Gregory Freeman: Immigrant Finds Little Bit Of Food Goes A Long Way. P-D 8/14/1997

Headline: IMMIGRANT FINDS LITTLE BIT OF FOOD GOES A LONG WAY
Reporter: By Gregory Freeman

Publication: ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
Last Printed: Thu., Aug. 14, 1997
Section: NEWS, Page: 1B, Edition: FIVE STAR LIFT

RAYMUNDO "Ramon" Otero has come a long way from his days as a shepherd in rural Mexico.
   At 68, Otero is the owner of Ramon's El Dorado, a family-run - and successful - restaurant in Collinsville. He opened a second restaurant three years ago in Fairview Heights.
   Otero made a long journey to get where he is. And it wasn't just a journey of distance.
   As a child, Otero lived in El Salto, then a rural part of Mexico. The family lived on a mountaintop, and Otero tended sheep and goats. Otero and his family worked long hours, eventually moving to the city of Durango. At 15, Otero started working for Western Union, cleaning floors, delivering messages, even serving as a clerk and cashier at the windows.

While working for Western Union, Otero got the idea of coming to the United States. In 1950, the American Embassy opened offices in Durango, and Otero was occasionally assigned to deliver messages there. He soon landed a part-time job there, and learned that the United States was recruiting Mexicans to do temporary agricultural work. Ambitious, Otero applied and was chosen in 1951.
Otero went to Arkansas, where he picked cotton from the ground and pecans from trees. He worked hard and saved most of his money - in 1951, the only nonfood item he bought was a pair of Levis.
He returned to Durango, but in 1956 came back, this time becoming an American citizen.

When he returned, he and a friend headed to Chicago, where they'd heard there were jobs for Mexicans. Otero hoped to find a job and send for his wife and growing family.
He never made it to Chicago. A 12-inch snowstorm forced him to stay over in St. Louis. His friend's brother-in-law lived here and persuaded the two to stay and find work.

Otero eventually landed a job at the old General Motors Corp. plant in St. Louis.
   There, Otero had an accident that would change his life forever. While climbing to get parts one day, he fell. The accident left him paralyzed from the waist down.
   Tears come to Otero's eyes as he tells of co-workers who took up a collection each payday and regularly presented him and his wife with envelopes of money.
   Nearly a half-dozen doctors told Otero he would never walk again. But through the help of a Belleville doctor, an operation and sheer perseverance, Otero began to walk and eventually recovered fully.

In 1964, when the family was down to its last $5, Otero's wife sent him to buy milk for their youngest. On the way, Otero thought of his mother who'd operated a restaurant in Mexico for 25 years. Instead of milk, he used the $5 to purchase meat. For the next hour, Otero and his wife made a tray of Mexican food.
Otero took it to a nearby tavern and got the owner to agree to let him sell it. Within minutes, the tavern's customers - tantalized by the aroma - bought everything. Otero made $18.60 that day.
From that point on, Otero and a brother sold Mexican food, developing a route of bars, nightclubs and racetracks in East St. Louis, Collinsville and other Metro East sites. From 4 p.m. to 3 a.m. they sold tacos, enc hiladas, tamales and tostadas.

At one point, the owner of a chicken restaurant in Collinsville urged Otero to make and sell his food there. The restaurant was nothing more than a converted gas station, but Otero jumped at the chance, and the food became a popular staple.
When the owner closed his business, he sold it to Otero.
Otero opened Ramon's El Dorado in August 1967 with two tables. It became popular quickly, and he expanded to eight tables. Today, the restaurant seats 300 people. It's a family affair, run by Otero and his wife, their two sons, their daughter and two of his brothers.

Otero never forgot his roots. For 21 years he traveled to Mexico with shoes, clothing, toothbrushes, canned food and other items for poor children. At one point, the old Brown Shoe Co. donated 10,000 pairs of shoes for the youngsters. Otero and other volunteers would load the items into trailers, drive to Mexico and distribute them. Otero no longer makes that trip, but he is considering other ways to help the poor in Mexico, such as holding a fund-raiser here, traveling to Mexico and buying large amounts of food there to distribute.

Otero's passed his values and work ethic along to his children. His oldest son, Carlos, calls his parents his heroes. "They taught me to work hard, and I think I've learned that lesson well, " he said.
Hard work, says Ramon Otero, is necessary to get ahead. "It doesn't matter how poor you are, you can sell peanuts, do it honestly and make money, " he said.

"People take this country for granted, " he said. "But I'm thankful for the opportunity this country has given me. I've had a good life, and I owe it to this country."

Daniel Schesch - Webweaver

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