‘Trust in yourself’: Colony Ridge residents rely on business savvy to establish life in U.S.

CLEVELAND — For the past year, Colony Ridge has captured the attention of Texans and the rest of the country as the fast-growing development 40 miles northeast of Houston has dominated the news across media outlets.

That news has largely been bleak.

After David gets the stamp of approval and heads home, Johnathan takes a seat in one of the burgundy leather chairs next to his Honda VTX 1300 motorcycle, which is prominently on display across from the barber’s chair.

Johnathan wants the shop to become a staple in the Colony Ridge community.

“It’s working, slowly,” he said. “People honk their horns and wave when they pass by. It’s gradual.”

Before cutting hair, Johnathan was a welder for a shop that made drill bits, but he didn’t appreciate being unable to control his own schedule. So, during the pandemic, Johnathan headed to barber school and joined the Bad Boyz Barber Shop in Houston, but always had a dream for something bigger.

After moving to Colony Ridge, he decided to take the leap.

Johnathan sees about 45 customers a week — sometimes more, sometimes less. The hardest part about laying down roots in the Liberty County development has been building on that momentum, which he began by passing out business cards door-to-door across the Santa Fe subdivision.

“The barber industry is really about building relationships,” Johnathan said. “And it’s refreshing to connect with people.”

Those connections fuel the barber’s soul as he continues to grow his clientele list from an initial conversation outside the local gas station to a deep talk with longtime customers, or “kindred spirits,” as he calls them.

“I feel like they’re my brothers,” Johnathan said. “They come here and talk about what they can’t share at work or at home.”

Irving Aragon Ramos, 45, Tlayudas House owner

Irving Aragon Ramos vividly remembers watching his mother manage her business in Oaxaca, Mexico. She would travel eight-hours to buy products and then make her way to the tiendita , little store, to open for the night.

“Sometimes my mother would end up so tired from work and there wasn’t anyone to sell, so I picked [cooking] up as a game,” he said in Spanish.

Irving embodies her hustle — like mother, like son.

The 45-year-old owns Tlayudas House , a food truck operation that features pieces of his home state, like their main dish: the traditional Tlayuda Oaxaqueña.

The giant tortilla can be filled with queso de hebra, or Oaxacan cheese, fried black beans, pork lard, plus lettuce and your meat of choice. People always want something different and the tlayuda gives them something they can’t replicate, Irving said.

For Irving, the dream was always to share his home state’s foods and traditions.

“What makes me the most proud is being one of the first [people] in Houston to bring Oaxaquena food to a more elevated level,” he said. “That was my dream.”

He begins each day at 6 a.m. running errands for the business and then drives an hour from Spring Branch to Colony Ridge to open Tlayudas House. The Liberty County development allowed him to turn his dream into a reality, even if it’s a two-hour round trip each day — a sacrifice Irving doesn’t mind making.

He also imports other traditional Mexican foods like garnachas, huaraches, flor de calabaza quesadillas, mole and chapulines.

Before landing in Colony Ridge, Irving would sell food out of his apartment in Spring Branch, but he stopped in 2009 when importing tlayudas became too difficult.

He didn’t think he’d return to serving the traditional food.

For the next six years, Irving worked as a gardener, but when manufacturing tlayudas became more profitable, he revisited his original dream.

In the beginning of 2022, Irving’s brother told him about Colony Ridge, which had attracted a large population of Oaxaqueños to the area. He never imagined operating a food truck but he decided it was worth a shot as long as he found a place to permanently station it.

On a Friday evening in early March, Irving’s food truck is decked out in traditional sugar skulls and flowers from his home state. One of his employees is dressed in traditional Oaxacan clothes — a black, orange, flowy, and embroidered dress — as she rings a bell to notify a customer their food is ready.

Sitting on a picnic bench next to Tlayudas House, Irving said he hopes to develop the business into a more traditional restaurant with upfront seating and a closed-off, air-conditioned area for dine-in customers. Eventually, he plans to open a small brick-and-mortar location in Houston.

“If my vision was to make money, this wouldn’t function,” he said. “You have to be focused on what you want in the future. I am focused on people becoming familiar with their plate: their food and the type of tlayuda.”

Susana Cazares, 49, Leo’s Beer Barn owner

From the moment Susana Cazares and her family arrived in the U.S., they always had a job — usually two.

The 49-year-old and her husband would knock on neighbors’ doors for an opportunity to clean someone’s home or sell food outside of a construction site.

A longtime Colony Ridge resident, Cazares fostered her entrepreneurial spirit in the development. Over the years she and her husband, Jesus Lopez, established a land-clearing business, another laying gravel for roads and driveways, a mechanical bull-riding rental operation and, most recently, Leo’s Beer Barn.

“ Good afternoon! How are you ?” Susana asked a customer in Spanish, greeting them as they walked inside Leo’s on a Friday evening in April.

The family business beckons passersby with its bright red barn on the corner of County Road 5000 in Colony Ridge’s Montebello subdivision. On a typical evening, a line of cars wraps around the driveway to enter Leo’s, usually to pick up a six-pack of Modelos or una agua fresca .

In 2020, the business started as a vironguería , slang for a drive-thru that sells beer, and Susana would offer customers crawfish for sale on the side. Eventually, Leo’s expanded to include interior seating and a full menu.

Susana, the family matriarch, runs the restaurant — from mixing drinks to helping her son, Leonidas Lopez (whom Leo’s is named after) prepare crawfish.

The restaurant requires 13 employees and Susana’s immediate family to keep the place running. This is the fourth enterprise Susana’s family has tackled while living in Colony Ridge.

The adventure, she said, has been completely worthwhile.

“[Being] a merchant —I think that’s something we carry in our blood,” she said. “It’s something we already have in our blood.”

Susana and Jesus both hail from a long line of business owners, but Susana credits her work ethic and resiliency to her mother. As a teenager, Susana watched her mother advocate for her father as his nurse and legal guardian while he battled alcoholism.

“I’ve always known that the pillar of strength has to be me for my mom,” she said.

After her father’s death, Susana and her mother bought a small tienda in Mexico to sell juice and smoothies.

Owning a business wasn’t on Susana’s list of dreams when she migrated to the U.S. — safety was. Years later, not only has she secured that safety, but also a thriving business that’s become a hub of community.

On a Friday evening in April, Susana tends to customers that pull up to the drive-thru before stepping away to keep an eye on her family’s children. She blows bubbles with the kids as the sun sets.

Susana’s journey as a businesswoman began as a 19-year-old managing a juice stand with her mother. Thirty years later, she has become an entrepreneur despite the vast cultural and language barriers.

“We know it’s not our country, but simply we have to do things right,” she said. “People need to trust themselves, trust themselves, and try.”

Luis Lorenzo, 37, Barbacoa El Maguey owner

One day, eight years ago, Luis Lorenzo had a terrible meal at a Mexican place in Houston. The restaurant was advertised as Hidalguense but the barbacoa de borrego , or barbecue lamb, wasn’t what Luis, a Hidalgo native, expected.

The 37-year-old knew then that if this was the competition, he could open a truly authentic Mexican restaurant to much greater success.

In 2016, Luis and his family began selling food out of their home in the Houston area before discovering and moving to Colony Ridge.

Luis developed Barbacoa El Maguey into the restaurant that stands today in the development’s Santa Fe subdivision. Twenty-two years ago, he left his home country at 15-years-old with hope for a better future, but never could have imagined where he would wind up.

“Everything can be done in life. Put an idea in your head and everything can be done with sacrifice,” he said when asked what he would tell his 15-year-old self. “Nothing is handed to you without sacrifices. If it can be done, you can do it — you can do anything you want to.”

Preparing Barbacoa El Maguey’s signature dish — the barbacoa de borrego — is an all-night affair and is only served on the weekends.

This lamb-based barbecue is usually reserved for special occasions, like birthdays, quinceañeras, weddings or holidays. When prepared properly, the meat is very tender and can be served on tacos or on its own in the meat’s broth.

“So, the food can’t be found easily here or in other places in the United States,” he said. “That’s why we put ourselves to bring a taste of Mexico, a taste of Hidalgo, for people to familiarize themselves or to try food they haven’t in a while.”

On a typical day at El Maguey, you can find some of Luis’ nieces as well as his wife, other family members and a few neighbors maintaining day-to-day operations in the restaurant, tending to customers and manning tables.

Luis comes in on Sundays when he’s not managing the construction company he owns. When he works inside the restaurant, Luis explained that it’s important to him that the rest of the workers and clients do not see him as the owner, but rather just another employee.

“We didn’t expect the results of the restaurant. We didn’t expect that success,” Lorenzo said. “It was only an adventure. It began as an idea said out loud.”

Director of Photography Marie D. De Jesús and reporter Danya Pérez contributed to this article.