Failing at your own business–Taco Express

During the time we ran the Crap Shoppe, my husband found himself unemployed again. As he was still recovering from an operation, he needed work that wouldn’t be so demanding physically. He decided he wanted to sell tacos, but since I had all that stuff at the local, he couldn’t use it. So we rented a local in the ‘mercado nuevo’ which was a collection of locales (shops) that sold everything from shoes to meat.

It took a bit of investment, we needed to purchase a mini-fridge, a “comal” which looks like an inverted dish to cook the meat, and a gas tank. I used my aguinaldo (end of year bonus) from the school to get us up and running. I was excited. I even bought little plastic salsa dishes and bright orange placemats.

Not leaving anything to chance, my husband went to see Chencha, the local curandera (healer) to see what she had to say about the taco stand. She read the cards for him and said that things would be painfully slow for awhile, but then it would pick up and he should be patient. She gave him some spray called ‘llama clientes’ that was supposed to attract customers but smelled like old lady to me. She told him to take red and white carnations to the taco stand for luck. She gave him a prayer card.

We took our kitchen chairs to sit at the bar, painted Taco Express on the pillar outside and were ready to go. My husband hired his youngest brother C as his assistant. They were open exactly one week.  My husband threw a fit and brought everything home one day in the truck.  What can I say, he isn’t a patient man.

**********************