At the age of 17, Alejandro Martín started working in a retail chain that sold televisions and sound equipment to pay for his studies. He started the career of social communication and journalism at Minuto de Dios University, but soon realized he wanted to devote himself to sales.
Although he regretted not having majored in business administration, he continued his career, while at the same time his talent allowed him to grow rapidly in the workplace. A year later, at the age of 18, he managed to be the supervisor of one of the warehouses and at the age of 19, he was the national supervisor of the entire sales team.
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When he graduated at the age of 21, he was a product specialist at Sony, where he led the marketing of a computer brand for Colombia.
The following year, he joined Samsung as product manager, for the distribution of laptops and printers. He worked there for about three years and then joined the D-Link company, where he was in charge of the technology sector’s product managers and marketing strategy.
While in that company, at the age of 25, he realized that his level of English was a barrier to progress. “The Chinese, Japanese or Koreans visited us and I said hardly How are you (How are you? In Spanish). So I thought I should leave the country to study and come back, ”he says.
And so the Bogota resident, who grew up in Medellín, quit his job and in 2013 collected his savings, took on a large debt and went to New York, United States.
The early days of what would become the American dream were traumatic. “When I got to the place where I was going to stay, the person started to explain to me where to sleep, what to eat, etc., and I didn’t understand anything about it. When he finished, he asked me: do you understand me And I said to him: I do not speak English (I don’t speak English, in Spanish) ”, he says.
The next day he started his lessons. “I told the secretary I didn’t speak English and she took me like a little kid, took me to class, told the teacher I was the new student and closed the door. The teacher asked me: What’s your name? (What’s your name, in Spanish) And I told him I come from Colombia (I am from Colombia, in Spanish).
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Despite his little English, this cheerful young man was telling jokes to his colleagues a month later.
The days passed and he realized he had to work as the cost of living increased. “One day I was on the train and I heard a Mexican speaking Spanish on his cell phone. When he hung up, I asked him where there was a Latin place to talk to people in Spanish, and he gave me directions to go to Colombia Street, ”he recalls.
Alejandro came to that street, located at the corner of 37th Avenue and 82nd Street in Queens County, and found work as a waiter.
At the age of 27, after attaining a good level of English, he decided to return to the country with the aim of moving forward in his professional career.
“I presented myself at Samsung as a product manager for Latin America. I did the interview and got to the end of the process, I even spoke to the Korean, the president of the company. But they told me that I was too young for that high position, that they needed someone older, and that they could put me in a lower position while I continued to gain work experience. “
They told me I was too young for such a high position that they needed someone older
This news was not what Alexander had expected. He was bored and disappointed, so he packed suitcases to return to the United States, with the goal of saving for investment in Colombia. It was then that he got the news that his girlfriend was pregnant.
Alejandro returned to the United States while his partner completed the US visa process and arrived in New York within eight days.
Desire
The couple came to the United States to start all over again, but that was no barrier to success. “If I could do so many things in Colombia, it won’t be too big for me here,” Alejandro thought at the time.
One day, his girlfriend wanted a tamale, so they searched for hours but couldn’t find it. “But my mother, who is from Tolima, makes spectacular tamales and she said we should make them,” she recalls.
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Their mother told them the ingredients, gave them all the instructions, and without knowing how to cook, they made them. Although he says they are “the worst tamales they’ve made in all of history,” this is how he, unintentionally, started the business that would change the course of his life.
That day they had some tamales left, so Alejandro sold them to his Colombian colleagues. “They loved it and asked me for more. So I started telling my bosses and clients that I sold tamales and that I could take them home. “
A few days later, a colleague lost his job and jokingly said “he should start selling those tamales.” But the joke became a fact, and his friend began selling 10-15 tamales a day. Seeing this, Alejandro thought he too could go out and sell tamales.
‘I sold on the street for three years’
“With all the pain in the world, I went out to sell tamales on the street, but the good thing was that nobody knew me,” says the young man.
The fine happened every month. Then he offered tamales to all the people who passed the train station on 82nd Street with Roosevelt, which is on Colombia Street, and to whom he could not convince, he gave them away.
After his girlfriend prepared them, Alejandro arrived every day at 2 p.m. with his tamales, which he kept in a thermal bag, and there he stayed until 8 p.m., next to a sign written with a marker ‘Colombian tamales’.
This is the cart with the plate that Alejandro started selling tamales with.
The young man says that they are not that cheap, because they are of very good quality.
Regardless of the very low or high temperatures, his persistence led customers to look for him on that street where they were looking for a tamale, which had a Latin flavor, as the ingredients are transported by a distributor selling products from Colombia and sends the leaves. They are transported by sea in baby cots.
“When it was cold, I covered up like an Eskimo and some people told me to go home. But others even passed by, and out of pity they told me: How many do you have left and I bought them for you? When they ran out I called my girlfriend and told her to take more because people were buying, I had to take advantage“, He smiles.
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Although he rested for a few days, Alexander saw for three years that his income gradually increased.
‘In a pandemic everyone wanted to sell tamales’
Last year, restaurants started looking for Alejandro to sell their tamales. Seeing this, the man from Bogotá started looking for distributors and looked for a place that was home for his company ‘La Tamalería’.
“I was scared when I came off the street. I used to sell 200 or 300 tamales in one day but I went home and started selling to the distributors cheaper, if I sold it to a normal customer for $ 10 to a distributor it would be for $ 5 sold, ”he explains.
I was scared when I got off the street. I was used to selling 200 or 300 tamales in one day
Although he says the first month was bad, “word spread and that gave the company more status.” “We have started to set up our social networks to publish in the internal groups in New York. Then we set up a production factory and today we have a network of more than 140 distributors and we sell online, ”he assures.
When the coronavirus pandemic started, their business started to grow rapidly as many people were unemployed and saw that they could sell tamales to earn an income. “People bought 50 or 100 tamales from me and published them online to sell them, and that’s when the business grew the most. They took 40 percent of the profit on the product, so a human could make $ 400 in one day ”.
In the photo one of the customers of this company, after their purchase.
Instagram: @latamaleriacolombiana
Then they launched new products such as tamales and lechona, prepared by two Tolima residents, increasing their success. “La Tamalería” previously had sales of $ 20,000 or $ 30,000 a month and today it bills over $ 100,000 and produces between 6,000 and 8,000 tamales per week, ”he says.
They opened the first production franchise in Miami five months ago, and they are already selling more there than in the Big Apple.
It is currently under negotiation to open an additional 14 franchises as the goal is to have one in every US state where there are Latinos. “I want Tamalería to be Colombians’ McDonald’s,” he says.
I want the tamalería to become Colombians’ McDonald’s
His mother, although she has not been able to visit her son, has tried the tamales, she tells Alejandro that they are rich, but that they are not the same as hers. There is no doubt that with his touch, all Americans would fall in love with a good Colombian tamale.
LUISA MERCADO
POLITICAL WRITING
Instagram: @ luisamercado1
Twitter: @LuisaMercadoD
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