Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Norma Pérez. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Norma, thanks for joining us today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

Coming up with The Salvi Vegan was something unexpected that came into my life. When I got diagnosed with osteoarthritis on my lower back, I thought my passion for my craft, at the time dance, it was long gone after 20 years working in that field. Once I became vegan, due to wanting to see if I could cure my condition with food, I immediately began loving to cook. Friends and family members who were not vegan were enjoying what I would create. Since at that time I had lost my first love and career as a choreographer/dance instructor, here i was, making people feel good but through another art form. I began cooking and cooking to where one of my friends mentioned I should try to do Salvadoran vegan cooking. As I became intrigued with the idea, I began researching if there were businesses out there doing Salvadoran vegan cooking. Well, come to find out there were 2 or 3 that were but they also did non vegan and they implemented other countries foods. I saw that many latin vegan food came mostly from Mexican content creators or restaurants/vendors. That when I decided to give this a try and to my surprise I found that no one at the time was doing strictly vegan.. strictly Salvadoran food. That’s when I decided to go for the idea of doing and creating The Salvi Vegan.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

As I mentioned previously, due to an unfortunate situation I turned and discovered a brand new one where it ignited my passion again. I was in such a dark place when I lost my last career plus life throwing its daggers at you that finding this was such a blessing in disguise.

Once I knew I wanted to do a food business I knew I had to get my feet wet, as some would say, to be able to see if this was truly what I wanted to do. It’s one thing cooking at home for family & friends but a whole bag of chips when it comes to serving the public. I met Carolina Lafaurie who is the owner of Equelecuá Cuban Vegan Cafe and she became a mentor. I was able to work not just as a server but also as a cook to be able to see the front & back of the kitchen. Whoa! What an experience that was as well as eye opener.. but even with that, I knew right then,, this was the new path I needed to take.

At first when I started in 2016, I started with posting photographs of the, at the time, 25 Salvadoran dishes I had veganized. As the years went by, I started to then vend and sell my food. My biggest sales where that first year where at the end of the year with the combined holidays, I ended up having to make my mom’s recipe, vehanized of course, of tamales de Pollo vegano. 900 tamales combined that year and of course, me crumbling to the corner of the house in thinking “What did I get myself into!?!” 😭 But at the end of it, with the help of friends, I was able to make them all, and then the feedback was absolutely worth it after all the stress of making those tamales. I remember customers telling me that these tamales reminded them of their grandmothers.. to also having mothers & grandmothers saying to me, “Nina, tienes un buen sazón! And to even my mom trying my recipe and asking her what she thought, “Mija están bien ricas, muy buenas” 😭😭😭 Now you know latinas moms be telling you like it is so to get that response, not just from other mothers but also from mine, I then thought “She Approved!!” I then decided to have my slogan, “It’s Mamá Approved”

After 2 years of being in business I ended up discovering an article talking about Afro-Salvadorans. This intrigued me due to the experiences I had had compared to my siblings and also being confused since little with being carribean. I also discovered that our food had African roots, that’s when my brand began to change a bit. I began implementing food history and Afrodescendant history into my content and this other area that was never taught to us. After researching my family, I discovered that indeed, we had this within our lineage. I think that was also the time I began doing less vending, also due to the fact I was doing this business almost completely alone, I couldn’t financially continue. So I decided to change the direction of my services.

I now offer cooking classes ( prerecorded but soon with live classes.) I started to do lives with Instagram and TikTok and saw how well it was received so I then decided to let my grip go of some of my recipes and started to do video food content. I absolutely loved it and decided to create finally sharing those recipes in a fun way.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

Ooh! Do you have the time or can I be allowed 10 pages?? Lol It’s been one thing after another of trails and tribulations. Since I do this business completely alone, I’ve had to sustain myself and this business, from driving Uber and Lyft for 10 to 12 hours a day to be able to have enough money to buy ingredients and try to pay those that helped me out. But I knew I had to keep pushing myself even if I was tired only getting 3 hours of sleep. To when I almost burned my previous apartment down trying to get the orders out but with the lack of sleep, it got the best of me. When I saw all the 87 tamales burned, I just looked at it for a bit, I didn’t cry.. and I’m a chillona.. began to do it all over again. They actually came out pretty good too..

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

I feel what helped me build my reputation within my market was being able to build my own path. I am not afraid to be my authentic self and show vulnerability. I am in my own lane, Salvadoran vegan, Afro-Salvadoran and showing those roots through education and entertaining. The fact that I have my dance/acting background, I’ve loved to infuse my old career and this one together. I am bringing my veganism, my culture and my roots together.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: www.instagram.com/thesalvivegan
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/thesalvivegan
• Twitter: www.twitter.com/thesalvivegan
• Youtube: www.youtube.com/thesalvivegan
• Other: www.tiktok.com/thesalvivegan

Image Credits
Image credits were all by me, The Salvi Vegan