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Rosa Cruz
Hatteberg's People
Reporter: Larry Hatteberg
April 25, 2004--Over the past few years, the face of Kansas is changing, a sea of immigrants have flowed our way, giving us more of a ‘world view’. On Hatteberg’s People, Meet Rosa Marie Cruz. In Mexico she was a doctor, but in Wichita, she is a baker.
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“But we are happy what we are doing right now definitely. It’s a lot of work.”
In a small Hispanic bakery near Lincoln and Edgemoor, Rosa Marie Cruz is one of those entrepreneurs whose life has taken her from a hospital in Mexico City to a corner bakery in Wichita. Here, she and her staff produce all kinds of Mexican and American pastries and breads along with a Mexican sandwich called a
Torta.
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“I laugh and I say look at the doctor making Torta’s, isn’t that terrible. But I laugh and I say but I have to enjoy what I’m doing and here we are.”
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For fourteen years she was a doctor in a Mexico City hospital in charge of the hematology department. But upon coming to this country, she couldn’t pass her medical board exam to practice here. Part of it was a language barrier, part was stress that she put on herself…and because of that stress she developed Diabetes. Finally she gave up on her medical career, moved to Wichita and decided to follow the advice one of her patients for who she had baked cookies and cakes.
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| “He was the one who told me several times, Doctor you should put a bakery beside your career because you do wonderful things.” |
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Surrounded by good bakers and loyal help she loves introducing Americans to Mexican pastries and breads.
“Americans and also Vietnamese and other people come here and they enjoy it and they are happy.
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To no longer be a doctor, for some, would be a devastating experience. For Rosa Marie, it was simply a new path to follow. Now surrounded by the products her bakery produces Rosa says sometimes people come to her for medical advice….but she doesn’t give it. |
“I’m a doctor and I will be all my life a doctor, but I don’t have the license here so I cannot help you….but please go to another doctor. (laugh)”
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Rosa Marie Cruz is living proof that disappointment doesn’t linger. She found a new life in Wichita and traded her stethoscope for icing on the cake. In Wichita, I’m Larry
Hatteberg.
Larry’s Note: Rosa’s bakery is located at 5701 E. Lincoln in Wichita. |
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