Journeys of Women in Business: Raquel Garcés of Flour & Love
Raquel Garcés, an ambitious pastry chef, carried sweetness in her hands from her hometown of Puerto Ordaz, in Ciudad Guayana, Venezuela, to the valleys of Oregon, and she keeps dreaming of new ways to impress people with her confections.
"I’ve been making cakes for 30 years," she says with pride. "The cakes continue to be famous in Guayana, in Venezuela." For Raquel, pastry making is a business, but it is also the tool that allowed her daughters to study, grow, and dream. "My eldest daughter studied and went to university, and my second daughter came to the United States to study. My daughters grew up in this work environment, knowing abundance."
Flour & Love originated in Venezuela, but when Raquel arrived in Oregon, she found that running a business was tricky and it was hard to navigate local regulations. At a Venezuelan cultural event she saw others selling food like arepas wondered how they did it. She introduced herself to other entrepreneurs and started to learn more about permits and licenses from them. She felt lost but not defeated.
Giselle Rincón, a Venezuelan entrepreneur who organized cultural events and knew the local ecosystem came to her aid. "She told me that she learned how to run her business at Adelante Mujeres. Although I had to wait almost a year to enter the Empresas program, it was worth it!"
When Raquel started the Empresas course in January, she thought it would be a single training. What she didn't expect was the transformative impact it would have on her business vision. "I felt connected to the curriculum. Each course contributed something important to the project I had in mind." At nearly 60, Raquel learned something new at Adelante Mujeres: financial management. “After the Empresas course I am very organized, and I'm even learning Excel.” For a woman accustomed to working out of passion without paying attention to numbers, this mindset change represented a personal revolution.
Flour & Love is flourishing, thanks in part to what Raquel learned in the Empresas program. While Raquel’s traditional cakes made with light sponge cake and filled with fruits and creams are still popular, she also makes traditional Venezuelan foods that few know in Oregon: cachitos and tequeños. “The cachito is a semi-sweet dough bread filled with smoked ham," she explains. "In Venezuela it's made with deli scraps, which gives it a unique flavor. They grind all that and assemble it with a variety of cheeses, also cheese scraps. Those cachitos are delicious, because they have different types of ham. Adaptation to the local market has required creativity. "Here, I buy ham and bacon to give them that flavor. I've even innovated with vegetarian fillings.” This flexibility to maintain the essence of her recipes while adapting to local needs demonstrates her capacity for evolution without losing authenticity.
Her dream includes a desire to create a bridge between cultures, maintaining Venezuelan techniques but celebrating local ingredients. "I want to take my products to New Seasons! It would be the most beautiful thing I can contribute to the city: use ingredients from here in Oregon. I'm also seeing that there's a great interest for cachitos, so I want to sell them frozen and distribute them to bakeries.” This would allow her to scale without depending exclusively on her manual work, a strategy she seeks to implement after decades of intensive work. Ultimately, she hopes to open a brick-and-mortar pastry shop for Flour & Love.
The contrast between the Raquel who arrived in Oregon and today's businesswoman is notable. The initial frustration with local financial systems has given way to a sophisticated understanding of business. “Now I'm much more confident. I know it's possible to achieve a small business. Despite the language, and the barrier of being Latino, we can progress."
In this entrepreneurial journey, Raquel works alongside her sister Luz Marina and her childhood friend Sonia, affectionately known as Quita. Her message for others like her and the women she works with is this: “Entrepreneurship is for dreamers, for those who want to contribute. It's giving everything for the happiness of others, which is also personally gratifying. It's difficult, but it will never be impossible. A dreaming woman is passionate, and that passion doesn't stop until achieving it."
Her business in Venezuela continues operating, while she builds something new in Oregon with Oregonian ingredients. With Flour & Love, Raquel maintains her roots while planting new seeds.
Her story is a reminder that it's never too late to learn, grow and dream big, one cake at a time.