ODESSA, Texas —
Jesse Arredondo’s family has been operating La Fiesta Bakery in Odessa for 60 years now.
But the bakery wouldn’t have come to be without his grandfather.
“It was crazy because my grandfather, they were already doing work at a bakery up there in the Lubbock area, and he's had his own. They've had their own recipes, but they were they never used them, but they got an opportunity of a little bakery in Odessa that somebody was selling. So, he had a relative of mine, one of his nephews, he had him come in and he told him, hey, there's a place in Odessa. Let's go, we can do it. So, they came down and they started, to get it to work. My grandfather's like, hey, leave it to me. His nephew went back to Lubbock. He left it to my grandfather and my grandfather brought my dad; he was 12 years old. They came down and it’s been going ever since,” said Arredondo.
Arredondo said that he’s seen how much his family’s bakery has affected the lives of those in his community and how over the years it’s earned them the community’s support, even through tough times.
“I'll tell you a little story, it started with COVID, right, all these places closed. We were able to stay open because I made a special kind of bread that you can eat with food. But that's where the support, that's how much support you know, because you had this thing going on and you still have a line of people out there ready to come support to keep you open. But when you feel it, it's just like... I would lose everything I had to keep this open because this we're a part of everybody's tradition and to be included in a person's family. You know, it just makes you feel like, you know... I just love what my grandfather started. I just love that I'm able to carry it on for him. Keep it going,” Arredondo continued.
Arredondo said that if you ever plan to start your own small business, especially with your own family you have to be prepared to do more than just put in the work to get everything up and running.
“All I'm saying is understand your customers, listen to them and just be patient with your business and just put everything as far as not just money, you have to put what everything you have as far as love, you have to put it in that business to make it work. And once you do that, people see it and that's where it just starts, you know, so it's all about. You making the people feel like you know what? Like they're important to you and you're doing it for them. So that that's one of the biggest things I could tell you,” Arredondo added.