Наследие бабушки: семейный бизнес на Лонг-Айленде поставляет центральномексиканские сыры

About 45 years ago, Nelson Hernández, as a boy in El Salvador, helped his grandmother make Central American cheese the old-fashioned way. It’s a craft he still associates with his childhood, although lately he runs a company based in Bay Shore, providing Central American cheeses to thousands of customers. “I was a young kid. I was handling cows, milking, making cheese with my grandma until the day they sent me to the United States,” he said of the trip he made many decades ago, before becoming a U.S. citizen. “We would take it to the local supermarkets, to the big town. My grandma had such a good recipe for cheese. She didn’t have to go door to door. She knew places that wanted her cheese. She had the customers.” His grandmother likely would be proud of Hernández and his spouse, Isabel Ramos, today, as they turned a craft into a company, now serving roughly 250-300 accounts in 125-135 communities. Amid a growing Hispanic population, Nelson & Isa Lácteos is an example of how local entrepreneurs are literally feeding the appetite for foods with a Hispanic flavor. Bay Shore- based Nelson & Isa Lácteos buys cheese from importers who ship from El Salvador and Nicaragua, combines cheeses and converts them to other flavors, adding jalapeños and other ingredients.  Caso fresco is among their more popular, semi-soft fresh cheeses typically designed to be the real thing when it comes to Central American cheeses. “I can tell when it’s a good product. I grew up tasting it, eating it, making it,” Hernández said, noting every day when he has dinner or lunch, “a piece of cheese is on my plate.” Hernández grew up in a close family operating a farm with pigs, cows, corn and beans.  “The family was very attached to each other,” he said. “That was one thing that made it easier for us as kids growing up.” He was the youngest of five siblings in the family, where the oldest brother traveled to the United States in 1978. Nelson, at 15, became the last to leave the war-torn country.  “I didn’t want to get drafted to go to the army and go shoot my fellow Salvadorians,” Hernández said. “It was Salvadorian against Salvadorian. I don’t believe in that.” He did various jobs, becoming a U.S. citizen as he made Long Island his home. “I was a baker,” Hernández said. “When I came to the United States, I started working in a bakery. I did that for 12 years.” He began to think about the hunger for cheese, amid a growing Central American population. He and his wife, Isabel Ramos in 2018 founded Nelson & Isa Lácteos, catering to Hispanic tastes in food and also fulfilling the need.  “At the beginning, we both did everything. We started delivering, purchasing and packaging. The company was her and me,” Hernández said. “As we grew, we started hiring, one guy, another guy. Now we’re up to eight people.” Isabel controls the packing and the warehouse, while he focuses on purchasing, paying, taking orders, and visiting customers.  “I’m more of a salesperson. She’s more controlling how clean the place is and maintaining the warehouse,” Hernández said. “We distribute the work. I don’t think we’ve had a fight over anything about the business in six or seven years.” Although they started their business in Brentwood, they moved to Bay Shore more than 20 years ago.  “This is the center of the Island, pretty much,” Hernández said, noting their cheeses are available at Fine Fairs, Gala, Bravo and others. “There’s a large Hispanic community.”  They import from Nicaragua and El Salvador, selling across Long Island and delivering in New Jersey, Upstate New York and Connecticut at supermarkets, bodegas and convenience stores.  They import, blend and sell nearly a dozen Central American cheeses made with cow milk, also making sour cream, ricotta cheese, soft, semi -soft and hard cheeses. Hernández said sales dipped as fear gripped many Hispanics over arrests related to immigration status, as they cut back on everything, including shopping. “They’re not going out to buy food, or they could use whatever they have at the house,” Hernández said. “You hear from people who say they’re not even going to work.” While U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests led to deportations on Long Island, that issue hit home in another way when one of his workers, who came to the United States at age 12, was deported a month ago.  “One day we waited for him. They were waiting at the door,” Hernández continued. “They caught him. We tried to help him out. A month later he was back in El Salvador. Very hard-working kid. He was 19 years old. Very responsible and respectable.” The company also has to deal with tariffs that are adding new costs. “Everybody has to pay,” he said. “You pay and pass it on. You raise the price to the customers. At the end of the day, who pays the price? Whoever is going to consume the products.” They are planning on rebranding to grow awareness and interest, possibly within a month, with a new Spanish name to play up the Central American products. “We are planning to give more exposure to our company. We’re coming out with a brand name. That’s in process,” Hernández said. “I wanted something that gives me exposure. I want to be able to go to all the supermarkets in Long Island with my brand name.” Hernández is very much living the American dream, but possibly the Central American one as well. He grew up as a child making cheese, which has now become not just a good product, but a career. “I still love cheese,” Hernández said. “Now I love it even more, because it changed my life.”