[dropcap size=big]T[/dropcap]eresa Reynoso de Gonzalez, matriarch of the family that created, owns, and operates the Northgate Gonzalez supermarket chain — one of the largest Latino grocers in the United States — has passed away. She was 90.
Doña Teresa (as everyone in the company called her) was the silent force behind one of the great, untold immigrant economic success stories in Southern California over the past 40 years. Starting from a small downtown Anaheim storefront in 1980, Northgate Gonzalez now has 42 stores across Southern California, from San Diego to Culver City, El Monte to Long Beach. OC Weekly described their newest Anaheim location as “a Mexican-food Disneyland” for its aisles of fresh food and its taco bar; First Lady Michelle Obama praised Northgate at the 2012 opening of their Inglewood store for “bringing fresh, healthy, affordable food into communities that need it most.”
And it all started with Doña Teresa.
She was born in Jalostotitlán, Jalisco (shortened to “Jalos” or "Xalos" by residents) in 1927, into a family of grocers. Teresa married Miguel Gonzalez Jimenez; they had 13 children together. He ran a successful shoe factory until it burned to the ground in 1952, which forced Don Miguel and two sons to join a Xalos contingent at the Biltmore Hotel.