Tucked into southwestern Kansas stands the city of Liberal, a majority-Latino community where more residents speak Spanish than English. Many work at the nearby National Beef Packing Co., a common job for rural Kansans – including immigrant workers. Manuel Ortuño moved to Liberal from Chicago in pursuit of a lower cost of living. He quickly found a job at National Beef, which provided a good living but was extremely labor intensive. His son, Edgar, says that his father started building cabinets in his garage and taking night classes outside of his factory shift. Eventually, he found a carpentry job building displays at Beto Botas, a western apparel store in town. From there, his side hustle blossomed into a full-time career, evolving into Ortuño Cabinets in 2007. “I grew up seeing his hustle, seeking these jobs,” Edgar Ortuño says. “I watched the evolution of his business. He found new opportunities while being an immigrant with (imperfect) English and still receiving pretty good clientele. It was really inspiring to me.” Besides bearing witness to his father’s unwavering entrepreneurial spirit, Ortuño was especially attracted to carpentry and design when his father began building the home his parents live in now.
Source: KLC Journal
