Rosales Family

Mario, Melania & Maria

Mario and Melania Rosales and their daughter Maria have been in Jasper for over 13 years now.  Today Mario owns El Campesino, a thriving restaurant, just off downtown.  By all accounts, things are going well, but it is a story that did not happen over night, nor did it come without challenges, hard work and sacrifices.

Mario was born in El Salvador, and as he came into his adult life, the country was in the midst of switching from the colon to the dollar as its form of currency.  It was a time of economic chaos in which the price of goods went up 2-3 times and good paying jobs were difficult to come by.  He made the decision to come to the United States for the opportunities it offered.  First in L.A., then New York City, and finally settling in Maryland, Mario took to driving over the road trucks, operating heavy equipment and working as part of a crew repairing roads and bridges, sometimes dangling 168 feet above a river on a rope swing.  Maryland held him for 23 years until he took his driving skills to Denver.

A family affair in the kitchen

Mario, or "Shark" as he is known to his friends, felt as if he was ready to get married.  He and Melania were married, and since he was a U.S. Citizen and she was not, they had to live apart for many years while she remained in El Salvador.  Even when his daughter was born, Mario would only visit when he could get away from work, bringing his love and presents to spoil his young daughter.  For Maria, she said "he was a stranger who would show up", not fully realizing why this man was showing up sporadically to visit.  Eventually, everything would change as Mario as able to finally bring Melania and Maria, now 3, to live with him in Denver.  This was a big change for the family, but a bigger one was one the horizon.

Maria hitting the books before the lunch rush

A friend suggested to Mario that he should look at moving to Jasper.  Mario was familiar with the area given all his trips across country on Interstate 64 and decided to make a move.  Selling out in Denver, they arrived in Jasper with $300 to their names.  Needing an apartment and a job, Mario walked into the office of Bart Kersteins.  He had apartments to rent, but they required a $200 deposit.  Mario pleaded that he only had $300, had a family to provide for, and needed a job in order to cover food and rent; taking $200 would strap the family too thin given the unknown of the job situation.  Bart offered an apartment that needed to be cleaned and said he would knock the deposit to $100 if they cleaned it and gave Mario the name of a friend at Masterbrand in Ferdinand.  He told Mario to tell her that "Bart had sent him".  Mario went to find her the very next morning and landed his first job in the area.  Mario said "everything was going to be ok".

Melania preparing tamalès

Eventually, Mario would open a tienda in Jasper and found success in the grocery business.  During this time, an acquaintance approached Mario about opening a restaurant across the street.  Mario told him he only had $1000, but his acquaintance assured him that he could cover half the costs.  So, together, they opened a restaurant at the "Y" in Jasper, only the acquaintance never came through with his money, and Mario was left with the financial responsibility of the restaurant.  Selling his tienda, Mario by accident was now a restauranteur.  Sometimes these happy accidents happen in our lives, changing the course of our lives for the better.

For Mario, the restaurant is his true passion.  The roots of El Campesino took hold.  He opened locations in Marengo and at Patoka Lake.  Though business was good in the summer at the lake, it was not a year round draw and Marengo was quite a drive daily, so Mario committed all his energies to one locations in Jasper, his wife and daughter right by his side cooking, serving, and cleaning, with Maria, now a junior in high school, squeezing in time for homework - working toward her dream of being a cardiac surgeon.

Mario working on his famous "Green Coffee"!

The "tornado"

Mario told me his approach to food is this, "a small place have a chance to cook in small portions and to cook everyday, the food is almost as fresh as it can be".  Larger, busier places cook ahead in batches and use processed foods with lots of waste created to cater to larger crowds.  Mario would rather provide food that meets the approval of his customers, feeding them like family.  He says, "I have a lot of good customers, a lot of my customers are my friends".  Maria says that they work to create bonds with their customers and pride themselves on being "hospitable".  The customers respond to this and return again and again.

When asked how the restaurant has changed their lives in town, Maria puts forward that they are not looked at like strangers anymore.  People in town know them now.  Spending time with their customers has opened up conversations and friendships that could easily not have happened if they just passed each other on the streets.  The Rosales story is a fine example of the hope for this series - that friendships and bonds can form just by getting to know one another, and fears and stereotypes can fade away as we humans come to know one another.