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Meet Desiree Flores of Dear Mama LA in Boyle Heights and Greater LA County

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Desiree Flores.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Desiree. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I grew up in Boyle Heights, raised by a single mother with my two other siblings. We lived with my grandmother in a small room. I remember watching my family struggle throughout my life. My mother has always taught us to work hard and to always poner me las pilas, she encouraged me to further my education and to be successful.

Her words of wisdom always resonated with me even especially when I was a kid. I remember promising my mother that I would buy her a house and that I would do everything in my power to be successful and get us out of the hood. I dedicated Dear Mama by Tupac to her when I was seven years old, to remind her that I appreciated all her hard work and dedication, she cried and we held each other. It was a special moment for me. Even when I was young, I knew that I wanted to be an entrepreneur I wrote my first business plan when I was 12.

This moment stuck with me and helped me propel myself to where I am today. It helped me graduate from Cal State Northridge with a degree in Business Management and with a minor and Marketing. There I was involved in serval organizations, I held important leadership potions through the years which in turn helped my professional development. Once I graduated I knew that I wanted to help feed people healthier plant-based alternatives. I had seen how beneficial eating a plant-based diet could be, I had experienced it first hand. I went vegan when I was 17 years old while I was attending Roosevelt High School. At that point in my life, I was 210lbs and I was living an unhealthy lifestyle. Like so many people, I had no idea of how damaging the food, I was taught to love and crave truly was. I began to change my eating habits and I felt like a new person, I knew this was the best decision I had ever made.

Cooking had always been a hobby I enjoyed, I am the oldest of my siblings so it was crucial that I learned to cook for them. My grandmother always had me in the kitchen watching her making sure I learned the recipes and her techniques. I enjoyed every moment especially when I got to be part of the process and taste the food. Learning to cook plant-based in Boyle heights challenged me to be more creative, and make more than just fried chicken and mashed potatoes. I learned more about different vegetables, beans and grains, it was exhilarating, I had no idea that there was a whole world of new simple recipes I could create. Food became my passion, I was able to heal my body by eating more plants and learning more about the industries behind our food system. I learned that food injustice was a form of oppression. This inspired me to bring plant-based food to my community. I saw firsthand how many of my own family members were suffering from health ailments like diabetes, high blood pressure, and cholesterol. I was once on that same path!

Shortly after I graduated Cal State Northridge (CSUN) I began to develop ideas for my own food-based business, the idea for Dear Mama was ignited by a comment a friend made. I was working on a Birria recipe for myself and my family and I had fed whatever leftovers I had to my friends they enjoyed it and said “I would totally buy these tacos off the street if they were available” and just like that the lightbulb went on and the gears in my brain started cranking. I began my journey by working with Greens Center for Plant-based nutrition on East LA, Iris green was the founder and she began supper club events in the community, where different chefs would come together and share their food. My first event was international tamales and I had experience making tamales for myself but never for a crowd of people, at that point, I didn’t even consider myself a chef, but none the less I entered. I had no name for my business I just knew that my tamales were good and that I had a passion to help my community through food. I had incorporated my grandmother’s techniques and salsa recipe for her tamales de puerco, but I used jackfruit.

The flavor was there and the familiarity was there, I even tested it on my own family. I gave each one of them a vegan tamale and told them it was pork, I had made and asked them how they liked it and without hesitation, they said it was good. I later informed them that they had all eaten vegan tamales they were shocked because they couldn’t tell the difference. I knew I had gotten the recipe correct, my grandmother even approved. This helped reassure me as I entered my first event, as I was thinking of a name for my business I remembered the promise I had made to my mother as a child and the Tupac song I had dedicated to her. I wanted to thank her and all the woman in my life that had inspired me to keep moving forward and to triumph, I knew I had to call my business Dear Mama, I wanted to thank all the hard working single parents working hard to feed their kids and keep a roof over their head. That’s why we offer single-parent families a 15% discount on their order and we offer their children a free taco, we also work with local organizations in donating clothing and food.

That first event was the stepping stone to where I am today and I am absolutely grateful for all the people I have been able to feed and meet throughout the years. I continue to serve the Boyle Heights community, supporting and collaborating with organizations like Teatro Luna, HomeBoy industries and Roosevelt High School, Roosevelt Continuation High School, The East LA Artwalk and The Boyle Heights arts conservatory where I work with local radio station KQBH. I’ve offered Spanish plant-based cooking demos to the parent center at Roosevelt and had the opportunity to speak to the students at Roosevelt Continuation on how I carved my own path to success. Every Tuesday at 10:30 pm I go live on KQBH 101.5 FM and on social media to share local vegan events in the community but most importantly quick easy recipes you can make with the ingredients in your home.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
There has definitely been an obstacle but nothing worthwhile comes easy. Sometimes the struggle is the best part, it forces you to adapt and change and be better in what you’re doing. My mission isn’t easy, I want to people in my community to be more open to incorporating more fruits and veggies to their everyday lives. I want them to see that dairy is a huge contributing factor to osteoporosis and asthma. I want people to recognize the oppression they face by having to choose from Burger King, Mc Donalds, and animal-based foods. People laugh at us when we tell them we have vegan Birria and Asada tacos and I’m okay with that, I offer them a free taco in hopes of changing their mind and many people take the taco and they enjoy it others ignore me and move on. Local businesses have tried to push us out of the neighborhood but most are welcoming and supportive, we are often times seen as gentrifiers, but that can be further from the truth. Every obstacle has helped me understand people a little more and has helped me grow stronger and more resilient.

Dear Mama LA – what should we know? What do you do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Dear Mama is a pop-up restaurant and catering business, we focus on community education and engagement. We specialize in plant-based Mexican inspired dishes, many of which are recipes handed down from my family and others I drew inspiration from Boyle Heights. We are known for our tacos de birria, we use organic non- GMO blue corn masa from Kernal of truth and I recreated my grandma birria using yaca (jackfruit) with all the same Jalisco flavor and spices she still uses. We are also well known for our elotes and esquites, we created our own chipotle mayo and cashew cotija cheese. This is in homage to the eloterxs I grew up with on the block. They showed me the hustle of having a small business and I want to thank them for showing me the elote skills I have today. I am most proud of the fact that I gave plant-based cooking demos to the parent center at Roosevelt High School and all the work we continue to do in the community. At the parent center, I was able to offer cooking demos in Spanish for about three months, that lead to speaking to students at Roosevelt continuation on how I created my own path to success. I’m proud that we were able to host a drag show fundraiser for Qyouth at Eastside Luv and that the community as a whole has welcomed us and that they’ve been so open-minded on trying our food. What sets us apart is the sense of community we are trying to create in every interaction, and our commitment to lesser-served communities, like east la, Compton, and LQBTQ and to show our appreciation to each individual and to thank single-parent families, that’s why we offer single partner families a discount and a free taco to their children so we can help them out. We’ve seen the struggle and parents shouldn’t have to struggle to give their children healthier options.

What is “success” or “successful” for you?
Success to me is taking responsibility and charge of your life, being yourself unapologetically and living in a world where you take up space and make your voice heard. Success to me is living out your ideas and making the life of your dreams come true but most importantly being happy. Happy with the person you’ve become in the journey to fulfill your dreams and happy with where you are in life no matter where you are in the process. It’s important that we take a step back a look at our lives and appreciate how far we’ve come and how much we’ve accomplished. Success to me is also taking into account what you want in life and going after it, it’s having big goals and dreams and stepping closer to bringing those dreams into fruition.

The markers I look for are more commonly found internally, if you feel and you see on paper that you are better off today than you were yesterday, a week ago or even months prior that success. Realizing that as an individual you’ve set forth the theme and momentum to your life and going after that, you’re already a success. We just sometimes minimize it because we look for the materialistic manifestations in our life but those always come after you begin to live your life in of your truth and dreams.

Pricing:

  • Single Taco $4 or 3 for $11
  • Esquites $6 and Elotes $5
  • Pozole $5
  • Tamales $4
  • Nachos $12
  • Mulitas $8
  • Tempeh Fish Taco $5
  • Vegan Hot Petos with Cashew Nacho Cheese $6
  • Torta $10

Contact Info:

Image Credit:
Amy Zapata, Chelsea Flores

Getting in touch: VoyageLA is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.

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