On Friday morning, Maria Sánchez is next to a construction site. The steel beams are being raised in the dusty pink sky behind it. The trunk of his Sonata Hyundai is open. Inside there is a beautiful load: dozens of roasted meat burritos, hand -wrapped in aluminum foil. A construction manager approaches her. If you don't like burritos, she has to leave, she jokes. After a satisfied bite, the manager buys 15 burritos for all his workers.
“I come in 30 minutes, less than an hour, and I have already gone,” she says. A recent Instagram publication says: “I complicate how I started selling only 10 burritos per day to sell up to 70 to 75 burritos per day.”
Sánchez's career as a dear Saber de Burritos began last year in an Home Depot parking lot, but now sells at the work sites.
“Maria La de los Burritos” is a American Honduran homemade cook who has found fame in social networks that sell burritos of the trunk of her car. When growing in a home of Honduran immigrants, Sánchez always admired his mother's kitchen. As a mother, Sánchez began to cook for her Mexican husband and her two children. While fighting an episode of depression, he had the idea: why not take his kitchen to workers in the streets of Los Angeles and, as it turned out, millions in Tiktok?
As the ice raids have seized the city and caused a culture of fear in multiple immigrant communities in southern California, the tales have disappeared from the streets. The Home Depot Parking, which was once full of daily workers, is empty, says Sánchez. “Many vendors that I usually see in that area were not there either,” says Sánchez.
Maria Sánchez manufactures and sells dozens of burritos, wrapped in gold paper and pink labels with lights.
In Inglewood, the Honduran immigrant community is struggling to stay afloat, with their businesses in danger. “Many people are affected by it,” says Sánchez. “My mother has a friend who has a business where her hair is cut. It has been very slow. Nobody wants to leave their homes.”
Sánchez's mother urges her to be cautious when selling food, since legal citizens have also been attacked in ice raids. During the current raids, Sánchez was nervous for selling burritos, but decided to do it after fervent breath in social networks. In the morning, he reached a line of hungry construction workers.
“Sometimes, eight people are already waiting in line to come. I get nervous when I see many people. I am like, my God, I am doing all this on my own,” he says. “I always tell people: as Latinos, we make it happen.”
Sánchez adds another element of appeal to his work: long eyelashes, acrylic nails with French tip, garnet lips and denim that embraces the curves. The aesthetics resembles a popular Mexican style of dress called buchona, characterized by striking accessories and tight waists.
“I have always liked to dress like this,” says Sánchez, laughing. At 3 in the morning, before gathering Burritos, Sánchez carefully applies his makeup, which resembles the timeless beauty of Selena Quintanilla. She loves the presentation, he explains.
One of the bean burritos and steak of Maria Sánchez. And a pink bag for a burrito order.
“People will say: 'After makeup and hair. You still manage to prepare and follow burritos. They will always be in shock,” she says.
Her immigrant parents encouraged her to dress modestly in her childhood. When he moved, he began experimenting with fashion. “I never had the opportunity to dress as I wanted,” she says. “I moved from the house and moved to my boyfriend. I began to do what I wanted to do and how I wanted to dress.”
Sánchez's career as Amado and now the Internet Fame Burritos seller began in the parking lot of Inglewood Home Depot in October 2024.
“People tell me that they never see people selling burritos. I see tamales and empanadas, never just a pure standard burrito. I have the idea, let me try to sell burritos,” says Sánchez.
As most Los Angeles children have had a lifelong romance with Mexican food. “I cook part of my culture food, but I cook more Mexican food because my husband is Mexican,” explains Sánchez. When growing at Centro-Sur, he developed a deep affection for Mexican cuisine, visiting the La Luz de Día restaurant in the center of most weekends.
His burritos were an immediate success. He sold out every time, sometimes in just one hour, with his classics without luxuries, which thank the crowd as burritos of roasted meat, chicken and breakfast, with a price of $ 5 each.
Sanchez began publishing videos of his kitchen on Tiktok and Instagram, which, to his surprise, went viral. He obtained more than 27,500 followers on Instagram with cooking videos that accumulated millions of views.
In Home Depot, the sale of Burritos as an attractive 26 -year -old woman had dangers. Occasionally, Sánchez was subjected to men who filmed her, whistling and harassment. It can be vulnerable, he explains. “I don't see young girls from my age dressed like me, selling food alone,” he explains. On the construction site, Sánchez has become friends with many of the workers who eat their burritos, which dissuade harassment. “I am a super talkative with all my clients,” she says.
The weeks went by and the mood changed to restlessness among the clients as the threats of an ice raid progressed, said Sánchez. “In that last week in Home Depot, I was not getting so much clientele because many people are afraid to leave,” he explains.
In January, Home Depot Management was forced to ask Sanchez to leave. His burritos were becoming too popular and creating a danger of traffic.
In the next few weeks, Sánchez began wandering Inglewood, exploring construction sites for potential clients. By then, Sanchez's business had already exploded. He began publishing videos of his kitchen on Tiktok and Instagram, which, to Sánchez's surprise, went viral. He obtained more than 27,500 followers on Instagram with cooking videos that accumulated millions of views.
Sanchez was baffled by his new fame: “That is what motivates me to move on because people are looking.”
Sánchez's business has only increased since he left Home Depot. The workers were delighted with their homemade and affordable Mexican food, which was a delicious and profitable alternative to fast food. “I've never had a single complaint to this day,” he says proudly.
Sanchez begins to cook every day at 4 in the morning “nothing is done the night before, in addition to the beans, which take three or four hours to cook,” she says. “I want everything just done in the morning. That is the point for me.”
If angels are full of incredible Mexican food, what makes the Rival of Sánchez Burrito the rest? His breakfast burritos are full of spongy eggs and sausages: each abundant bite has a blow of flavor, distributed evenly throughout the burrito. Roasted meat is accompanied by homeless and vibrant sauces that Sánchez does by hand. For a construction worker, a burrito offers a generous and portable meal, a nutrition missile.
She begins to cook every day at 4 am “nothing is done the night before, in addition to the beans, which take three to four hours to cook,” she says. “I want everything just done in the morning. That is the point for me.”
Sánchez proves his knowledge of his mother. When she was a child, to instill independence in Sánchez, her mother sends her to the center of Los Angeles to sell gum on the sidewalks. “She always put me on the head: you can get what you want on your own. You can do it,” says Sánchez. “She is always by my side.”
Sanchez expects his Burritos business to inspire other young women to start lunchboards or mobile food businesses. Occasionally, she creates tutorial videos about the sale of burritos and reassures women who seek to start their own companies. “Many young girls tell me: 'I want to do this. I am only 22 years old, but you inspire me to do it,” he says. “I want to show the girls that, although you are young, you could make it happen.”
Sánchez dreams of having a truck one day, an adequate lunchbox. “I want to do everything yielded,” she says, smiling. “I'm trying to save as much money as I can for that.”
