Rising from the ashes

By Kimberly Hernandez

Rising from the ashes after being left with little to nothing, Alicia Infante,  A single mother of three and a hardworking fighter, has struggled throughout her life and made many sacrifices in order to become a successful business owner of two western wear stores all throughout the Bay area named ‘’La Herradura Ranch Style wear”.

Arriving in the United States at only seventeen years old and pregnant with her first child, Infante had hopes of a better life in “the dream land” like thousands of other people. But, what differentiates her from the rest is her“ ganas de luchar”, the rooted wish to fight for a better life. 

Her first business was created from scratch with a family member. Once their business was thriving and successful, Infante was betrayed by the family member who helped build this business from scratch.The business that she had worked so hard for was selfishly taken away, taking away Alicia’s rights to the business leaving her with nothing.

Infante: That business was my only source, the one I depended on financially

After losing her only source of income, Alicia had to look for another way to support herself and her one-year-old baby at the moment.

While millions of emotions were rushing through her head, she chose to keep on going and kept her head up high due to the responsibility of having to provide for her kids. She made sure that this incident would not drag her down.

So she then quickly looked for another way to support her family financially.

By herself, alone and with no one to help her, she then started a phone business. But it did not work out, so she opened a clothing store consisting of dresses, and everyday clothes which also didn't work out.

Infante’s hard effort and resiliency paid off , now she is a business owner of two successful stores.The key for this business working out compared to the rest was how innovative and multipurpose her store is.

Her stubbornness into being able to sustain her own family paid off.

Present time, one of her two stores, “La Herradura '', is a western clothes store in Alum Rock runed by Infante herself in which consists of clothing and shoe wear ,money sending,Mexican snacks, all throughout perfumes and makeup. 

Infante: A multi use store,we email packages all throughout central America and south america, change checks, a little bit of everything

No matter the circumstances, she always managed to provide for her family and she never let them down. She was the one who provided for her family and gave them a good life with her hard efforts. . 

Infante:I want my children to see how i’ve never given up and hopefully later on they will learn to be like that, resilient and hardworking 

Being a mother and a father at the same time is a task not everyone is able to pull off especially after starting from zero with nothing to support yourself financially in a totally different country.

Though she puts so much work into working to give her three kids a good life, she struggles with balancing and giving some time for her kids as well. 

Starting her day everyday at 6 in the morning, taking her kids to school, running errands, working at both of the stores, making sure and overseeing that her business is running 

smoothly.

She tirelessly juggles her time at the stores and the time she spends with her kids. So much so that she often sacrifices her time with her children in the relentless pursuit of giving them a life in which they will live a life in ease.

Despite her dedication to her businesses, she never lets her children down and tries her best to balance the quality time she spends with her children. Every day, she wakes up and works undoubtedly hard with her kids in her mind. Her children are her motivation and she does all of this because of them. They are her will to keep on going and not giving up.

Infante: Advice I give to those out there is to fight for your dreams,fight for your goals and don't ever give up. There is situations in our lives that happen ,situations that are hard to overcome but from the hardships we have to learn from and make ourselves stronger in order to keep on going.