Our emigration: how the Russian family opened a successful business in Mexico

In 1990, the Leonovs lived poorly, worked at a plant in Russia, and there were no prospects for improving their lives. Now they have two Russian restaurants in Mexico City, and they come to Moscow as tourists.

They told their incredible story to the publicationBillboard Daily».

Photo: Kolobok.com

Olga Leonova, mother of two children, housewife:

“My husband and I are from the Kurgan region, and our engineers are casters engineers. The 1998 crisis of the year hit us very hard: we lived in Naberezhnye Chelny, we were not paid a salary at KAMAZ for half a year, our sons finished school. Then they had to either learn and it was not clear what to live on, or go into the army, and this is Chechnya. There was absolutely no confidence in the future. I remember that our chief economist brought a jar to the dinner from home, in which there was only water and noodles, because even she did not have enough money for meat. It was scary. Several of our friends left for a long time in Canada, they said that they settled well there, and we also decided to try. None of us even thought that we could search for a place somewhere closer, in Europe, for example.

In Russia, at that time it was unreal to get a visa to Canada or the USA - a lot of people left, and the waiting time for interviews was up to two years. Therefore, we decided to go through Mexico, where it was possible to get an interview in three to four months. There was no money for airline tickets, and we sold everything that was - an apartment, a cottage, a car. A year sold all our stuff. Friends and neighbors came to us and asked: “What are you selling?”. And we answered: “That's all! Everything you see, including the apartment. ” At that time, the people were poor and even bought junk — something that you would have thrown out without hesitation.

Proceeds from the sale of money after the crisis was enough for four tickets to Mexico, and there are still two thousand dollars. In September 1999, we flew to Mexico City with a two-week tourist visa and those dollars. We had a jetlag - a few days we got up at three in the morning and went for a walk around the Reform, this is the main street of Mexico City, where our hotel was located. There were several publishing houses in that area, and the workers packed up the newspapers at four in the morning to deliver them later. We walked, looked at these packs of newspapers, on palm trees and thought that here it was - a new life.

We had an interview at the Canadian Embassy a month later, but four days after our arrival, we started working because we needed money to live on visas and tickets to Canada. We went with a Russian-Spanish phrasebook under the arm and tried to explain it to employers. We did not know English, and he would not have helped us in Latin America. What could we do if we knew only a few words in Spanish? To wash the dishes - it is not necessary to communicate with her. The eldest son was the first to find work: he was washing his plates in a diner on the market - as it turned out later, in the terrible gangster district of Guerrero.

Seven days after arriving, we had to leave the hotel because it cost a completely insane amount for us - we rented two furnished rooms. That is, as furnished - a concrete table, a concrete bed, a mattress on it. In this house there lived people who became our first Russian acquaintances in Mexico: there were few Russian speakers then, everyone tried to stick together and introduced us, the new ones, to the rest.

Interview in the embassy, ​​we have not passed. Of course, we learned French, but we had absolutely no conversational practice, and when it came to interviewing Canadians, we did not understand them at all. Yes, after some time we once again tried to apply for emigration to Canada, and again it did not work out. Russian friends began to tell us that there was no work in Mexico, and if there was one, then they paid crumbs for it. Then we finally realized that we had lost everything we had earned in the previous forty years. There was nowhere to return. We were even offered to cross the border to the States illegally on foot, but we did not dare to do this extreme. I had to earn a new life here.

Husband and sons worked at the car wash. At first, the locals looked at them as bears at the zoo, because in Mexico it was not accepted that white people themselves would even wash their car — not that someone else — but then everyone saw that they were working well. Customers began to come to them. We still did not have a work permit, so once we had to literally run away from migration services. Then the husband took a catalog of local factories and began to send them resumes. So he found work at one small private foundry in the small village of Papalotla an hour from Mexico City. We rented an apartment in a very beautiful place - there was a pool in the courtyard, grenades bloomed, but it was scary to walk the streets: we attracted too much attention. But thanks to this work, we managed to get normal documents and, accordingly, the opportunity to open our own business. ”

Photo: Kolobok.com

Vladimir Leonov, son of Olga, co-owner of restaurantsGingerbread Man»In Mexico City:

“It was like this: once we invited a Mexican, Miriam, to visit, and my mother, like any Russian woman, baked tea for pies. Miriam gave us the idea to make money by selling baked goods. It was a win-win idea - the Mexicans are curious and love to eat very much. The next day, my mother with two buckets of pies went to the university, where there were many teachers from Russia and students studying Russian. Pies scattered in an hour. Then they cost three pesos each (about 30 cents), there were three kinds - with meat, apples and potatoes.

We bought two pans, a tile, got permission and started frying and selling pies right on the street outside our house. We had to get up at five in the morning, at eight we already went outside. After some time they thought it turned out that we sell more than a thousand pies a day. Expanded by hiring a cook. And then, after two years, we suddenly had to close everything. The authorities said that our enterprise has grown too large and we take up a lot of space, more than it should be.

It became clear that it was time to open a full-fledged restaurant with Russian cuisine: with the first restaurant we started in the 2003 year. When deciding what to call it, I thought: what are pies? Dough. And the dough is a bun. So called. Mexicans, in fact, did not even hear such a fairy tale and very often ask what it is. As a result, we translated the tale into Spanish, printed it and hung it on the wall. I registered my business in the city hall in about an hour. He came in, filled out the necessary papers, the clerk told me: "Go to work, we will send you the remaining documents later." Only a license for alcohol had to be obtained additionally. The tax came to us for 14 years once, to check the correctness of filling in commodity checks, firefighters and the sanitary and epidemiological station also once. Local gangsters did not appear once.

Everything that is necessary for Russian cuisine is here, only the herring for herring salad had to be found under a fur coat — they found a similar fish and salted it themselves. The most popular position with us is honey cake. Mexicans like Russian cuisine, 98% of our customers are locals. In general, every year in Mexico City with food, to which Russians are so accustomed, it is getting better. Now there is both cottage cheese, and buckwheat, and sour cream with kefir, and caviar can be found. And about the local cheeses, I generally keep quiet.

Three years after the opening of the first, we made a second restaurant. Now we occupy the 44-place in the ranking TripAdvisor among 2800 restaurants in Mexico City, I'm very proud of it. A few years ago we were even in first place - they sent us a letter with laurel wreaths, but then someone left a negative review about our parking - and we slipped down. Newspapers wrote about us, even Russian Forbes turned us on to your list of the nine most remarkable Russian restaurants in the world.

Now the Mexicans are trying to make the whole street business legal. If your sales do not exceed two million pesos a year (about 114 thousand dollars), you fall under the preferential regime and work in the first year without taxes at all, in the second you pay only ten percent. Over ten years, taxes gradually rise. Moreover, if you pay at least something, you will not be particularly checked, and then in fact some do not pay anything at all.

Mexico City is a huge city, and there is a very clear division of areas into poor and rich - not at all like in Russia. The center is generally not a prestigious place, and sometimes even dangerous, there are mostly not very wealthy people living there, and areas for the rich are located closer to the city’s outskirts. Mexicans love to eat and drink a lot of Coca-Cola. There are restaurants, cafes and eateries for every taste and budget. Of course, the national cuisine prevails, but there are many excellent Argentinean, Brazilian and Uruguayan Assadors, Mariskeria, Separate, Burger, all sorts of Chinese-Indian-Thai and other institutions. There are areas with pretentious restaurants, hipster, folk - even in the poorest area or village there will definitely be where to eat. Do you want grasshoppers, ant eggs, crocodile meat? Yes please! BUT Kolobok, I believe, carries Russian culture to the Mexican masses. And the easiest and most pleasant way is through food.

I like the local cuisine, although for the first year we didn’t even try these flatbreads, and then somehow got involved, and now I love all these tacos and michelada (beer with lemon, spices and sauces) almost as much as our soup. It’s hard to get used to the dispensation of the Mexicans. Today they have a hundred pesos for beans, tortillas and Coca-Cola - and they are excellent, but they don’t think about tomorrow.

When we arrived here, there were very few Russians. Now a huge stream, it is very clearly visible in our restaurant, where Russian-speaking visitors are increasingly coming. There are about 20 thousands of Russians here, mostly in Cancun and Mexico City.

I myself feel Russian, I watch what is happening in Russia, I periodically go there. As a tourist, I like Moscow very much. Everything is perfectly organized, very clean and beautiful city, good service, delicious food. All drivers of “Yandex Taxi” ipads, the address is hammered with a voice - in Mexico City there is no such thing. I'm not afraid to return to Russia, but my comfort zone is my family and friends. But if you suddenly have to drop everything and leave - I will not be afraid to start anew. I can find a common language with everyone. This is generally the most necessary quality when emigrating. ”

Photo: Kolobok.com

Olga Leonova:

“For me, the most difficult thing was to learn Spanish. Only the husband attended the courses, we learned the language as we should. About two years later I started talking, and then the problems practically disappeared. A big plus of Mexico is smiling people. Maybe the sun acts on them like that. I have good acquaintances Mexicans, but close friends are still Russians - the good of us here is a lot now. In Mexico, we are grateful that it gave us the opportunity not only to survive, but also to do business: here anyone who has the desire to work can earn money, even a foreigner. This is a land of opportunity. ”

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