At the age of 17, Alejandro Martín began working in a chain store selling televisions and sound equipment to pay for college. He entered the career of social communication and journalism, at the university Minut de Déu, but soon realized that he wanted to dedicate himself to sales.
Although he regretted not studying business administration, he continued his career, and at the same time his talent led him to rise rapidly in his career. A year later, at just 18, he managed to be the supervisor of one of the stores and at 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, and handled the marketing of a computer brand for Colombia.
The following year he went to work at Samsung as product manager, For the division of laptops and printers. Here he was for about three years and then joined the company D-Link, where he was in charge of product managers in the technology sector, and marketing strategy.
Being in this company, at the age of 25, he realized that his level of English was an impediment to keep moving forward. “The Chinese, Japanese or Koreans visited us and I barely said How are you? So I thought I had to leave the country to study and come back.”, Explain.
And so it was that the one from Bogotá, who grew up in Medellín, gave up his job and in 2013 he put together his savings, took on a big debt and went to New York, United States.
The first days of what was to be the American dream were traumatic. “When I got to the place where I would stay, the person started telling me where I had to sleep, eat, etc., and I didn’t understand anything. When he finished talking, he asked me: did you understand me? And I said, “I don’t speak English.”, Explain.
The next day he began his classes. “I told the secretary I didn’t speak English and she grabbed me like a little kid, took me to the classroom, 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 am from Colombia (I’m from Colombia, in Spanish).
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Despite his little English, this cheerful young man a month later was already telling jokes to his classmates.
The days passed and he realized he had to work as the cost of living increased. “One day I was on a 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 get to Colombia Street. “, remember.
Alexander came to this 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, when he reached a good level of English, he decided to return to the country with the aim of advancing in his professional career. “I introduced myself to Samsung as head of product for Latin America. I did the interview and I came to the end of the process, I even spoke to the Korean, president of the company. But they told me that I was very young for such a high position, that they needed an older person, and that they could put me in a lower position while I was still gaining work experience. “
I was told I was too young for such a high position, that they needed an older person
This news was not what Alexander expected. He felt bored and disappointed, so he repacked his bags to return to the United States, with the goal of saving to make investments in Colombia. At this time he received the news that his girlfriend was pregnant.
Alexander returned to the United States. UU. While her partner was culminating the process for the American visa and at eight days she arrived in New York.
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the craving
The pair came to the United States to start from scratch, but that was no impediment to success. “If I could do so many things in Colombia, I wouldn’t be great here,” Alejandro thought at the time.
One day his girlfriend gave him a tamal whim, so they searched for him for hours but couldn’t find him. “But my mother, who is from Tolimense, makes some spectacular tamales and told us to make them.”, Remember.
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Their mother told them what the ingredients were, gave them all the instructions, and without knowing how to cook, they made them. Although he says that “They’re the worst tamales they’ve ever made in history,” thus began, unwittingly, the business that would change the course of his life.
That day they had some tamales left over, so Alejandro sold them to his Colombian co-workers. “They loved it and started asking me for more. Then I started telling my bosses and customers that I was selling tamales and they could be taken home.”
A few days later a colleague lost his job and told him, jokingly, that “It would be up to him to start selling these tamales.” But the joke became a fact and his friend started selling between 10 and 15 tamales a day. Seeing this, Alexander thought that he too could go out to sell tamales.
‘I lasted three years selling on the street’
“With all the pain in the world I went out to sell tamales on the street, but the good thing was that no one knew me”, Says the young man.
The sentence passed him a month. After that he offered tamales to all the people who passed by the descent of the train from 82nd Street with Roosevelt, which is on Colombia Street, and, to whom he could not convince, he was given away.
After his girlfriend prepared them, Alejandro arrived every day at 2:00 pm with his tamales, which he kept in a thermal bag, and there he remained until 8:00 pm, next to a sign he had written with marker ‘tamales colombians’.
This is the cart with the poster with which Alexander began to sell tamales.
The young man realizes that they are not so cheap, because they are of very good quality.
Regardless of the very low or high temperatures, his perseverance led to customers going to look for him on this street when they were craving a tamal, which had the Latin flavor, as the ingredients are brought to them by a distributor who it sends products from Colombia and the leaves are taken by guacales by sea.
“When it was cold he would cover me like an Eskimo and some would tell me to go home. But others would even pass by, and unfortunately they would tell me, How many do you have left and I bought them? When they run out I would tell my girlfriend and tell her to take me more because people were shopping, I had to take advantage”, Explains between laughs.
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Although he rested for a few days, for three years Alexander saw that his income was gradually increasing.
‘In pandemic everyone wanted to sell tamales’
Last year restaurants started looking for Alejandro to sell them their tamales. Seeing this, the one from Bogotá started looking for distributors and looked for a place, which was in his house, for his company ‘La Tamalería’.
“I was scared when I left the street. I used to sell 200 or 300 tamales a day, but I went to my house and started selling it to the cheapest distributors, if a normal customer sold it to $ 10 to a dealer was sold for $ 5, ”he explains.
I was scared when I got out of the street. I was used to selling 200 or 300 tamales a day
He still says the first month was bad, “The voice was watered and that gave more status to the business.” “We started to create our social networks, to publish in the internal groups of New York. Then we set up a production factory point and today we have a network of more than 140 distributors, and we sell online,” he says.
When the coronavirus pandemic began, their business began to grow rapidly, as many people lost their jobs and saw that they could sell tamales for income. “People would buy me 50 or 100 tamales and post them online to sell them, and that’s when the business grew the most. They took 40 percent of the profit on the product, then one person in a day could earn $ 400. “
In the photo, one of the customers of this company, after its purchase.
Instagram: @latamaleriacolombiana
After that, they launched new products such as tamales and pork, prepared by two Tolimenses, and thus increased their success. “La Tamalería ‘used to bill $ 20,000 or $ 30,000 a month and now bills more than $ 100,000, making between 6,000 and 8,000 units of tamales a week.” he assures.
Five months ago they opened the first production franchise in Miami and they already have more sales there than in the big apple.
He is currently in negotiations to open another 14 franchises, as his goal is to have one in each US state. UU. Where there are Latinos. “I want the tamalería to become the McDonald ‘s of the Colombians,” he says.
I want the tamalería to become the McDonald’s of the Colombians
Her mother, although she has not been able to go to visit her son, has tried the tamales. She tells Alejandro that they are rich, but they are not the same as hers. There is no doubt that with his touch all Americans would end up falling in love with a good Colombian tamal.
LUISA MERCAT
POLITICAL WRITING
Instagram: @ luisamercado1
Twitter: @LuisaMercadoD
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