means, all the people that had gone in and out of the bakery, the people that worked many years ago with the founders and they are not living in the United States, or maybe move to another state or even no longer in this dimension. Those People help us grow and thrive.
Thank you to the bakers and artisans who every morning wake up very early or spend the night working at the bakery just to keep the tradition alive, to keep this art alive. To them, my respect.
To all those people for whom Manolos Bakery has been a classroom and learned how to make bread and now they have their bakery, or they work at more bakeries around the nation or even in other countries.
It feels good to know that Our bakery has been a school for many many people, and they make a living now thanks to this ancient art.
All those loyal people that have been next to me in the bad, the sad, and the ugly times, they have a special place in my heart.
I will never forget
The people that stay with me when we suffer the recession.
The ones that stay when we have the anti-immigrant policies of Trump.
The people who were next to us when the haters and the racists came to the bakery.
The people who helped us when the pandemic came.
To all of them, my love, my gratitude.
You are the heroes of this part of my life.
And now a special paragraph to my children. You are the two most important people in the world to me.
All of this is the legacy that they are gonna be receiving in the future, it is made of inspiring stories, hard work, great people, a mission, and a vision for common good.
The only thing that I am doing right now is administrating the legacy.
Grandpas started, and I am working to create a bigger and more meaningful business for them, for the community, and the world around them.
Like I always say to you Julia and Emanuel: you are my alpha, my omega, my reason to love and to serve the bigger legacy that grandpa started.
Every day is a new future in our bakery.
Our future is
Always keep the vision of traditional life, use new technologies using new resources, use social media, computers, and the smart people than me to help to create this business bigger.
I want our children, the children of my immigrant community, and my children to feel proud of the bread tradition, the food tradition, the gastronomy tradition, from the country where the parents come from and the grandpas come from.
I always want our future generations to live, learn, love, and keep the traditions of their parents’ original countries alive.
Our future means to us: perfect harmony.
A future where our welcoming culture is well accepted and recognized. That many people can enjoy our delicious bread, made by immigrant hands.
Hands that every day are Baking Happiness, love, kindness, community, help, and a lot of hope for a better world.
In the end, there is nothing closer to God than the bread.
Remember, bread is the most sacred food that God gave us.
We hope you come and enjoy it with us.
Let’s celebrate 25 years!
Thank you all !
Manolo
