Corona’s Tacos: From Food Truck to Flourishing Family Business
Jesus Corona and Leticia Sanchez were both working fast-food jobs, barely scraping by to support their growing family, when they realized they needed to make a change.
“Since we met, we had always talked about doing something together,” Leticia recalls. “So once we had a big family, we said now is the time we have to do something else to keep going raising our kids.”
Jesus always had a knack for cooking and blending spices, so Leticia nudged him to take the entrepreneurial route and live out his dream of owning a taco truck. Money was tight at the time, so the couple leaned on family for initial support. The truck made its debut in the summer of 2017.
The early years were a challenging period for Corona’s Tacos as it worked to establish itself amid a growing crowd of taco trucks in town. Minnesota’s unforgiving winters also meant shutting down for months at a time.
But Jesus and Leticia kept going. And more importantly, customers kept returning.
Today, Corona’s Tacos still has the truck — but they also have expanded to include a space in the downtown skyway food court, along with a full-scale restaurant in the River Center Plaza along North Broadway.
Leticia credits the success to the business’s commitment to doing things the right (and often hard) way. Earlier on, she says, there were days when the restaurant was buying food one day at a time. Even then, Corona’s didn’t cut corners — helping the business maintain a reputation for consistency and freshness.
“We do everything from scratch,” she says. “We don't have any meat frozen or anything. Everything is fresh. So we get the meat, cut it here, season it here. And you can tell the difference.”
The business now employs roughly 16 people, yet Leticia and Jesus remain hands-on —moving about the dining room to ensure every customer leaves satisfied.
It’s a work ethic they say comes from being first-generation immigrants.
“For an immigrant, there’s no other option,” Leticia says. “You have to make it. So we never thought about failing. We weren’t afraid of losing any amount of money because we didn't have money to begin with.”
Recent events unfolding in Minnesota, she says, have created some fear and uncertainty. Not only is she navigating concerns among employees, she’s also having a hard time explaining to her kids what’s happening.
Still, she finds hope in the support she has received from her customers. On the hardest days, it’s the familiar faces — and full bellies — that remind her why she keeps pursuing the American dream.
“It's unbelievable what is happening right now in our community,” Leticia says. “It’s scary, and you never know what's gonna happen the next day, which makes everything harder.
“But when I see our customers coming looking for us, supporting our business, that’s why I get up every day. I'm not going to stay at home thinking about the problems. We just have to keep going. As long as our customers are supporting us, we're going to be here.”
