By: Leta Lohrmeyer & Ben Helwig
Miriam Lopez, the creator and head chef at Maria Bonita, started the business with a goal to share her heritage with the rest of Omaha. Each dish is inspired by the traditional food from Miriam’s native home of Hidalgo, Mexico.
Now, Miriam’s tight-knit family works together to keep the restaurant going, including her granddaughter Karime Diaz Lopez. It’s a matriarchal business with Miriam carrying the day-to-day business, her daughters helping with the catering and Karime cashiering when she’s not busy with school.
The history and development of the eatery follows along Karime as she grew up. Starting with the first Maria Bonita restaurant opening when she was in kindergarten.
“It was really a small, we started out just wanting to sell our culture and wanting to sell out our food – share our experience,” Karime said. “We had to close down the business because my grandfather got cancer for the first time.”
After some time and patience, the business acquired its first food truck in 2011 catering at small events. Gaining success the family started another brick-and-mortar Maria Bonita Mexican Cuisine restaurant that lasted around four years.
“We closed down [the restaurant] two years ago as well,” said Karime. “But we closed that one down because my grandpa got deported, that was really impacting in our lives.”
Even after the struggles that the Lopez family faced, along with the restaurant, the goal still remains: share the culture and the experience.
It appears that the family’s goal is being met. In a testimonial, UNO’s Office of Latino/Latin American Studies credited Maria Bonita for having “high quality and authentic” food and highly recommended the catering service. This commemoration of culture is happening now with the celebration of Hispanic and Latino Heritage month.
Today, Maria Bonita has two food trucks that continue to cater events, such as Food Truck Thursdays down at the Gene Leahy Mall. Karime says these food trucks have several benefits that a permanent location lacks.
“I think that it was more convenient for us, because not a lot of people like going out when it’s snowing or raining,” said Karime. “Instead of waiting for them to come to us, we go to them. So they can experience our food.”
Maria Bonita will continue to share Mexican authenticity wherever it goes, no matter if it’s at a brick-and-mortar restaurant or on wheels.
