Meet Josefina Gil, a food business owner at Tacos Anahis. She has a great passion for her business and serving her community with great respect. Josefina is a very hard working woman and a dedicated leader to her employees to what’s right and what’s wrong. She serves her customers with a cheerful smile along with a short conversation. Not only does she do this with her customers but also to the community. She likes giving back to the community by handing out free food to the police department, firefighters and as well as the homelessness, she hopes to bring desire, friendship, and pleasantness for her clients and community.
Josefina is a 38-year-old food business owner born and raised in Puebla Mexico. When 24, She came to the U.S to look for work and start a new life due to Mexico being difficult for her. In 2010, she met her partner, Apolinea Reyes Rosas who would later also be taking part in starting this food business with her. Throughout her life, Josefina would apply to different jobs just to gain a fair amount of money to help take care of herself and her partner. But nothing helped. As she got pregnant with her first child in 2012, Josefina and Apolinea both decided to open up their own food stand “Tacos Anahis” named after her child.
With her enthusiasm for her business, she wants to be known as an “open-handed leader”. “I help the homelessness because they have no place to stay, they don’t have money to buy food, and I try my best to give them food so they don’t go to sleep hungry,” She explained.
Not only does Josefina help the people in need but also those who keep our city safe. “The same goes for firefighters because they help save lives, the police department as well because they help take care of the community and the city.”
Everything was going well until disaster struck. A full speed car slammed her taco stand and killed a young girl Elektra Yepez, as well as injuring the girl’s relatives. Fundraiser for Elektra Yepez, was started by Tacos Anahis who put their efforts in raising awareness and money for funeral expenses. “Well, we never thought it would happen, right? Because the car was coming in the opposite direction. Which caused a teen girl to eventually pass from that accident. We had to hold an event to raise funds to help her family during this tragic event”. She explained. With Josefina’s genuine care and the help of the community, many people from around the neighborhood started showing up to the taco sale on Tuesday to help raise money for the grieving family.
As she loves bringing glee to her business, Josefina has also brought movement in other communities around in the state of California. With her now ten open taco stands in the cities around, she travels to meet many different people. Her communicative skills and laughter is a perspective that she has for her community. Soon people already know her as a pride and joy.
Josefina’s mission is to bring acts of kindness to her community. If people have a bad day, she will lighten up the mood, if they have a good day, she lightens their mood even more with her communication skills and funny jokes. It shows us that Josefina is a warmhearted person that can brighten up people’s days.
