Meet our Empresarios: Principe Maya
Hacienda CDC’s Empresarios programming supports entrepreneurs to start, grow, and scale their businesses. Read more about our featured Empresario and learn about our amazing community of small business owners.
Business Name:
Country of Origin:
Chumayel, Yucatán, Mexico
Significance of Name:
The name was selected because by the owner because he wanted to represent his origins in the name and the fact that a lot of these recipes are often served to royalty or people of high status.
Goals for Business:
Edilberto’s focus is to settle down and find his rhythm with his new business and to grow. He hopes to one day open up a restaurant where he owns the property to avoid paying rent but most importantly, he wants the independence that being a small business owners can offer him.
Ediberto’s Story
Edilberto Puch arrived to the United States in 2001, leaving his hometown after his brother suffered a critical accident which put him in a coma. He wanted to be able to help pay the bills which were stacking up.
After arriving to the U.S, Edilberto settled down and worked in restaurants as a dishwasher. With time, he gained and improved his skills. Eventually, he moved up positions to being a cook where he learned essential skills and techniques which have helped him improve his craft.
As time passed by, he began to miss the foods and rich flavors from his hometown. This led him to reach out to his family for their traditional home recipes with the hopes of learning them. Later on, he was able to connect with an aunt who also immigrated to Portland, and he asked her to teach him how to properly cook these ancient recipes. She was delighted to help and not only did she help him perfect his recipes but she also now helps cook in this new venture. You can be left assured that these recipes will take you back centuries to the era of the Mayan civilization.
It was not until years later after connecting with his aunt that this dream of opening up his own business became reality. In 2020, during the start of the pandemic, Edilberto lost his job due to labor cuts. Because he was having so many difficulties finding a new job, he decided to start looking into the opportunity of starting his own business. He reached out to the Portland Mercado after learning about their services and entrepreneurship opportunities. After a lot of coordination, paperwork, and handwork, Ediberto was able to finalize a deal on renting a food Cart at our Portland Mercado Location. He and his traditional flavors and recipes are members of our beloved family and community!
About Principe Maya
Principe Maya joined the Portland Mercado food carts with a focus on recreating traditional recipes from the Mayans, who once flourished in the Peninsula of Yucatán. Their Ancient Mayan diet focused on four domesticated crops: maize, squash, beans, and chili peppers. Tortillas, cooked on a “comal” were also staples of their diet. These were often used to wrap other foods like meats, beans, etc. Tortillas are perhaps the best-known pre-Columbian Mesoamerican food but they used maize in many ways. Some notable uses were on their Tamales and Pibes, which were usually “Masa” stuffed with meats, adobos and wrapped in banana leaves to be slowly cooked in dug-out fire pits.
Ediberto grew up eating these dishes from his mother and elders who learned the recipes through their elders. Having survived generations, most of the dishes have evolved now that we are in the 21st century. The way these dishes are made and cooked have adapted to our modern life and thus fire pits are no longer used. The goal at Principe Maya is to prepare dishes true to their origins by using local ingredients mixed with imported spices. Sadly, no fire pit is possible.
Learn more about our Empresarios program and other businesses at the Portland Mercado.