Meet Yesenia Stark | Co-Owner of Teresita’s Tamales

We had the good fortune of connecting with Yesenia Stark and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Yesenia, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
Coming from an immigrant family, the thought of starting my own business never really crossed my mind. As my sister and I grew up, we learned how to make the tamales. Every Christmas it is a tradition to make tamales for the entire family. Over the years, on many occasions, the family would discuss how it is hard to just find quality tamales. As a result of these discussions, realized there was niche in the food industry and decided we would help fill the need. We built it ourselves from the bottom up with not business experience and no financial support. We began by selling tamales in bulk orders and over time saved up enough money to buy our food trailer and the rest is history.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
We take great pride in the quality of our food especially our tamales. Our entire menu is made with fresh ingredients and home made recipes that deliver truly authentic Mexican flavors. I do not believe any honest business owner can say starting and growing a business is easy. There have been countless challenges to include opening a food truck at the beginning of a pandemic. We financed the business by bulk orders of tamales until we had enough to purchase our first food truck. We started this business with no experience which meant we had to go figure out everything on our own. My sister and I are both mothers which meant we had to sacrifice time away from our families to make this dream happen. Just like many in the history of the United States, my sister and I are from an immigrant family and are making our dreams happen. I would like for our story to be a symbol of hope for other immigrant families, other mothers, or women that you can make your dreams happen.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
First of all, I would like to say that I love our city. I was raised in this area since I was in elementary school and have seen Huntsville and the surrounding area change in many ways. Growing up and seeing other businesses, I never thought that I could be part of one of the local businesses supporting my community. I consider myself to be a foodie and love to support our local businesses and artists. If you are looking for Mediterranean food I would take you to Big Papa Gyros. If you want Vietnamese food I would take you to Viet Huong. If you want If you want coffee or baked goods would take you to L’Etoile Patisserie. If you want a Raspado (Mexican Snowcone) I would take you to El Penguinos. I don’t think that you cannot visit Huntsville and not check out the Space and Rocket Center, home to Space Camp, where people come from all over the world to attend. We have many pop up markets that happen throughout the year where I enjoy supporting our local artists and artisans. Panoply is our biggest event of the year that brings in artists and vendors from across the country.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
My Mother, Teresita, is the inspiration behind Teresita’s Tamales. She is the the one that encouraged me and my sister, jessica to dive into this business venture. I can remember when my Mother first migrated to the United States, she came here with nothing, but she would work a job but also make and sell tamales to help build our future. She is of course part of this venture not only as the inspiration but she also is actively involved as well as provides us with the recipes that she has created herself.

Website: https://teresitastamales.square.site

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/teresitastamales65

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/teresitastamales65

Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/teresitas-tamales-madison