We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Eduardo Garcia. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Eduardo below.
Eduardo , looking forward to learning from your journey. You’ve got an amazing story and before we dive into that, let’s start with an important building block. Where do you get your work ethic from?
My work ethic definitely was instilled in me at a very young age. Coming from a Hispanic family my parents have been hard working for as long as I can remember. Prior to my father opening our family business he worked at two restaurants in Los Angeles as a busser and as a chef. Once we moved to Texas to open Helados La Azteca I was bagging paletas at the age of 8. To this day my father of 60 years old manages his business day in and day out. He taught me and siblings to always work hard in life. Now 18 years later I own two Helados La Azteca store fronts and plan to continue to grow our small family business. I feel like us Hispanics have that hard working blood in us. Always looking for ways to succeed in life regardless how hard the job is.
Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
My name is Eduardo Garcia, I am a 26 year old Hispanic entrepreneur. My family owns Helados La Azteca in Waco, Texas. My family immigrated from Mexticacan, Jalisco to Los Angeles, California back in 95. My father worked two jobs to provide for my siblings and I. We moved to Waco, TX when I was a 8 years old with the sole purpose of a better life. Helados La Azteca came to be soon after when my father saw the lack of our hometown ice creams, paletas and antojitos. For several years Helados La Azteca was just a small family business operated and managed by just my family. Since a very young age I was always active in our family business but I never realized the passion I had for paletas and ice cream until I turned 21. I saw our family business and realized we were now a part of our community. That’s when I switched gears from a college student to a young entrepreneur. At the age of 21-22 with the help of my family I was able to sign my first lease to our second brick and mortar here in Waco. Regardless of the hiccups I just knew we needed to grow. A couple of months later I opened the doors to the second Helados La Azteca in Waco. The response from our community was unbelievable. Sitting in my store at such a young age just baffled me. I knew then and there that this was my meaning in life. I have been beyond fortunate to now own two stores that are healthy and running. The love for my culture, my family, paletas and ice cream is unmatched. I plan to continue to expand our family business to cities outside of Waco.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
Family, Hard Work and Perseverance. Those three factors have put me in the place I am today.
One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?
We are always looking to do collaborations with other businesses. Wether it be making new paleta flavors or bringing food trucks to our store front. We feel like small businesses helping each other make us stronger. We are able to share our culture and customers with their customers and vice versa.
Contact Info:
- Website: Www.heladoslaazteca.net
- Instagram: heladoslaazteca
- Facebook: Helados La Azteca
- TikTok: heladoslaazteca
Image Credits
Dominic Villa, Devin Li, Andreas Zaloumis
