By Jennifer W. Sanchez
Tribune Reporter
Antonio Gonzalez moved from Mexico to Albuquerque more than three years ago, but he still gets homesick.
He misses his parents and being able to speak Spanish at the grocery store - without getting stares.
Up until a glorious day a few months ago, he also missed eating paletas - Mexico's version of Popsicles - on a warm, sunny day.
That was when Garcia discovered La Michoacana de Paquime, a Mexican ice cream shop in the South Valley.
Gonzalez, 23, said he was driving down Isleta Boulevard Southwest when he read the store's colorful sign and immediately made a U-turn.
"I needed to see if it tasted the same as in Mexico," he said carefully picking his English words. "It tastes the same. It's good, and the place looks like the ones in Mexico."
Now, Gonzalez can't go a week without La Michoacana's authentic frozen treats - small reminders from his homeland.
Guava. Cucumber with chile. Vanilla dipped in chocolate and nuts.
La Michoacana de Paquime is becoming a popular hangout, especially as the sun goes down and families head out for refreshing deserts. A second store opened last week at 6335 Central Ave. N.W.
In Mexico, Gonzalez said there's a michoacana, a shop that sells paletas and aguas frescas, cold drinks, on almost every corner. (Michoacanas are also called paleterias.)
Gonzalez, a construction worker, said when he was a boy, he used to walk to the neighborhood shop every day.
"After school, I'd go with my family to get a snack," he said as he licked his bubble gum ice cream waffle cone.
Adriana Gutierrez, co-owner of La Michoacana de Paquime, also remembers her trips to the paleterias with her brothers and sisters when she was growing up in Nuevo Casas Grandes, Mexico.
Today, she's working 11-hour days, seven days a week, to make sure the family ice cream business is a success.
Gutierrez, 37, who moved to New Mexico 10 years ago, said her brother-in-law and co-owner, Enrique Marquez, came up with the idea to open a michoacana a few years ago to serve Albuquerque's growing Mexican population.
The first store, near the corner of Isleta and Rio Bravo boulevards Southwest, opened late last summer. It's named after the ancient ruins of Paquime, near Casas Grandes, Chihuahua, in northern Mexico.
"We don't have too many things from Mexico here," Gutierrez said in Spanish as she poured a pink mixture into paleta trays. "I feel like I'm in Mexico here."
Aida Marquez, Gutierrez's sister, said before the family opened the shop, the only time she could get an authentic paleta was in Mexico.
"As soon as we cross the border, the first thing we do is head for the michoacana for the aguas frescas y paletas," said Marquez, who has lived in Albuquerque for 17 years.
The first La Michoacana sits on Isleta Boulevard Southwest - a busy street with dirt sidewalks, fast food joints, low-key strip malls and grassy vacant lots.
The store shares a partly gravel, 10-space parking lot with a Mexican bakery. The building's windows are covered with white iron bars. A plastic menu and handmade signs in Spanish hang near the entrance.
There is no room for chairs or tables. Any more than a dozen people have to make a line snaking outside into the parking lot - a frequent occurrence.
On a recent evening, the air conditioner roared as customers pointed to the paleta of their choice, which are kept inside three white display freezers.
Paletas, depending on the flavor, cost about $1.50. Nothing on the menu is more than $4.
"Buenas tardes, pásale," Aida Marquez shouted as customers trickled in. ("Good evening, come on in.")
Alma Varela, 22, walked in with her sister, brother and sister-in-law after a 45-minute car ride from Belen to the michoacana. They make the trek a few times a week, and on this night took a bag of paletas home.
"You need to open one if these in Belen," she said. "It reminds me of Mexico."
Varela and her family moved to New Mexico from Chihuahua eight years ago.
Varela's sister, Rocio, said the shop is the only place she can get a Mexican-made mango - it's peeled and put on a wooden stick, drenched in fresh lime juice and covered with red chile powder.
Outside, people sat in the parking lot on their truck beds eating and talking as children chased each other.
As Aida Marquez took orders, Gutierrez served banana splits topped with a vanilla wafer, strawberries and cream, and nachos with orange cheese from a can. Their teenage sons also help serve.
"This is a family business - everybody helps here," Marquez says with a smile.
Marquez has a full-time office job and also works at the michoacana. She said she enjoys meeting new people, especially those from Nuevo Casas Grandes, at the store. Nuevo Casas Grandes is a river city with about 60,000 people.
"I had no idea we had so many people in Albuquerque from my town," she said. "It's so nice to be with your own people and talk to them in Spanish."
During the day, Gutierrez is usually busy helping to make more than 500 paletas.
The paletas are made from a powdery mix and secret recipe, which she's not sharing with anyone. Her favorite flavor: caramel.
"I have to taste everything to make sure everything is good," said Gutierrez, wearing a blue visor and orange apron with the shop's name on it.
She said she's glad the South Valley michoacana makes people feel at home.
"If they are happy," Gutierrez said in Spanish, "I'm so happy."
***
LA MICHOACANA DE PAQUIME
Location No. 1: 3604 Isleta Blvd. S.W., just south of Rio Bravo Boulevard.
Location No. 2: 6335 Central Ave. N.W., just west of Coors Boulevard.
Open: 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. every day.
Payment type: Cash only.
Menu items:
Aguas frescas: Cold drinks made mostly from fruits. Popular flavors include mel¢n (cantaloupe); horchata (rice and milk); frutas (mixed fruit).
Paletas: Flavored frozen bars on a stick. Some are made with milk, some with water. Popular flavors include anything with chile, especially cucumber and mango; nueces (pecan); fresas y crema (strawberry and cream).
Roasted corn in a cup with lime juice and powered red chile.
Mango on a stick covered with lime juice and powdered red chile.
Chocolate-covered bananas coated with pecan or coconut.
Strawberries and cream or mixed, fresh-cut fruit in a cup.
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