Part 1  Making Café Revolution Special

dib

How did Café Revolution come to be?

D - It was an idea we had when we came back from a vacation in Mexico where we saw a lot of cafes that had Internet access.  We always dreamed of having our own business and we liked the idea of a café.  We had a small amount of capital and we decided to put it to work.  We began looking around for places and when we saw this place we knew this was the perfect place.  It was previously a café, and we opened Café Revolution in July of 2002.

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What’s special about this café?

D - This is not your typical café.  Here we have American food, Mexican, Cuban and South American food.  You can order fried plantain, or a taco, or a dish we call Revolution Nachos, which is a mixture of all kinds of things.  It’s a favorite.  We also like to treat our customers as friends.  We want them to feel at home, to feel like they want to come back.

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Why did you name this place Café Revolution?

D - The café is named after the Fathers of the Mexican Revolution, but the word revolution refers to a concept that is not bound by geography, ethnicity or time.  When we say this is a revolutionary place, we’re not talking in political terms.  We support anyone who is passionate about an idea – something that transforms – ideas that can transform a nation, a city or a community.  We are also about a revolution of the senses - what you see, hear and taste in this place.  We try to cover everything: culture, the arts, politics - we’re even into the electronics revolution.  We bring the Internet to the community.  We’re about providing access.  We have local business people who use the computers and our conference room in the back.

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The café sounds more like a mini cultural center.

D - Yes.  We’ve shown works ranging from sculptures to paintings to drawings.  We recently had an exhibit of works by kids from the Middle East.  We worked with a non-profit organization that brought in drawings by Palestinian kids that depicted how they felt about the conflict over there and their environment.  It was powerful.  It was here for just one week, but there was a lot of positive response from the Arab American community and from Mexican Americans.  We don’t just cater to Mexicans.  Anyone who has a cause – a good cause – is welcome to show work here.  We also show international independent films.  Last week we had a film from India.  It was mostly political, but it was an excellent film.  We want to diversify by showing films you won’t find at the video store.  We have a little bit of everything.

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What do you have in the way of technology?

D - Right now, we offer access to the Internet over DSL Lines.  We plan to set up a scanner and printer.  We also want to set up the computers so our customers can make international calls without paying the high phone charges.

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Will you offer lessons for those who are not familiar with the computer?

D - Yes. Right now we only have one computer available, but we have three more that are being upgraded.  One of my goals for 2003 is to offer basic computer classes.  It’s so important for our community.  Everything is computerized. When you have computer skills, it opens up possibilities for getting a job, or getting a better job. 

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Do you feature live music here?

D - Yes, we try to appeal to a wide range of tastes.  On Thursday nights, we have folk and Latin American music and on Sundays, we have jazz.  On Friday nights, we have DJs who play a lot of techno-pop and hip-hop music.

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What are your hours?

D - Right now, it’s nine to nine weekdays, and on Sundays we open at one.  When we started out, we went much later, but we were burning too much gas and electricity.  We decided to cut back our schedule.

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You’re near the University of Illinois; do you cater to students in the area?

D - Not really.  Most of our people come through word of mouth.  Friends bring friends.  We have a lot of creative people who come here – artists, musicians and singers of every type.

Part 2  Working and Believing as Partners

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Where did your passion for the café come from?

D - This is not just my dream, this is a dream I share with my husband. We’ve always wanted to have our own business – to have a place that we created – something of our own.  We don’t do this just for our own benefit.  We do this for our children.  We want to leave them something.  It’s not been easy, especially when you don’t have a business background – no management experience – but we’ve been here seven months.  Before we opened this place, it was a café.  In fact, there were three or four owners before us.  They had the capital and the skills, but they didn’t have the patience to work with this kind of business, in this community.  We tell everyone we’re the last owners.  Sure, there are days when things are slow, but we stay positive - things usually pickup over the weekend.  And we keep coming up with ideas.  It also helps to have a supportive business partner.  In my case, it’s my husband.

How do the two of you combine marriage and business?

D - We’ll we are both open minded about our business relationship.  We help each other out in areas where we’re not strong.  We have a good relationship and that helps a lot. 

You mentioned not having a business background, how have you two managed to get through the hurdles that come with being in business?

D - We’ve had to learn, little by little.  At first, we were nervous, but we don’t get nervous now.  We continue to learn from our mistakes.  Our faith in God also helps a lot.  We both share the same faith.  People in big corporations just believe in money and numbers, but our faith is not in money and numbers.  Our faith is in the Highest (pointing up), and that keeps us motivated to keep going.  He’s the Chief.  We believe this place comes from Him.  There was a time when things were so slow we felt like this café was going nowhere.  But I told my husband we shouldn’t think that way.  The café is something He (God) gave us.  That was a Tuesday – the next day, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday - those were the busiest days we’ve ever had in this café.  It’s not about positive thinking, but faith.

Jesus joins the interview.

What is the biggest lesson you’ve learned so far?

J – It’s important to make people feel like family.

D – But not too close.  Business acquaintances and friendships are totally different.  There will always be people who will be your friend because of what you have, and they will look to get something out of you.  So you have to be careful and know who your real friends are, who will stand with you in good times and not so good times.  And you have to know who is looking to get something out of you. We’ve learned not to be so trusting.

J – Yes, we’ve had people to come in because we speak Spanish or because we’re Latino or from  Mexico, and eventually we find that they are looking to get something from us – food, money or a place to hang out. 

D – We’re too soft.  We’ve learned that you can’t give stuff away because it will hurt you in the end, financially.  It’s been tough because we’re not cold hearted. We feel bad because we want to help people, but we can’t.

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How difficult was it for you, Jesus, to leave your job and become an entrepreneur?

J - Well, everybody thinks about being their own boss.  I was with a good company and had a nice job and good position – I was a supervisor.  It was tough, at first, trying to do my job and run this place.  People found out that I was opening this café and it got difficult.  So I decided to leave the job.  I figured I could make more money here in my own business.  Later, I told my wife that we needed some extra money.  I was thinking about getting a part-time job, but my wife told me no.  She said the money is coming - little by little.  Being here, we spend more time together.  We enjoy what we’re doing - the money is coming.

D – If you’re miserable where you are, leave it.  That’s my theory.  You have to enjoy what you do.

J – Yes, but I think to have success, you have to involve your family.  Family is key to everything.  Your family can give you encouragement when you’re down, and can help keep you positive.  Family can give you the energy to do things.  Family is important – especially when you need to borrow money to buy something or pay a bill – family is very important.

Did you open the café with your own money or did you receive financing from a bank?

J - No banks.  No financing.  Nothing.  It’s all with our savings, or our parents’. 

D – We know that a lot of startup businesses get in trouble because they borrow more than they can pay back.  We said no to borrowing money, and no to credit cards.

J – We know about the trouble you can get in with credit cards.  You can waste a lot of money and get behind on your payments.  We decided to do everything to help build our future and our kids’ future. 

At first, our idea was to open a cyber café, but our family said no.  They said, “put in a hot grill and have Mexican food,” then someone else said, “No, have American food.”  So we put the ideas together and here it is.  Like I told you, family is very important.

How do you manage the café and your children?

D - We have 3 kids: a daughter, age 11; and two sons, one is 9 and the other is 5.  The littlest one will be the CEO when he grows up.  He really likes it here.  He tells us when we have a customer and he also picks up things.  He likes to help out, but the other two aren’t all that hot on the idea.

We also have the support of our family.  They take care of the kids when things get busy.  We don’t like to keep them here for four or five hours so we take them to family – people we know.

How has the café been received by the community?

D - We’re trying to fight the bad image that the previous owners left.  They gave the community the impression that this was an exclusive place for people with money.  We’re surrounded by people who don’t have high incomes.  You’re not going to succeed charging $5 for a cup of coffee.  You’re asking for more than people around here can afford.  When we moved in, people said, “How do these two Mexicans - without any experience - think they can make it here?” 

J – I think the previous owners failed because they were just looking for profits.  They were just thinking financial, and business, business, business.  They weren’t thinking about the customer or about making the people in this community feel like this is a place that they can call home.

D - We’re getting to be known as Café Revolution – the new place in the neighborhood. And we’re getting the word out, letting other people know we’re here.  We have ads in the music section of the Reader (Chicago’s leading free weekly publication) under the jazz and the international folk music sections.

J – It’s important, too, that we let people know not only who we are, but also where we come from.  We want people to know we’re from Mexico, and we want to celebrate Mexican culture.  We have a lot of treasures.

What advice would you give to anyone interested in opening a café?

D - I would say, think it through.  It’s a big commitment that requires a lot of time and effort.  And you really need to have a positive attitude – especially when things are not going right.  You just have to view the bad times as a temporary situation and know that it will get better.  You just have to stay with it.  If it’s your dream, do it.

Thank you Jesus and Dalia.