- [Narrator] Funding for this episode of ¿Que Pasa?

NJ with Carlos Medina has been provided by Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey, PSE&G, the New Jersey Economic Development Authority Hackensack Meridian Health, The Engineer's Labor Employer Cooperative 825, NJM Insurance, ROI-NJ Business Magazine.

- Hola, familia, welcome to the season premiere of season two of ¿Que Pasa?

with Carlos Medina.

Today we have Carlos Vega, owner of Jersey Italian Gravy.

We have County Clerk from Hudson County, Junior Maldonado.

We have Monica Martinez Milan from the axe throwing venue, Stumpy's in Green Brook, New Jersey, and we also have Ona Diaz, the owner of 5 Salon in Fort Lee, New Jersey.

¿Que Pasa?

(Latin music) - Today's first guest is Carlos Vega of Jersey Italian Gravy.

Thank you for joining us, Carlos.

- Thank you for having me, glad to be here.

- Now, a lot of people may not know this but we're both fellow St Joe Blue Jays, Hudson County.

- Go Blue Jays.

- Go Blue Jays.

- Blue Jays for life.

- Exactly.

And we both worked at Father and Son Pizzeria, on Bergenline Avenue, Guttenburg, New Jersey.

Now tell me a little bit about your family's immigration story.

How did dad come here to the United States?

- So my dad came here in the thirties during the Spanish civil war.

My father was a political prisoner.

He was in a concentration camp in France.

He fled Spain during the Franco Regime.

He went on a ship called the Flandres which took all the refugees from Spain.

He went to Dominican Republic.

And then from there he wound up going to Cuba and set his roots in Camagüey, Cuba.

- Camagüey.

- He always had his eyes set, you know, the big app, I want to be in New York.

And he came over here and you know, his wish came true.

- Now I know I have a book on my bookshelf.

Your dad was also an author.

- He was, he was an author, had many published books.

He was also a Spanish historian.

He was commissioned by the United States government to translate the charters of freedom, the declaration of independence, the constitution, the Gettysburg address.

So, all the official translated copies you see in Spanish were done by my father.

- Wow that's amazing.

- Yeah.

- I didn't know that.

- Yeah.

- Now let's go back to the journey of Jersey Italian Gravy.

Now, as I recall, you're working on wall street and you go back to visit Father and Son Pizzeria.

Tell our viewers a little bit about that story and make it as PG as possible.

(both laughing) - So basically I just was visiting my parents.

I stopped by the pizzeria, the old stomping ground, and I wanted to grab a slice.

And I saw the owner's still there.

After all these years, he's still behind the counter.

And I asked him, "Hey, how's it going?"

"How's the family?"

He said, everything was well.

I said, "You're still here?"

"Why don't you," "are you going to sell the pizzeria anytime as soon?"

And he says, "Well, I'm thinking about it" "but I just don't wanna sell it to anybody."

And I said, "Well, what do you mean by anybody?"

And he says, "Well, you know," "I don't wanna sell it to just any Hispanic around."

I says, "Well, you know you're going to have" "a little bit of a challenge" "because the entire neighborhood now has become Hispanic."

And then I'm turning around, walking out and we say goodbye.

He stops me and he looks at me and he says, "Carlos, why don't you buy the pizzeria?"

And I said to him, "Well, you know," "I don't think that I'm the right guy" "because I'm Hispanic."

So he says to me, "Oh, no, no, no, no, no."

He says, "You're Cuba."

And I looked at him and I says "I know where you're going with this one."

So anyway, long story short, that day I wound up not just walking out with a slice of pizza, I wound up walking in and buying the place.

- So how did working there and knowing that they had these recipes that you also purchased lead to the creation of Jersey Italian Gravy?

- When we bought the pizzeria, we took tweaked the recipes, we made them a little bit more healthier, we used better ingredients.

The process was still the same, but we made it a little bit more healthy than it was.

And then one day we were selling more of this stuff.

It was just, people were asking "Can I have extra gravy with my lasagna?"

"Can I have extra gravy on my big CD?"

Can I have, everything was extra gravy.

So one day my wife says, you know, "Why don't we do this?"

"Why don't we jar it, we brand it to the pizzeria name" "and put it on the counter, and we're doing two things."

So I said, "Okay, good idea."

So I learned how to pack it, jar it, preserve it.

So when we bought the pizzeria, we were making about 40 quarts of this sauce gravy a week.

By the time we were done selling the stuff off the shelf it was starting to fly off the shelf.

We were doing about 80 quarts every two days.

- Wow.

Wow.

- So we knew we were onto something at that point.

So then, two years later after we booked the business up, we said to ourselves, you know what?

I think we want to take this retail.

And we sold the pizzeria, we kept our intellectual properties.

And then we started developing this for mass production.

- [Carlos] Amazing.

Amazing.

And also Whole Foods was one of your first stores that you were in?

So, Whole Foods was actually very good because you know, they're very strong on local brands.

So, before we even launched this brand, what we did is we went around to the neighborhoods, small delis and the specialty shops.

And we wanted to see that we had a viable product.

So, we would leave a little tiny sample with our business card in all these little stores and then two weeks later I'd call everybody up and I'd say, "Hey, you know, look I'm not trying to sell you anything."

"I just want to know if you liked the product" "and see if I'm on to something here."

So, the response was overwhelming and everybody was basically saying "When can I get my first order?"

You know?

So we knew we were definitely on to something there and then Whole Foods gave us the opportunity through their local program that we were able to introduce it in their local programs.

So with them, as we sold it into one store then the one store led to two to three to four and then eventually the region took us on board.

And then we started distributing through the region.

- That's great.

- So, they're very supportive with that.

And then we wound up making their private label brands as well.

So they liked it, yeah.

- And we reconnected, 'cause I saw you in a New York times article and ironically the name didn't ring a bell, you looked very different in the photograph with your wife and it was good to reconnect, but thank you for being on the show.

- Absolutely, thank you for having me.

- Best of luck.

- Yes, absolutely.

Good luck to you.

- And I'll be trying some of the gravy on my Sunday recipe this week.

And next up we have Junior Maldonado, Hudson County Clerk (Latin music) - And now we have Junior Maldonado, the Hudson County Clerk.

Thanks for joining us, Junior.

- Carlos, Gracias.

- Welcome to ¿Que Pasa?

- ¿Que Pasa?

I love that name, man.

- Junior, tell me about your journey from Puerto Rico and your family's journey to New Jersey.

- Well, I was born in Puerto Rico, in Orocovis, Puerto Rico, which is right center of the island.

The family came here, you know, looking for better opportunities, like most Puerto Rican, most Latino families do.

I don't remember much, I was two years old.

So for all practical purposes, I am a New Jersey US Puerto Rican American, but I was born in Puerto Rico.

So I have that native roots to brag about.

- Definitely.

Refresh my memory, I know I worked with you on your campaign when you were running for reelection in Jersey City.

And at that time, a young fellow by the name of Steven Phillip was running and he jokes, I think when we had them on the show, that you you launched his political career because it was a very close contest but he beat you by maybe one or two points.

- Yeah, yeah.

So, it was, yes, I served with in city council in 2001, and 2005 I ran for reelection.

I ran against Steven Phillip, who at that time was just a community orientated, minded person in Jersey City.

You know, fortunately it was a close election and I lost the demographics of downtown Jersey City.

By the time I ran for reelection had changed.

It went from a community of about 45% Latino in 2001 to probably about 29% in 2005.

So, obviously the landscape had changed, but he did.

He won fair and square.

And I did launch his career.

I told everybody, if it wasn't for me losing to Steve Phillip, Nobody would know who the heck he is today.

So yes, I take credit for that.

- But more importantly, during his run for mayor to unseat Mayor Healey, you were one of his early supporters and I would argue the most prominent Hispanic in Jersey City that backed Mayor Phillip through his election.

- Well, yes, I appreciate those kind words.

We sat down in that election.

Mayor Healey had been the mayor for a couple of terms already.

We were, I was not, and so my group was not satisfied with a lot of the progress that the mayor had made in terms of inroads with the Latino community.

So we sat down with Steve.

I had followed his career after replacing me and I thought he had done a really good job as a Councilman in downtown Jersey City.

I saw that he was outreaching to the other various communities and particularly the communities of color.

And we joked, we had a good conversation.

We had similar ideas, similar thoughts.

He wanted to progress Jersey City and our community to the extent that I was satisfied and we were successful.

So just a little hindsight, at that time when I came on, I was early but his numbers in the Latino community polling were really low but by the time he got to the election we had him at almost 70%.

- Yeah, I think across the landscape of the entire country, the Hispanic voting block is becoming more and more recognized and respected.

- It is.

And I tell you, I had the privilege and the honor of serving on the NALEO, National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials.

I'm in the board of directors and Nalell does a great job of outreaching to communities and getting more Latinos to run for public office.

And yeah, you're right.

We're being looked at.

The last presidential election was a big factor in which the community contributed to the election of President Biden.

So yes, we're getting up there.

- So fast forward from Councilman now to County clerk, one of the few Hispanic and is it the only Puerto Rican in the entire United States to hold that position?

- So, I know I am the first Puerto Rican in the state of New Jersey.

I think I might be the second in the country.

There's only a handful of Latino county clerks in the United States.

So I'm proud to be in that role.

So, I've had a long political career.

I'm very proud of it, started in high school.

People who know me from high school will tell you, you know, Junior was like a politicians from day one.

Walking around with a suit, a tie, a case.

And he was doing, you know, class president, school newspaper, the whole bit, you know?

So, I followed that in my heart all these years.

And here we are, you know?

- Here we are.

- We've taken the County Clerk's office to a whole different level.

Most people in the community will tell you they didn't know what the County Clerk, who it was, what they did.

We do a business, more business spotlight which I'm sure you'll appreciate as the the chairman of the state, Latino or other statewide chamber.

People appreciate that we're out there in the social media campaign.

People appreciate that we're bringing up the name of what an elected office does and how we can service them as constituents.

And we're very proud of the fact that staff has taken on this task and we're doing a great job with it.

- Yeah.

I'll shout you guys out.

Buy local is important and I see you're doing that and support local by giving folks social media platform, giving them advertising and in the COVID world, businesses are struggling and I encourage all our viewers, buy local.

So I know you're a big advocate for Buy Hudson County.

We've been able to attract a statewide Hispanic chamber when you were a freeholder director to do some of their training classes in Hudson County.

So keep up the good work.

County clerk, Junior Maldonado, friend.

Thank you so much.

- Thank you, Bill.

I appreciate it.

- Thanks, Junior.

And up next, we have Monica Martinez Milan, owner of Stumpy's Hatchet House.

(Latin music) - Welcome back.

We have Monica Martinez Milan from Stumpy's Hatchet House in Green Brook, New Jersey.

Welcome to ¿Que Pasa?

- Thank you so much for having me.

- So, Monica, tell me a little bit about your family's immigration story.

What brought you to New Jersey?

- So my family's from Spain.

Back in Spain there wasn't much going on.

They were under the Franco regime for a very long time.

So, it was a very poor, poor country.

And my grandfather was one of the first to come to this country.

As you know, most people immigrated when they were entering through the Northeast.

They were all funneled through Ellis Island.

And when he was seeing New York, he was getting close.

He saw the Statue of Liberty.

He saw those beautiful buildings.

And that was the light house, right?

That was his dream, he was there.

So a lot of the Spaniards from the region of Spain where my family's from, they're masons.

They know how to work.

You know, the house my mother was born in is like 200 years old, built by hand, big blocks.

So they would contract them.

They would come here and they built Manhattan.

Another project that he worked on was the Holland Tunnel.

- So, certainly an entrepreneur, somebody that gave back to the community.

So, I understand a lot of what you mirror, you know, you were involved with the Hispanic Chamber, you're involved with a local chamber and you're quite the entrepreneur.

Tell me how Stumpy's became part of your life and axe throwing, it's not something typical that I see for her a young lady from Newark, New Jersey.

- Absolutely.

Well that, that's more of a reason, right?

Everybody, you know, it's not a judgment but we assume people are going to play a certain role.

And my family, we have this entrepreneurial blood and I wanted to break that mold.

Like I didn't want to fit into a mold where this is what I'm going to do.

I'm graduating college and I'm stuck doing this.

I want to do a lot of things.

And, and it's just built in me.

I left corporate.

I was very sick for some time.

I had Lyme disease.

It happens here in New Jersey.

- Yeah.

- But growing up in Newark and in Carney, I didn't know what Lyme disease was until, you know, my hair was falling out and I could barely walk.

And when I recovered, the opportunity presented itself to my husband and I.

And my husband, who's also like me doing a million things said, "Babe, what do you think of hatchet throwing?"

And I was like, "I think it's crazy."

"You could drop that idea."

So two weeks later, he's like, "Listen, you know you can't judge a book by its cover."

"You have to understand it."

"So you know, we understood it, we evaluated it," "and we built the Stumpy's in Green Brook."

- So tell me a little bit about the COVID pivot and how, navigating... - [Monica] Yeah.

- Being a business owner, I know I would argue Hispanic businesses are resilient.

And like you said, they're battle-tested and therefore there may be - Mhm.

- Fairing a little bit better than main street but tell me how that has been, that struggle.

- Absolutely.

So, when we opened, I built the business even before the doors were open.

So, networking, talking to people, contacting the community.

That was my first intention, was how could I give back?

Even before the doors opened.

Our best month ever, which would have been March, when everything shut down, we were getting ready for the best month.

And we had to give back every deposit, every penny, everything.

So all the money that we had invested or saved up, given back to our customers and we were closed for five months.

So, in the middle of that closure, something that really truly helped me so much was being part of the Hispanic chamber.

It's why I wear my pin with pride.

The statewide Hispanic chamber of commerce of New Jersey has been so instrumental in my strength, my growth, my inspiration, seeing all of us going through the same thing and not allowing each other to drown.

Like, I made this comparison a few months ago on a call with the chamber.

The chamber was my lighthouse.

Just like my grandfather saw Ellis Island, the chamber was my lighthouse.

And then in the meantime we upgraded our venue.

We didn't stop helping the community.

That's what really kept us alive through the COVID.

And business seems to be up-ticking now?

It is, it is.

It's taken some time.

Customers need to feel like they're being taken care of, like they're safe, that we're wearing precautionary masks.

You know, the masks, the sanitization.

We did a lot to upgrade our air filtration system.

Resealing our floors so that our customers see it.

So things are starting to pick up again.

- That's great.

- Yeah.

- I wish you a lot of luck and success and thank you for being on ¿Que Pasa?

- Thank you.

Thank you so much.

- And up next, we have Ona Diaz of Spa 5 in Fort Lee, New Jersey.

(Latin music) And we're back with Ona Diaz, of 5 Salon and Spa.

Welcome to ¿Que Pasa?

- I'm super excited to be here.

Thank you, Carlos.

- We're happy that you're here.

You're a specialist in folks with curly hair.

- I am.

- So I think it's kind of appropriate that we have - I love it.

- Our queen, Selia, here today.

- It looks really good.

It caught my eye the minute I walked in.

- Tell me about your family's immigration journey to New Jersey.

- Buenos.

Both my parents are Dominican.

They were born and raised in Dominican Republic.

I am first generation American.

We went to Queens.

We actually did not come to New Jersey.

We went to Queens, so I'm a Queens girl.

- Okay.

- High school, around high school I came to Jersey.

- Excellent.

- And we ended up in Englewood Cliffs in a town called Englewood Cliffs.

So, Bergen County, New Jersey.

Bergen County, New Jersey.

- Tell me some of your early memories of mom and being by her side when she was working.

- Oh, so I grew up in a hair salon, you know, I give it to her, she came from Dominican Republic.

Didn't really do schooling.

You know, out there it's like you just, from 12 or maybe earlier, you're doing Rolos and haircutting and you don't know what you're doing, but you're doing it.

And she came here and she had an idea and she executed it.

Amazing entrepreneur.

Being in a salon my whole life and really my whole life.

I did homework there, I ate there, I washed hair there, I shampoo, you know, anything, I picked up phone.

She let me do whatever.

And then just watching her, watching her with people, watching how attentive she was.

How people wanted her to do their hair.

And I was just, I was in awe.

- So then you worked at a very prominent spa in Fort Lee.

And now you own that spa.

Tell me a little bit how that happened.

That's an interesting journey.

- I was an assistant.

So, well, it goes back to beauty school.

We went to beauty school and a gentleman came in, Nick Bararty, and he was doing a demo.

He was cutting hair there and I was amazed.

I was like, "Oh my God, I got to work with this guy one day."

And I stood up, you know, I've always been that kind of person that I'll just say what I got to say.

And I'm okay with that.

And I said, "Hey, I'm going to work with you one day."

And he laughed.

And he goes, "I like your spunk, kid" Years later, I get a phone call in a hair salon that I was in, in Englewood.

And I never get calls there.

I get a call.

It's Nick Berarty.

He didn't mention his name.

He just said, Nick, we should go out to dinner and we should sit down and talk about your future.

And then I'm looking at him, well, listening to him and I'm like, "Yeah, that's not going to happen."

"I'm good here."

I'm fine, I'm making a killing.

I'm young and I have a full book and I'm happy and great team.

And he just kept going on and "Hey, you have nothing to lose."

And then I said, "You know what?"

"What's dinner?"

So I go, and it's the Nick that I met at beauty school.

And I said, "Oh wow."

So let me sit down and listen.

In my mind, I was already made up, like this is the next step in my career.

Things don't happen for just nothing.

I'm going to do it.

So after he was all done I said, "Okay, I'm coming."

And he goes, "That's it?"

And I go, "Yeah."

And I said, "You don't remember me, do you?"

And he goes, "Yeah, no."

And I go, "I'm that girl from beauty school" "that said I'm going to work with you one day."

And he was like, "Oh my God, I remember you."

Next thing you know, I moved up from stylist, master stylist, and then creative director, and he leaves, and now I'm the fifth owner of that salon.

- Oh, wow.

- That's a prominent location, I remember that growing up in the Hudson in Bergen, that corner is a lot of activity.

- I loved it there.

- I'm grateful to be there but just the opportunity to actually own something in Bergen County and being pretty much the only one there Latina.

- Tell me how COVID has treated you.

I know you've done some pivoting, you've installed some barriers.

You've been creative to keep the business thriving.

- That was hard for everybody.

The first 10 days were rough.

I stayed in bed, I didn't want to get out of bed.

And then I said, "Who am I?"

You know, who am I?

Am I a person that's going to sit and mope and cry?

Or am I a person that gets up that knows that her God handles everything?

Who am I serving here?

You know?

So I said, "Let me get up, let me call my team."

Got into what I normally do.

You know, cheerleader, what are we going to do?

And how we're going to do it?

And so here I am painting walls, ripping down the walls, putting up walls.

I never thought I could do it and I'm like, okay.

And my husband's pretty savvy, so we got in there and we made it even that much more beautiful, and anything that we had to do to make sure that the team was comfortable.

Then we have to open our doors for people to feel comfortable coming in.

But has it been easy?

No, it has not been easy, we're at like 25% capacity.

We have a 5,000 square foot place, you know, beautiful salon and spa.

And we just, I am grateful, so grateful that our doors are open to our community, and grateful that our community is as loyal as they are and grateful that the team is loyal.

I mean, God is so good.

- Inspirational story.

I'm going to make sure we put your social media handles on the screen 'cause you have quite a following on Instagram and the various platforms.

- Thank you.

- Thank you for everything you do.

It's an inspirational story and keep doing what you're doing.

- Thank you, thank you, Carlos.

- I appreciate you.

- Thanks for watching the premiere of season two of ¿Que Pasa?

with Carlos Medina.

Today you heard some really inspirational stories and don't forget, send us stories via info@quepasanj.org or at our social media handles that we're going to put on the screen.

Thank you.

- [Narrator] Funding for this episode of ¿Que Pasa?

NJ with Carlos Medina has been provided by Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey, PSE&G, The New Jersey Economic Development Authority, Hackensack Meridian Health, The Engineer's Labor Employer Cooperative 825, NJM Insurance, ROI-NJ Business Magazine.

This has been a production of the Modesto Educational Foundation.

(Latin music)