Latinas bring a little piece of El Salvador to your table

Thousands of migrant Salvadorans miss their land and of course feel nostalgic for their food, like the smell of fried beans or corn from tortillas that are toasted on the comal to accompany them with a good piece of cheese and cream.

They also yearn for those flavors, a reflection of the hardworking hands that prepare these foods so that they reach the table.

Being far away forces them to look for those products and thus be able to feel closer to their roots and their memories.

That is well known to Vanessa Faggiolly and her mother, Nora Saca, who own Amerisal —a company in charge of distributing Perla products in California, Nevada, Alaska, Washington and now shipping them throughout the United States through its website.

With a wide variety of products such as cheeses, cream, beans, pupusas, riguas, barley, horchata and many more, Amerisal understands the nostalgia of distant brothers and therefore brings a little piece of El Salvador to your table.

“When we started we only brought dairy products, cheese and cream… When this started I had 24 years and we did not know anything about selling cheese, but we were sure that we could solve the longing, we knew the need there was ”, says Vanessa, who is also the financial manager of the company.

It was in 2008 when the young woman, along with her mother, entrusted their dreams to God and decided to buy a company that was practically liquidated. So they decided to change the course of their lives and that of hundreds of workers between El Salvador and Los Angeles.

“When they offered us to buy the Amerisal company, we knew it was the opportunity that we had been asking God for”, explains the Salvadoran from 21 years that he arrived in Los Angeles in 2003 to complete his university studies.

“When we bought Amerisal, it was a bankrupt company, it only had one employee, an old truck, there were no customers, there were no supermarkets, there was nothing… But we saw in She is our great opportunity”.

Today Amerisal imports only a few dairy products 150,000 monthly units, in addition to its frozen products and other traditional dishes, and can be found in major supermarket chains in California such as Jons, Super King, N orthgate, Vallarta, Superior, Number One, among others.

“For me, working together with my mother and creating this positive impact both in El Salvador and here , it is a great satisfaction… Besides knowing that we are women and Latinas and that we have taken advantage of the opportunities”.

American dream fulfilled

Vanessa remembers that when she arrived in the United States with her brother, the situation was very difficult, not only financially but also emotionally, since they missed life and the country they had left behind; however, he did so with the clear objective of being able to help families in El Salvador.

“We arrived with a great desire to work, to study, to get ahead and fulfill the American dream, but being clear that one has to know how to take advantage of the opportunity that life presents”, he assures.

Now with a company established in the taste of salvadorans in the United States this woman reflects on how she has been able to help and impact the lives of many people through her company.

“The rewards are many, the first thing was to be able to meet that goal that our company creates hundreds of jobs in El Salvador, with that, you change the life of a family, all those women who are packing the cheese, cutting the cheese, all those jobs they impact lives,” he says. “Because everything comes from El Salvador, everything is manufactured there.”

Perla, all over the USA

The pandemic forced Amerisal to create new ways to reach its customers and that is why, now through its website (amerisalfoods.com), salvadorans can order Perla products and also San Julián, a new line of the company to take them home.

The company has offers for customers and a wide variety of products to choose from, which according to its owner is a great an innovative step for her business and for her clients.

Vanessa also highlights the happiness that comes from bringing her fellow countrymen closer to having a little bit of their country on the table.

“Gaining the trust of the consumer is the most difficult thing because it is something constant that the client sees the quality… [Por ejemplo], if we change the recipe he resents it, but you We have the satisfaction that our community calls us to tell us that they like our products and how nice it is that we can bring that little piece of our country to the people”.