by Allison Crawford

Generational Identity through Business.

Celia Cano continues her family’s creative identity through her own business opportunities.

No community values entrepreneurship and small business more than the Hispanic community.”

Marco Rubio

From the age of 7, Celia Cano can recall the moments when her mother would create ceramic sombrero characters and other projects to sell. Her mother would create these at home to support her household, you can hear the happiness in her voice as she remembers all that her mother did. 

“She used to paint these ceramic things…and would literally have ceramic parties at peoples houses. She would bring all her items and set them around their living room,” Celia recalls.

From making ceramics and selling them at these parties to selling sweaters with hand designed accents. Sometimes creating Easter baskets and wreaths for their families during the holiday as well. Mrs. Alvarez had introduced a drive to create hand made pieces to other products that could be sold within her household.

Years later, Celia’s mother fell ill which then led to Celia having to take care of her at her home. This prevented Mrs. Alvarez from continuing her work, although allowing Celia to gain her own passion for the art of creation. 

“I started doing it, and I guess I was just inspired by her.  And especially by the wreaths and the Easter baskets, which I loved. That was always special to me,” Celia said. 

She started making Easter baskets for friends and family that were around the area. Friends from church would buy them from her but beyond that, Celia was gaining a hobby, not looking for more than that. 

“Of course when I started on social media which was facebook, then I started to reach broader customers,” Celia said.

Social media played a huge part for Celia to get a name for herself. She was able to connect to more than just in San Bernardino and from her church/family. She connected with hundreds of individuals all throughout the internet that were interested in her items. First she started with the Easter baskets, recalling how her own mother had created them, then gradually went into creating wreaths. Then going into other avenues involving jewelry. 

She laughed as she remembered a friend from church named Edwina who still hangs her old wreaths from many years prior. Celia was a bit surprised to learn that Edwina still kept her old work but was appreciative of how her customers still loved her work even from the beginning. 

Facebook allowed her to reach her customers through avenues that expanded the traditional ways she had in the past. She changed from only selling to family and friends to creating a bigger selling outlet. Although she continued to follow in her mothers footsteps as well, hosting/having others host wreaths parties. She would prepare the area and each person that was invited would have to pay for their wreath bundle. She then would teach the ladies how to make these reefs and be able to take home their own work. 

She incorporated her own passion in allowing others to learn the techniques she had achieved over the years. This was another great avenue for her to make money as well, each hosted party giving her roughly $400 each time. She explained that although it wasn’t huge amounts of income each time, it still helped her support her family. 

On top of Celia gaining inspiration from her own mother to create a business, Celia’s daughters have always followed right behind. Her daughter Jayleen Cano created a business called, Organics, which includes facial creams, body creams, candles and lip balms. These products are made within her home and sold online . Jayleen created an instagram account called @organicbodytreats to reach out to people socially, also creating her own website to sell the products online. Her business is also ran within San Bernardino.

Her other daughter, Darlene Castillo has her own cooking business, where she cooks food and sells it through catering. Her brand/business name is Darla Maries.  “Usually we do events, like if someone is having a boutique or something we would set up and sell there. Jayleen would come as well to sell her products”. An entire family coming together to sell their own handmade products is incredible, Celia with her reefs and jewelry, Jayleen with her body care and Darlene with her own food business. 

“Nowadays everything is so expensive, you need to have more than one income. Little side hustles are needed. It’s like Mandatory nowadays,” Celia said. 

She also created her own boutique with her daughter called PinkChicBoutique,  where she does live sales online. She sells anything from  jewelry, makeup, clothing, purses, to even kids toys. They are also licensed for wholesale and go together to buy their merchandise downtown in San Bernardino or online.

“Now I’m my own boss, I do my own thing, it’s our own little boutique,” Celia says as she recalls all of the other business opportunities she has had over the years.

When asked about how God has impacted her line of work, Celia thinks for a second and then says, “ I feel like I’ve definitely been blessed, not only with customers, but also with my talent. That I have that drive to not give up and to believe in it. I do have to say, he provided that for me, to help my family. We needed it, another income. It’s definitely been a blessing”.

Mrs. Cano understands that the business world is not always constant, it can be up in the air at times. Even with all of her avenues of different business lines, she too has fallen in hard times for selling. 

 “It’s not always so great, you know, things are not always flowing so well. Sometimes I’m not selling goods, no one’s buying that thing I made, you know. Sometimes it gets discouraging, but I don’t give up, I just keep going. I figured it out. Sometimes when that happens I’ll do a raffle, for that one and people will buy raffle tickets and then there, those ones sold”.

Being a business owner can be difficult, especially when dealing with taking care of your family. Or even making sure that your other family members are successfully dealing with their own line of business. Celia Cano reminds the small business industry that you don’t need to stick to one idea, you can grow into your own person and your own business. 

Family identity can hide in the things we strive for, this family finds themselves together in their own lines of small business. Together through the generations.