From Mexico to Rantoul, Ill., a family finds their new ground
By Acacia Hernandez
When the open sign of “El Mercadito” grocery store turns off at 9 p.m., odds are Gilberto and Ericema Gonzales will still be there stocking shelves hours later. If it’s a Friday or Sunday night, their children will be there helping them with the family business.
Gilberto and Ericema came to the U.S. from Mexico’s southern state of Chiapas when they were still teenagers and took on jobs working in factories, mechanic shops and cleaning office buildings. Six years ago, they took a chance on starting their own business. The sacrifice hasn’t been easy.
“It was a really difficult first year,” Gilberto said in Spanish. “The business was suffering from its previous owner and I had to work on rebuilding the name and forming new relationships with customers.”
Gilberto Gonzales and his son, Jason, restock the shelves of cleanling supplies commonly used in Mexico, such as “Fabuloso“ and “Ariel“ soap. 
After a twelve hour shift, Gilberto Gonzales, father of Jason and Zaireth, mops the floor of his Mexican grocery store. 
Ericema, mother of Jason and Zaireth, prices “Goya“ beans on Friday night, May 7, after the store closes for the night.
Gilberto and Ericema switch off on a weekly basis working at the business daily from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., and often into the after hours of operation. So, what pushes them through when the hours become exhausting, and their feet grow weary? Their children.
“I work hard so that my kids don’t have to worry about their parents not being able to afford their college,” Gilberto said in Spanish. “I don’t want to be a weight or burden for them.”
He shared the analogy of a bird not being able to fly if it has two rocks on it. “Working at a factory, I wouldn’t have been able to have all of this,” Gilberto said, as he looks around his business.
“Right now, my wife and I, we don’t spend enough time with our kids,” Gilberto said. “The two days a week I usually get to spend time with them isn’t enough. But we’re making a large sacrifice now, so that we can give them a better future.”
Instead of going out to eat at a restaurant on Friday or Sunday nights, they are inside the store stacking products from Latin America to prepare their store for the next day. This has turned into a form of family bonding for the Gonzales family.
Only four years old, Zaireth Gonzales re-fills the fridge with fresh limes as a way of helping out her parents during the grocery store’s after hours on Friday, May 7. 
“I help by checking people out or sweeping,” Jason Gonzales, 11, said. “I also have to clean my sister’s messes. I get really tired, but we all work as a family, and I like spending time with them.”
Jason hopes to one day take over the business. He also hopes to attend the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to study business or film.
Over the years, the Gonzales family has formed close relationships with their customers and knows many of them on a first name basis.
“Rantoul, for owning a Latino business, is really great,” Gonzales said in Spanish.
According to Gonzales, many of his customers are from Mexico and Guatemala and work at the surrounding factories and meat plants. Illinois is also known for its 20 million acres of corn and soybeans which brings in migrant seasonal farmworkers who travel from state to state following the seasonal crop.
“Our customers ask us for more and more products from their home country, and we add them to our inventory,” Gonzales said.