FRESNO, Calif. (FOX26) — A Salvadoran family is celebrating its culture one pupusa at a time, marking Salvadoran Independence Day and Hispanic Heritage Month with a milestone for its growing Central Valley business.
Eduardo and Clara López, owners of Pupusería La Salvadoreña, brought their Salvadoran food business to a River Park event for the first time Monday.
(PHOTO: Courtesy FOX26 Photojournalist Ronnie Gerber.)
For the couple, the timing made the moment even more meaningful: Sept. 15 marks Independence Day for El Salvador, as well as Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica.
“Estar en un lugar distinto a nuestro país, pero representándolo, nos hace dignamente salvadoreños,” Eduardo López said.
“To be somewhere outside our country, but still represent it, makes us proud to be Salvadoran,” he said.
López said sharing the food of his home country is a way for his family to preserve their roots, while introducing more people in the Central Valley to Salvadoran culture.
“Siempre con nuestra raíz, siempre con nuestra cultura,” he explained. “Always with our roots, always with our culture.”
At the center of that culture is the pupusa, El Salvador’s national dish. Pupusas are thick, handmade corn tortillas typically stuffed with ingredients such as cheese, beans and pork.
The López family came to the United States in 2017 and started its business in 2018, initially making traditional Salvadoran bread.
López said customers who bought their quesadillas began asking why the family did not make pupusas. Despite having little experience making them commercially, the family decided to give it a try.
Over time, Pupusería La Salvadoreña grew through farmers markets, community fairs and other events across the Central Valley.
López said the family has been dreaming of bringing their food to the River Park for years.
“This is our first time, and for it to happen on this date makes it especially meaningful for us to say, ‘Here is El Salvador. Here is our traditional Salvadoran dish,’” López said in Spanish.
The family’s menu includes traditional revueltas, made with pork, beans, and cheese.
López said those additions allow the family to incorporate other flavors while keeping the foundation of the food distinctly Salvadoran.
For the López family, however, the business is about more than what goes inside a pupusa.
“Our pupusas are made from my wife’s heart, from my heart, from the hearts of our daughters, from our family,” López said in Spanish.
As Hispanic Heritage Month gets underway, López said the family hopes its business can show another side of El Salvador through food, entrepreneurship and pride in where they came from.
“Aquí está El Salvador,” he said. “Here is El Salvador.”