Breanna Grow / WGLT
Constantina Navarrete grew up helping her father farm corn, beans and squash in southern Mexico.
She grew up poor, she said, and everyone around her had the same dream: to have a better life in the United States. She never dreamed she’d someday have her own business there.
Navarrete and her husband, Adolfo, own El Porton Taqueria in Bloomington. Navarette shared the story of their journey to the U.S. and their struggles to open the restaurant Tuesday night during “It’s All in the Salsa: Mexican Stories of McLean County.”
The virtual event was the first in a new speaker series from the McLean County Museum of History called “Breaking Bread in McLean County,” exploring what it means to be an immigrant through the lens of food.