There's a particular kind of weight you carry growing up inside your family's business. It is heavy, but the kind of heavy that roots you and holds you up.
Knowing the smell of the hot grill before you even know your own home address. Learning to work a register before you even learn how to drive. You spend your childhood a little embarrassed by the truck, the uniform, the way you always smell faintly of what is cooking in the kitchen.
Then one day, you grow to understand: That smell was the most honest thing you have probably ever carried with you.
I know that weight secondhand. As the child of a maintenance man and a house cleaner turned CNA (Certified Nursing Assistant), I recognize the feeling.
Across Los Angeles, a generation of kids raised in loncheras, taquerías, and mariscos spots is stepping into ownership of their family’s businesses; they are the next generation.