Caterer Karla Ruiz is considered a local guru of Mexican-inspired cooking — though she'd be quick to point out that her skills aren't limited to one type of cuisine. A native of Mexico City, Ruiz worked in Nashville restaurant kitchens for 12 years before opening her own business last year, catering events for a diverse clientele, including country stars ("I don't even know how they know me," she laughs), and selling her famous empanadas and tamales around town.
Ruiz runs her business out of the Mesa Komal commercial kitchen inside Casa Azafrán, the community center run by Conexión Américas on Nolensville Road, which is where we chatted with her while she cooked tricolored empanadas.
"Cooking is an art, and as an artist, I just love to cook what I have in front of me," she says. "I look at whatever the farmers have for us. ... It's like picking out the colors that you want to paint."
Growing up in Mexico, Ruiz didn't cook as much as observe. Her family made trips to visit her grandmother in the town of Zamora, and watching the family put together a giant meal, including picking out a live chicken or piglet, butchering it and roasting it, and making bread in wood-burning ovens, was a formative experience.
"What I saw there, how my grandmother organized these meals — 'OK, you're gonna kill the pork, you're going to hire the mariachis, you're going to be in charge of the tables' — those little things, they really helped me in the catering business."
Today Ruiz oversees several employees, not bad for someone who came to Nashville 16 years ago with no money and very little English.
"Here I come without speaking English, without a dollar in my pocket, and I learn how people just really want to help."
And Ruiz is not shy about mentioning her immigration status. "I came with a tourist visa. To be honest, everybody knows my story. I'm still illegal. I never faked any documents. I'm here, but this is my reality.
"It's very challenging to try to open a business without being legally here. But at the same time, we pay taxes, we do everything a legal person do, but without access to any bank or credit. It's more challenging, but it's not impossible."
One person who has heard her story is President Barack Obama, who stopped by Casa Azafrán in December to speak about immigration reform and his executive order that has deferred deportations.
"We shook hands and talked a bit. It was an unforgettable experience. Obama wanted to hear our challenges. We are legal as much as we can," she says.
"I think if I was legally here, I could grow more, because I could go to a bank with a business plan and get that little chunk that I need to just go. But I'm not giving up. Never. We fight for fair change of immigration. ... We are ready for that door to open so we can keep growing."
More From the 2015 People Issue
The Textile Designer: Andra Eggleston / The Transformer: Bill Schleicher / The Chief: Steve Anderson / The Bookseller: Yusef Harris / The Producer: Dave Cobb / The Rookie: Filip Forsberg / The Pedal Steel-Playing Pilot: Joshua Motohashi / The Weathermen: David Drobny & Will Minkoff / The Punk Neuroscientist: Kale Edmiston / The Kitchen Artist: Karla Ruiz / The Metalhead: Kayla Phillips / The Image Master: kogonada / The Bartender: Lee Parrish / The Professor: Lisa Guenther / The Advocate: Marisa Richmond / The Captains: Kellie Hurst & Regina Durkan / The Painter: Michael Shane Neal / The Tunesmith: Shane McAnally
