AADL Talks To: Sylvia Nolasco-Rivers, owner of Pilar's Tamales and Founder of Pilar's Foundation

Thu, 11/14/2024 - 8:02pm

When: October 21, 2024

In this episode, AADL Talks to Sylvia Nolasco-Rivers. Sylvia tells us about her early experiences in Ann Arbor, and how she convinced her entire family to move here. She shares stories of her work as a caterer and eventual restaurant owner, and tells us about fundraising efforts in the early 2000s, which led to the creation of her nonprofit Pilar’s Foundation in 2019.

Transcript

• [00:00:10] DARLA WELSHONS: [MUSIC] Hi. This is Darla.
• [00:00:11] ELIZABETH SMITH: And this is Elizabeth. In this episode, AADL Talks To Sylvia Nolasco-Rivers. Sylvia tells us about her early experiences in Ann Arbor and how she convinced her entire family to move here. She shares stories of her work as a caterer and eventual restaurant owner, and tells us about fundraising efforts in the early 2000s which led to the creation of her nonprofit Pilar's Foundation in 2019.
• [00:00:35] ELIZABETH SMITH: Thank you for joining us today, Sylvia. We usually like to ask, where did you grow up and what brought you to Ann Arbor to start?
• [00:00:45] SYLVIA NOLASCO-RIVERS: Well, thank you for having me. I originally was born and raised in El Salvador and lived in different places, but lived in the West Coast for quite a while. Back in the '80s, my family would visit Ann Arbor every couple of years, a few weeks, and then I swore that someday I would live here. And here I am. [LAUGHTER]
• [00:01:10] ELIZABETH SMITH: Your Aunt Pilar actually lived in Ann Arbor and that was what initially brought you to visit in the summers?
• [00:01:17] SYLVIA NOLASCO-RIVERS: Exactly. My Aunt Pilar and her family, so my cousins, they lived here, and like I said, every couple of years, we would take a road trip from Eugene to Ann Arbor and hang out and play and discover this wonderful town. That's how I ended up here, I fell in love with it. I asked my mother after I graduated from high school. I said, "Mom, will you please let me go to Ann Arbor for fall and winter?" And she said, "Yes." I lived with Pilar for that time, it was early '90s, fall and winter and at the beginning of spring, I knew I wanted to live here. I don't know. Don't ask me how I did this, but I went back to Eugene and I said to my mother and my siblings, "I don't know what's in Ann Arbor, Michigan for us, but I think we should live there."[LAUGHTER]
• [00:02:17] DARLA WELSHONS: How old were you when this happened?
• [00:02:19] SYLVIA NOLASCO-RIVERS: I think I was 18.
• [00:02:20] DARLA WELSHONS: Eighteen, okay.
• [00:02:22] SYLVIA NOLASCO-RIVERS: At the end of the summer, we were moving from Eugene to Ann Arbor, Michigan, and had my 19th birthday on the road.
• [00:02:30] DARLA WELSHONS: Wow, so you convinced your whole family to come with you?
• [00:02:33] SYLVIA NOLASCO-RIVERS: Yeah. [LAUGHTER]
• [00:02:34] DARLA WELSHONS: Do they love it as much as you do?
• [00:02:37] SYLVIA NOLASCO-RIVERS: I think so. I really do. They met their significant others and formed families and have beautiful children, so I think it was certainly worth it.
• [00:02:51] ELIZABETH SMITH: When you moved here officially, what were you doing for work? I read an article that you worked at Espresso Royale, was that your first job here?
• [00:02:58] SYLVIA NOLASCO-RIVERS: Oh my goodness, absolutely. I did other little side jobs and things, but Espresso Royale was my first real job, and I loved it.
• [00:03:10] DARLA WELSHONS: Was that the one down on Main Street?
• [00:03:12] SYLVIA NOLASCO-RIVERS: It was the one on State Street.
• [00:03:14] DARLA WELSHONS: Oh, State, okay.
• [00:03:16] SYLVIA NOLASCO-RIVERS: That was, I would get up every morning and be there around 5:30 or 6:00 and start off my morning with a couple of shots of espresso, and then another cup of coffee and just buzz myself throughout the day. Those were really fun days for me.
• [00:03:36] ELIZABETH SMITH: What was the coffee house like then? How long were you there?
• [00:03:41] SYLVIA NOLASCO-RIVERS: It was really busy. Back in the early '90s, the way that I think about it, was really when coffee and coffee beans became this thing where it's like, oh my gosh, these little beans are magical. Super busy, obviously, a lot of the college students, undergrad, graduate students, professors would come in for their morning java. Back in those days, we had like a coffee bean, which is, this is kind of funny, but that's when I first realized that my homeland, El Salvador, had amazing coffee beans and really good coffee. Because we imported coffee from Central America, South America, from all over Hawaii, Kona, and Blue--what was that one of my favorite--something Blue Mountain. But anyway, then I also realize El Salvador has great coffee, but growing up in El Salvador, we had this what we call Cafe Listo, which is--translates to instant coffee or ready to go, which I still have a place in my heart for it. But that was like, okay good, coffee is awesome there, and I can drink it here in Ann Arbor, [LAUGHTER] and it was just a real good time. I began to have some friends and get to know the town and it's been a good journey.
• [00:05:20] DARLA WELSHONS: Was that the first time that you were working in a customer service situation like that?
• [00:05:26] SYLVIA NOLASCO-RIVERS: No, actually in Eugene, Oregon. I worked at a TCBY when I was in high school. It was so much fun. We obviously served really good yogurt, my favorite yogurt, and wish we had a TCBY here. And so that was I would say maybe second, third. I did all kinds of jobs as a kid and as a teenager but TCBY would have been my first customer service asking people what they wanted on their yogurt. We had a little funny thing our manager was so funny. We had a drive through and she would say, "Once in a while, when folks pull up to the drive-through, say, 'Hi, can I shake your schnoiders?' Then when they say, 'Can you what? Shake my what? 'I'm sorry. I said, can I take your order?.' 'Oh, I thought you said something else.'" That was that going joke, [LAUGHTER] it was her idea not ours, I was 15. [LAUGHTER]
• [00:06:35] ELIZABETH SMITH: When did you decide to make a career in the food industry and what other jobs did you have before opening your own restaurant?
• [00:06:43] SYLVIA NOLASCO-RIVERS: I mean, growing up in El Salvador, I was always surrounded around food, my grandmother, my aunties, my mother, amazing cooks. I really have always been in the food business just different places around town, I worked at Zingerman's for quite a while and loved it. I love the food, the people, and I worked at also People's Food Co-op in Ann Arbor. Grizzly Peak, lots of local places and what I discovered is that I really loved the food aspect of those jobs, but what I really loved was the people. I really started to deepen my relationships with our community and building friendships, and hearing stories, sharing stories, and so I think, eventually, and as a way that my family, also races here in this country, the United States, was through food. Through inviting friends and community around the neighborhood to come and have tamales and papoosas and fried plantains. I just, I don't know that I had this plan, this is what I'm going to do, I feel my life has fallen into place, I'm sure that when I was younger, I had, as many are taught to have, dreams and goals and all of those things. I think that I did for a bit, but I really have been very rustic in my life, I've never really, necessarily planned things for too long, I've had goals and dreams, but I've been very open. I ended up doing my business with that. I think what happened was I was working at the People's Food Co-op, and I had free range to cook pretty much whatever I wanted to for lunches there. They had a beautiful hot bar and I would create these beautiful recipes with the beautiful produce that was being brought in and really wonderful meats and things. I would throw my own flair in there what I thought was Latin or that I loved and then people would come and ask like, do you know who made that dish? I would say, it was me. I was very proud and then literally, it was our customers, and during that time, there were a lot of, I think that one of the main offices for lawyers was in town. There was a group of women lawyers in the community and they would often ask me to do a little lunch for them and I would say, sure, I could do a little lunch for 10 people. Literally, that's how it started. I would have customers saying, "Hey, I'm having some friends over this weekend, could you come and cook at our house?" I would say, "Sure if I can cook there." I would pick up ingredients and things and cook there and then I was asked to do a wedding of 125 people. I was like, 'Where am I going to cook for that many people?' That's how I grew into it. It started to become where people wanted my food.
• [00:10:28] DARLA WELSHONS: And you were enjoying making it for them?
• [00:10:30] SYLVIA NOLASCO-RIVERS: I really loved it because for me, I did a lot of cooking in those big houses on the river and the kitchens were big.
• [00:10:46] SYLVIA NOLASCO-RIVERS: Often, it was like whatever you want to do, Sylvia, fresh guacamole, fresh salsa. I was very, again creating these little menus for 10 people and I was really enjoying, the whole process of it, the cooking. But also, I felt like people wanted to get to know me as well, while I was making fresh guacamole and frying yucca. It was like, this is kind of fun. I'm having a good time. I'm cooking for folks, and, just enjoying it.
• [00:11:19] ELIZABETH SMITH: When did you officially open your business with a footprint?
• [00:11:24] SYLVIA NOLASCO-RIVERS: I've been in business, this October was my 24th year anniversary since I started to work for myself, and, yeah 24 years. I'm like, sometimes I say it. I'm like, what? It's been that long.
• [00:11:42] ELIZABETH SMITH: Has it always been in the same location on Liberty Street?
• [00:11:46] SYLVIA NOLASCO-RIVERS: No, so, my business, same thing like I was saying at the beginning, a lot of things have sort of grown on their own, there wasn't this perfect plan for anything. How I started my business, my first little kitchen was over towards 14. There's that little beautiful plaza that has El Harissa, which is one of my favorite restaurants, Juicy Kitchen, and you know, little pizza place, and around the back, there's a little alley, and there is a little kitchen, which I called my incubator. I don't think anybody knew it was there. But I had been getting invitations to sell food at different places and obviously, it didn't just quite yet have a place. My friend Elmo Morales, who is an angel in the community, and him and I have been friends for a long time. He said that I had this dream. He started, like a beautiful soul, investigating possible kitchens for me. He was friends with a woman that had a little ice cream shop there, Nancy. Nancy said, I think there's a little kitchen behind my store and I think it's open. That's where I started. I was there for many years. That's where I started, doing catering. Then more invitations came to do different things. Again, it was this tiny little space where with a kitchen, with a stove, and think one refrigerator.
• [00:13:31] ELIZABETH SMITH: Has it always been just you, or do you have anyone assisting you?
• [00:13:37] SYLVIA NOLASCO-RIVERS: When I started my business, I wore all the hats. My mother, Lilian and I. She has been incredible, like helper at building Pilar's, and obviously my Aunt Pilar as well. At the very beginning, when I first started, Mom and I, my husband Joe, has been incredibly instrumental in the growth of our business, and being able to have this as a possibility and a dream, really. I wore all the hats at the beginning for many years. How I've thought about things over the years is once I could afford to buy a new kitchen piece of equipment or this or that, I would do that. Then I got to a place where I could afford a staff person. And so then I started to have my first staff person on Miller and Maple. Over the years, my business has obviously has had a really nice growth, and I have been able to employ people, for different things. Now it's me and others that contribute to Pilar's making yummy food.
• [00:14:52] ELIZABETH SMITH: How long was it before you moved from the kitchen to a place where there was established seating for dining and how did that change your business?
• [00:15:02] SYLVIA NOLASCO-RIVERS: This has got a little story to it as well because again, I wasn't planning on having a little restaurant where people could come and sit. At this kitchen that I'm telling you about, I did all kinds of things. I did catering. I started to do farmers markets. At one point, I was invited to do a little food cart at the Liberty Square Plaza. Really just getting to know people, building my business. But at one point, I was doing probably five markets a week. I'll never forget, and it makes me think about how instrumental we are in each other's life and how sometimes saying something kind or nice to somebody can spark something else in you. Because really at that point, I wasn't like, I want to have a little area where people can sit. I have always been one of those people that, even though I have, especially when I was younger, and I had a little bit more dreams about this or that. I've always also been like let's see what happens. But I was doing this farmer's market at the Zingerman's Road House. They did a market there. I don't know if they still do it, but and I did that for several years. Then on my last market day, which was a Thursday. I remember--or actually, you know what? I'm going to back up, because this was before. I've had two establishments where you could get. The story I'm telling you right now was where I'm at now, and we might be able to go back to that in a second here. But so it was through my brother, Juan Carlos. He was friends with some folks that owned a space on State Street. I really wasn't looking for a place to--a restaurant. I just had a baby, actually. My daughter Esperanza, I was just born. My brother Carlos said, Come on, Sylvia, we should open up a restaurant. It's a really cool location on State Street, and, we ought to do it. I was like, Carlos, no. I just had Espy, and I said come on, and he was so excited. I really said, alright, I'll do it. But I was like I'll do this because my brother wants to do it, and I should help him do this. We ended up becoming business partners, and I was with a three month old baby in my arms. To make a long story short, we were really popular. We got this really nice article in the Ann Arbor News, and I think it was I don't know, I have that print somewhere at the restaurant now, but it said, one of Ann Arbor's best restaurants, and you know how that is. If something comes out, everybody wants to check it out. We were busy. We were really busy. We had a full staff, we had a wait staff back of the house, and it was bigger than I would have imagined to tell you the truth. It did a couple of different things. It gave us a face to what we had already been doing, which was catering at the university and, parties and things. It was like, those are the people that deliver food, for lunches or dinners, whatever. That aspect of it was great. I was working lots and lots of hours with a little baby and it was a lot. It was fun, too. I was really fun to have a little place where we were popular. People wanted to be there, and all of the good stuff. But what I realized was that, that's not what I wanted and I also have always been very mindful with my family, and too much is too much. We had a two year lease. During that time, I also had some health issues that came up. It was like god-sent. We were coming up on our two year lease there. We had an opportunity to resign or not. Then a couple of months before that, I'd had some medical things that needed to be taken care of. I said to my husband, said, I'm done. Pilar's on State Street closed. I needed time to recuperate from what was happening during that time in my life. There was a break there. Lots of things happened during that time. I was able to rent some space at a beautiful beautiful church in Ypsi, the First United Methodist Church, as I was starting to get myself back into this, cooking and everything. Obviously, I had a lot of love and support. My husband, my mother, and, folks were helping me cook there at the church. Then once I started to feel better, I said to my husband. I said, I wonder if my little kitchen is still available. Because when I gave it up, immediately, somebody took over it. He was a baker. He did beautiful baked goods. Then I called my landlord, Mahir, who owns, well, during that time, he was the owner of that plaza. I said, Mahir, I wonder if that little kitchen is still open. He said, you know Sylvia, I haven't heard from the guy that took over this. It's open. I said, can you meet me there this afternoon? I want to go check it out. Literally, just as I'm telling you. We went back. He opened the door for me. This person, who I still think about quite a bit, it almost seemed as though he had a tray of cookies that he wanted to stick into the oven. It looked like he took off his gloves and sort was was like, I'm done. Walked out of the kitchen. There was a sense of sadness there because it was like wow who was this person? He had some business cards. I tried to reach out to him because he had all these things that he left behind and now I was going to take over the space again. After two years. I never heard back from him. I never met him. I left him messages. During that time, my friend, Mahir same thing. He didn't, hear anything. What was really interesting is that all my little stickers and things that I had of inspirational quotes or things were still there. For me, it was like, coming back home. I had to have that little bit of a break, but then I came back home [LAUGHTER] .
• [00:22:43] ELIZABETH SMITH: Then you ended up back in your kitchen. Then how long was it before you ended up in the next location?
• [00:22:49] SYLVIA NOLASCO-RIVERS: Yeah. Then I ended up back in my kitchen, and it was wonderful. Again, we were continuing to grow. During that time, it was the next decision, like, do we stay here or is there more? During that time, that's the story that I wanted to tell. I was doing this farmers market at the Roadhouse. It was a Thursday. I remember this man and his son came to eat tamales. It was my last farmer's market day that because it was just going to be done for the season. He said to me, he said, Señora Sylvia. There's a little, like, place on Liberty Street. He was a cook too. I remember we would share a lot of stories about cooking and food. He said, "your food deserves to have a little place where people can come and sit. " You ought to look at it. I was like, "Thank you. You know, I will." That was a Thursday. That following Monday, I dropped off my children off at school. My mother and I were heading back to Pilar's on Miller and Maple, so Maple. Then all of a sudden, I remember what this man said, so I did like this U-turn on Stadium, and I said, mom, I'm going to go look at this place. Literally, I pulled up to my location now, and it had a big sign that said for rent and a phone number, and right there, I called it. Then this really sweet man answers the phone. He says, you're early. I said,"Well, it's better early than late." That was Mr. Rob who is no longer with us here, but was an angel for me having this location. He thought it was his daughter calling. He was in Florida. Yeah, it was really sweet. He's like, I thought you were my daughter. I said, well, and so I told him, I said my name is Sylvia, and I see that you're renting this location. He said, I'll be in Florida for another week. When I come back, I'll show it to you. It was great. I literally fell in love with this man immediately. He was like, this 80-year-old sweet, sweet soul, and he showed me the space, and I had really good vibes and energy in that place. I was like, I really like it. But there was not a kitchen there. It was just, it was like office space. Those buildings are really old and they weren't made for, you know they weren't restaurants. They were--they were offices and things. But again through hope and faith and really, like, having this really intuition inside of you, sometimes that shows up, which had I followed my intuition at State Street, might have been different. But even then, I think it was meant to be, you know, all of those things. So I walked in and I loved it, and I said to him I could you work with me on this and that? And he's like, sure, so it took us about a year to build a kitchen in there. What we were doing for a while was we would make all the food on Maple. Then I had a staff member that would come pick it up. We literally had just some steamers there at the beginning, and as things were being built, but letting people know that we were coming. That's how that happened, and that was 14 years ago. So I've been there for 14 years.
• [00:26:41] DARLA WELSHONS: What's the most popular thing on your menu? Is there one thing that stands out?
• [00:26:46] SYLVIA NOLASCO-RIVERS: Yeah. Obviously, we started our business, when we started as the tamales, and people really love those. The menu is small, and it's really, my focus is tamales, pupusas, and then the side little dishes, like the yucca, the plantains, or wonderful little refried beans, and black beans and rice. I have, like, two salads. The menu is small, but there's lots of flavors of things. They all sell really well. My menu hasn't changed since I've been in business. I mean, more things have come on the menu. But really, it's people like the different flavors of tamales because there's meat, vegetarian, vegan options, and the pupusas, same thing. They're a wonderful little Salvadorian specialty, which is a little handmade corn tortilla that we make from scratch, and then we stuff it with meats and cheeses, and then the art of pupusas is closing it back down, or back up. Then now at this point, you have this wonderful little round ball, which you shape all by hand. The art is patting it back down, so it goes back to being round, and now a little bit chubby because it's got all the food, and then you grill them. So pupusas--and tamales are still, like "the winner." People love those. But the pupusas are like constantly competing with the tamales. I have this meal that's called the Perfect Pair, so they don't have to compete with each other. It's one pupusa, one tamale, and then three sides. It's like our most popular meal because that's what we do there. Like I said, we do a lot of seasonal items. Being part of the Ann Arbor Farmer's Market, I get an opportunity to amazing produce. We do a lot of seasonal things from summer squash to eggplant to sweet potato yam, too and those come and go. But the menu doesn't change it stays pretty much the same all the time. Then we just do seasonal things. We don't break anybody's heart. [LAUGHTER]
• [00:29:06] ELIZABETH SMITH: We've touched on this a little bit that catering was the initial impetus for the business. It's been a big part of the business since. I was curious, you mentioned that you were at festivals and events and things, but what were some of the specific festivals and events that you catered or continued to cater today?
• [00:29:24] SYLVIA NOLASCO-RIVERS: Yeah, so when we started and originally, when I found that little kitchen, the little incubator. It was really, that was the "I'll do some catering." Really, I always thank the Latin American Caribbean Department at U of M because they were like, the first people that called us for food. We were catering to them quite a bit at the beginning. The way that I think this all happened is that whatever they were hosting and we were cooking, there were other people from other departments coming, and they would be like, where's this food coming from? Then I started getting other calls from different departments at U of M. We pretty much work with all kinds of departments at U of M, which has been how our business has been able to grow. I don't do so much with the U of M Hospital, a little bit, but very little, but mostly with the university, catering to students, lunches, dinners. That at the beginning gave us a little bit of, obviously, this is all seed money. It's like, cool, we can--and then the markets started to come up too. At one point, I was doing, like I was saying earlier, like five markets a week. Then lots of festivals. Back in the day, there were lots of wonderful, like, I remember one of my like, big one, and I think we all miss it to this day. It was held at the Ann Arbor Farmers Market--Homegrown. I remember doing the first year, and it was at the parking lot at Community High School. It was rainy, and I got invited, but I pretty much, back in those days, too, whenever anybody invited me to do anything, I was like, yes, I'll be there. I literally, times would be like the only one and maybe one other person. Because for me, it was, like, a way that I could meet people, have people sample my food. I said, yes, pretty much to anything. I remember that year, it was small. But people showed up. Then the following year, it got bigger. That following year got bigger. I don't know exactly how long that festival happened for, I think, maybe five years, but lots of local producers everybody got really involved. It was super fun. Then how that is sometimes if something gets too big, it can end up not working out for many. I was really sad when it went because I think it was, like, a really great place of people just having a really good night and a good time, eating good food, drinking local, and good music.
• [00:32:28] SYLVIA NOLASCO-RIVERS: I pretty much have been invited to so many different things. The Green Fair. Remember, that was a big thing, and so I think that's how I grew, saying yes to everybody. [LAUGHTER] Yes, yes, yes. But you know what? It's been great. I mean, my kids have been such a big part of our business, my family, that's how I can make sense of this is I think family is incredibly important. I knew that from the beginning, one of my sons who now is 28 was four-years-old, and just kind of felt like, "I want to be there for them. I have this little dream. I have these little goals. People like me, they like my food, but I never wanted to dive solely into what I wanted for me because I knew right away when Gabriel was born that my biggest and most important job on this planet was going to be to be the best mom I could to my kids," and so I think that gave me a real perspective on how to grow this wonderful little business.
• [00:33:43] ELIZABETH SMITH: Going back to where your food has been around town. You mentioned that you worked for the People's Food Co-op, and your food has also been available there. Are there other places, maybe some that are no longer around or those that you've been with since the beginning?
• [00:33:55] SYLVIA NOLASCO-RIVERS: People's Food Co-op in Ann Arbor carries our food. We've been working also in Ypsilanti with the People's Co-op there as well for about six months, and it's been going really great. Really beautiful store there. There's a lot. There's been so many. Like I said, when you've been around for 24 years, and it's really great that you're asking me this because it makes me, "Wow, we used to do that and that." I've plugged into a lot of the local coffee houses, so where people, same thing where it's like, "Hey, Sylvia, you want to come and do a pop-up, bring your tamales," and it's like, "Yes, I'll be there." Then, of course, over the years, they've carried my food for a while, again, like everything. Nothing is permanent. Things work out for a little while, and then we all shift and move, and it's like, "Okay. Cool." But, yeah, lots of--Vertex. At one point, I was making them food for students in the morning. There was another little coffee shop in Milan. I'm very open to different things. At one point, I was even doing breakfast burritos for these coffee shops, and we've gone around. [LAUGHTER]
• [00:35:16] ELIZABETH SMITH: There's a big other topic that we want to touch on, which is, you shifted a little bit towards fund raising and your non-profit. How did that all come about? When did that first take off?
• [00:35:29] SYLVIA NOLASCO-RIVERS: Thanks for asking that. Again, how this came about was, I want to say in 2000, there was a massive earthquake in my homeland, El Salvador. I working at Zingerman's during the time. I remember I would usually get off shift around two o'clock, three o'clock in the afternoon, and I came home. Honestly, there are certain things in my mind that just happened yesterday. I can see it, and I got off work. I came home, and my husband was home, my mother, little Gabriel was there, and he said, there's been a massive earthquake in El Salvador. I can tell you to this moment, the TV was obviously on, things were just happening, and there was a little girl who was about 9-years-old, 9-10. Obviously, crying, very upset, looking for her mother underneath the broken house. For me, I think the only way that I can describe it was that little girl reminded me of me at 9-years-old. How terrible, you're looking for your mama. In that moment, I knew we were going to do something. I knew it, and I said to my husband and my mother. I said, "We got to do something." I didn't know what, but the decision was made, and so I said to Joe and Mom and myself. [LAUGHTER] I said, "All right. We're cooks. Let's invite some people." I started making some phone calls. I called the Quaker House on Hill Street, which obviously are huge supporters of our family and families that came to the United States in the early '80s, and I knew that they, I just in my heart that they would say yes to me holding a fundraiser there with food and music, and so then I called my Aunt Pilar and my cousins and my community that lived here and said, "Hey, here's what's in my heart. Will you help cook?" I called some friends that were musicians. I said, "Could you play music?" That first fundraiser, I think was obviously my first, anything like this. There was somebody that I knew too that worked for the Ann Arbor News, and I think that he was able to write a nice article in what we were doing. During that time, too, I said to my husband, "Well, how do we do this? Where does the money that we raise? Where does that go?" He's always been really instrumental at doing all the like, looking for--this is their first one, but over the years, who are we going to be working with? Where's the money going to go? What's it going to do? That's how we ended up finding the Share Foundation, which is a beautiful, big now foundation that started as a grassroots organization in El Salvador in the early '80s to help the families whose husbands had been murdered during the civil war, and now had small children and needed to become the breadwinners of their homes. The Share Foundation came in there as hope, really, for these families that had lost everything. Because to me, losing a loved one is losing a lot. The homes and all of those things can be reconstructed. That's how we ended up doing this. We said, "All right. Well, we'll raise funds for the Share Foundation, and they're going to do great things with it. Really, that's how that started. I was incredibly amazed. To this day, I'm incredibly amazed to see how many people showed up, how many people's hearts opened and were willing to do something for somebody else, and that was so inspiring to me. It really, really was like, "Wow." The power of love, the power of community and unity to helping people that are suffering. It was an incredible success. It was beautiful, the love that is shared with the people that are literally actively working on that, the people that show up and buy tickets and have dinner, the people that are cooking, the people that are serving, the cleaning, and that we made this happen. We are helping these people that need help. I think another thing for me was like, this is something I need to do. Over the years, different things that have come up around the world, where I have felt like, "Oh, we got to do something." Same thing. I call my dear friends, "Kelly, Stephanie, can you guys help?" Same thing. Now, it's got more people, and call different local faith communities and see if they would open up their doors for what we want to do, which is usually, it's very beautiful and simple. It's a meal. It's music. Over the years, we've reached out to local business owners to donate to our silent auction because that raises a lot of money. Between the food and that, I think that every time I put on an event, and I called my friends, and I called my family, and people said, "Yes, yes, yes," I've never had anyone say no to me to helping people.
• [00:41:58] DARLA WELSHONS: That's great.
• [00:42:01] SYLVIA NOLASCO-RIVERS: It's like, why wouldn't you want to help somebody that's in great need, who doesn't have a home, who doesn't have medicine, who doesn't have family? Why wouldn't you want to help? To me, I would have never, same thing, the foundation wasn't part of the plan, but it's people in the community who have inspired me to say, "Hey, Sylvia, we ought to to do this in another level," and I've learned a lot from both, not having a board of directors, there's always pros, cons, there's positives, negatives. It's all good, but my work has to be at the center of my heart first. I have a family. I have a business. I have all these things. I'm a busy person, like many of us are, but I think helping people is something that I want to do no matter how busy I am. If I can get other people to help, it's wonderful. It's magical. It's the way to live life, and so we started the foundation, probably about four years ago or so, and it's great. I mean, don't get me wrong. It's having, five, six people to sit around and go, like, "Hey, what's going to be our next project?" But even that I've learned things from. That's not how I want it. Again, by saying yes sometimes, you learned that, "Oh, wait a minute," and this is great. We can do different things, but that's not what I want. Perhaps, maybe I will at a different time in my life, but I wanted to be rustic. I wanted to be like, I can commit to at least once and maybe twice a year, putting on an event in the community.
• [00:44:05] SYLVIA NOLASCO-RIVERS: Bringing food, calling for help in the community, and donating this money to a nonprofit organization that's already doing wonderful work on the ground. I'm sort of like the way that I look at it, it's like, I don't want to reinvent the wheel. I want to help organizations that are already doing really wonderful work, and they just need more funds.
• [00:44:32] DARLA WELSHONS: I read somewhere that you were working with Doctors Without Borders for Palestine. Is that going on right now?
• [00:44:39] SYLVIA NOLASCO-RIVERS: Yeah. That was this year's Spring Into Action. For the past three years, and a young man in the community who's no longer living here inspired that name because he had asked me to help him with another project, and he was calling it something like that "spring into action." I thought that is such a wonderful name. We've had a nice winter. We've all been cozy up, and how about jumping into this, springing into action with something wonderful? Doctors Without Borders, over the years, when we've done work, I know that we've done a couple of big earthquake reliefs in Haiti. I know Turkey and Syria, and then the most recent this year was for Doctors Without Borders for Palestine. it's been really interesting. Over the years, I've had very little, everyone's like, yes, we can help. And it's been really interesting to me with this one how everybody felt so divided and what it was to help. We all know that it's a humanitarian crisis, and that's what stands in my heart has nothing to do with politics. It has to do with human babies and children and mothers and grandfathers losing lives and their homes. My daughter, Esperanza, inspired this back when things first happened over a year ago. She was very upset and angry at what was happening, and she's quite a young woman as an activist in the community, and she said, "Mama, we got to do something." And I said, "Yeah, we will." I said, "Let things settle down a little bit, and let's just--" because that's what I'm learning over the years. If we all act when things are happening, and it's like, it's bringing so many emotions, anger and rage and sadness and all of this, it's hard to act from the right place if we make decisions when we're having all of this big emotion. But I would never say no to one of my children asking me to do something. That is the right thing to do, so when she said that, we were driving to Niles, Michigan, with our staff for a year wedding that we were catering. The following weekend. I think that was on the seventh and then 14th of October; we were doing a big wedding there. It was like Espy planted that little seed, and I saw the community, friends, and the reaction, the feelings that were going behind this. It seemed very divided and confusing. But I knew that we were going to do something. I definitely could sense and feel friends within our groups were I think more quiet. I definitely had local businesses that were wanting to be like, let me skip this one. I'll help on the next one. Which, I have to respect that. I have to go, you have your reasons to wanting to do that. They may not match up with my reasoning or my feelings about something, but I'll catch you on the next one. I think it's given room to people to grow, to see, to feel. But we had an amazing event; people showed up, and we were able to raise $10,000 for Doctors Without Borders.
• [00:48:56] DARLA WELSHONS: Wow, that's great.
• [00:48:59] SYLVIA NOLASCO-RIVERS: It was beautiful. We had a lot of young college students wrapping tamales and serving and lots of local community businesses that said, yes, we'll help, and so that's how I do my work. I do it because it's the right thing and then I ask for help. If you're willing and can, I so much appreciate it. If you can't or don't want to, I respect that.
• [00:49:34] ELIZABETH SMITH: Over the years, are there any efforts you've done locally that stand out as the most impactful to you or the community as a whole?
• [00:49:43] SYLVIA NOLASCO-RIVERS: Yeah. I worked with, as an immigrant, as a person that came to this country in the early '80s, as a refugee. A lot of the things that are happening around, are policies for people that are coming from all over, not just Central America, Mexico, South America, but all over. I think it's important to be a voice for that as well. There's a group in the community, they're called WICIR, and they do really great work with regarding with people that are crossing over and how to best help them. I've done several different things over the years to raise funds for them because they know best how to do that. Things like that have been important to me. But again I'm one of those people that, somebody tells me and says, Sylvia, this family needs we've taken groceries to families who need groceries in their refrigerators. We've made many drives to Canton to different places where the need is there. I think that that's what I do. That's what my work it's like: if somebody needs help, they need help. People come to the shop. I've had a lot of experiences with people that have crossed over who need a hot meal and maybe going to a shelter is not what they want at that moment. But somehow they've heard of Pilar's. They end up in my little dining area. Mostly, I think looking for hope, for a hug, for maybe a mother figure, a lot of these people are young people. I can see in them that they're carrying pain and that they're confused and don't understand what's happening in their lives in that moment, and I offer them a hot plate of food. I've had that, so really lots of different things. I never--I'll never say no to somebody that needs something. That's how I look at it. Each of us need to be a refuge for somebody else. It's what happened to me and my family, had it not been for really amazing, loving kind people who saw the need when we came to this country and left everything behind in El Salvador, and opened up their hearts to us and clothe us and bathe us and gave us food and shelter. It's what has made me, and to me, you pay that forward, you pass it on.
• [00:53:00] DARLA WELSHONS: You definitely do.
• [00:53:02] SYLVIA NOLASCO-RIVERS: Yeah, you pass it forward. That's when life gets really good is when we can do something kind for others in any way that each of us can. That's the reason I feel that I've come onto this earth. It's to to take advantage of all the wonderfulness that this planet has to offer in people, friendships in the community. Yeah, do nice, kind things for others.
• [00:53:35] ELIZABETH SMITH: I feel like you already answered our last question, but I'm going to go ahead and ask it anyways. just in case you have anything else to expand on. What are you most proud of?
• [00:53:42] SYLVIA NOLASCO-RIVERS: I'm most proud of my children. They're really good kind human beings. I'm proud of having an opportunity to expand and grow. I'm proud of a lot of things. I'm proud of me. I'm proud that even though I was--I grew up in hard times, and as many of us do in different circumstances, whether it's a civil war, whether it's our home lives, whatever it may be. We've all experienced different things, and I'm proud that I have been able to expand and grow myself, my life with love, and that any of us can do that no matter what the circumstance is and feel good, feel really good about the person that we continue to become. I'm proud of Sylvia. I'm proud that I keep loving her and honoring all aspects of who I am as a person. [MUSIC]
• [00:55:17] ELIZABETH SMITH: AADL Talks To is a production of the Ann Arbor District Library.