Financial Feminist - 281. Build Wealth Without Leaving Your Culture Behind with Bricia Lopez

Episode Date: April 14, 2026

What if you never had to choose between building wealth and honoring where you came from? Bricia Lopez didn't –– and she built something incredible because of it. She grew up translating for her immigrant parents, learned money by watching her family create and lose and rebuild, and went on to become a restaurateur, cookbook author, and the woman behind one of LA's most iconic Oaxacan restaurants, Guelaguetza. Today she's sharing everything, the mindset, the hard lessons, the margarita vs. martini moment that changed how she thinks about her own worth. Come for the food, stay for the money talk. Bricia’s links: Website: https://www.ilovemicheladas.com/ Join the savings sprint to get your finances on track and take control of your money: https://herfirst100k.com/ffpod.  00:00 Intro  00:20 The First Money Lesson: You Can Just Make It 02:57 Being the Family Translator & Business Partner at 12 05:25 Redefining Success at Every Decade 09:08 Cutting Personal Comfort, Not Quality, During Hard Times 16:58 Why Bricia Talks Money Openly With Her Friends 17:22 The Margarita vs. Martini — Running Your Own Race 25:52 Why Customers Hesitate to Pay for Quality Mexican Food 26:37 The Importance of Knowing Your Worth 38:47 How Wealth Is More Than a Number 29:00 Building Something Meaningful Without Abandoning Your Roots 31:09 When Women Are Financially Free, the World Changes 32:38 Rapid Fire: Best Dish to Order, Desert Island Ingredients & More 38:58 Where to Find Bricia & What's Coming Next To stay up to date and find any other resources mentioned on our show visit: ⁠https://herfirst100k.com/ffpod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're afraid of success because you don't want to leave your old life behind. Because for so many people, especially women and members of other marginalized communities, success often comes with an unspoken expectation. Leave parts of yourself behind to be taken seriously. My guest today grew her family's restaurant and learned that money can be created and also disappeared just as fast. She's a chef, restaurateur, and author who spent her career challenging why some labor is undervalued, why certain cultures are expected to be affordable, and why success is so often

defined by someone else's rules. In this conversation, we talk about money and identity, what it means to honor your culture and your family while pursuing bigger goals, how to cultivate friendships and supportive partners where you can be open about your money and ambition, and why real wealth isn't just about income. It's about agency, values, and choice. Today's guest is Brisea Lopez. She is a chef, entrepreneur, and cultural steward, and the co-owner of Gale Gatza,

the James Beard Award-winning Wahakken Restaurant, Jonathan Gold called, quote, the best Wahakin Restaurant in the United States. She is the author of two acclaimed cookbooks and is the central figure in bringing Mescal and Wahawken specificity into the U.S. mainstream. Let's get into it. But first, a word from our sponsors. This podcast is brought to you by Squarespace. We love Squarespace.

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That's 15% off at masterclass.com slash FF pod. Head to masterclass.com slash ff pod to see the latest offer. So you grew up inside your family's restaurant from a very young age. What was the earliest money lessons you learned, even if no one explicitly talked about money? man, what were the first? Is this like my therapy session that I need before my... Potentially if you wanted to be. What are the lessons that I learned early on about money?

I learned early on that you could just make money, that like you could just make it, that you don't really have to go to a job, that you can just like make it. When you say like make money, was it... You can just bring money in. Like you can just create it. You don't really have to go somewhere every day, you know, have a quote-unquote job that you you can just kind of go and create and then money comes. Yeah, I think most people don't have that view of money.

So for you, was that the daughter of immigrant experience? Was that the entrepreneurial experience? Like, most women we talk to do not think that positively about making and earning money. Yeah. I mean, there's many things that they want money. I think that's just the first thing that came to mind when you were talking about. My father has always been a merchant, entrepreneur. or whatever you want to call it.

My mom was always at home with him, supporting him. My mom always had a little notebook, which is funny because I also have a little notebook everywhere I go. And she would keep tabs of their money. And my mom also came from parents, grandparents who had stores in their little town. We were not means by any chance. We grew up in Oaxaca. My parents came from a small little town in Oaxaca, Mitla and Matatlan.

We weren't financially literate, right? but I understood that my parents were just, they would just create, my dad sold mezcal, he was a mezcal maker and he used to sell mescal, but this is, girl, this is way back before, before people were drinking miscal in Brooklyn, New York.

This is just way, way back. When I was in my late teens, early 20s, my parents were bankrupt. So then I also saw my parents just lose everything. I mean, everything, their home, their cars, my car got repossessed. So I just remember that feeling of, oh, you can make it, but it can also be gone like that.

And I saw my father lose everything twice. At the same time that I realized that you could go and create it and you can just go and make it, I also learned very early on or maybe not early enough that you need to take care of it and have it grow for you and work for you and you not work for it. And that's sort of the journey where I'm on right now. Well, and you had a very typical immigrant experience, I think especially like you were the translator, you were the accountant, you were like sometimes the decision maker and when you were a child. So how does that kind of responsibility shape your relationship to work and wealth when you're doing all of those responsibilities as a kid? Yeah, my parents moved here to L.A. when I was about 10 years old. None of us knew how to speak English. So by the time I was 12 years old, I was pretty proficient in English, 12, 13. And my time I was 15, I was like the family's attorney. My sister, my brother and I, my parents would just take us everywhere and we would translate everything they needed. My parents always sort of brought us in almost as we were business partners in a sense. We were all working together, but everything was shared openly. you know how everything was going, what needed to be done, who needed to get let go.

We were always included in those conversations. Not that we had say, but everything was just talked about. There was no blur between home and the restaurant. And also you're in a restaurant. And the restaurant industry is very specific. You have to create a movie every single day. Like you have to create an event every single day. Every single day is a new production and nothing can be.

go wrong because if one thing goes wrong, it's all word of mouth. So if you have one client leave with a bad experience, it's so bad for business. It's such a grueling industry, but teaches you so much about resilience. I've never heard a phrase like that. It is a production every single day. Oh, yes. You're exactly right, where I've loved her hearing food described as like, it's the only thing that achieves all five senses or like works all five senses. It's one of the only experiences where sense of smell, sense of taste, sense of touch, it's all there. But also your added pressure as a restaurateur where you're exactly right. It is like everything has to go well. And if something doesn't go well, the ripple effect of that

could be so costly. And you have to manage an entire crew. Everything from production to lighting to plumbing, to plumbing. You can have the most great day and all of a sudden your plumbing goes off. And then what happens? Or your heater breaks. Or your heater breaks. or your AC goes off or there's a leak in the roof I mean I can't name I mean I can go on and all about the industry but it teaches you a lot

and I think that people who are in the industry who do very well in it is because it's people who are just out there every single day who are doing with their love yeah was there a moment that you realize your definition of success might look different than what you saw growing up

or at least what like mainstream culture celebrates as success I think if I'm going to to be complete honest with you. I think I'm just learning to be to even right now, it's just, what is that? I think it just changes as you as you grow. You know, as you enter a new decade in life, you start sort of like re-managing what success is. I think success looked very different to me in my 30s than it did in my 20s and that it does now, I'm not on 40. But I think I've always felt like I'm very like, no, I'm not like successful, but like I felt like I was going in a, I was following a,

a deeper purpose, if that makes any sense. But I do think that at some point, I thought that success had to be defined in a certain way. And I think today I see success is just peace, which is very different than the success my parents saw. And now that my parents are older, they retire, they live a great life in Oaxaca, I see their life as a huge success. It's a huge success. They have four children who are very close-knit. Their legacy is still alive. And they live, have a very peaceful life in their beautiful home in Oaxaca. Every day they get up, my mom feeds her chickens. They eat great food. I mean, talk about success. They eat incredibly well every day. My mom goes to the market every single day. She grabs incredible quality produce better than we get sometimes.

She farms her chickens. She knows exactly what she's eating. I mean, she breeds fresh air every single day and nits. I think that's success. Yeah. Well, and I love, we've had a lot of conversations on the show with ambitious women who have to redefine what success looks like for them. And you mentioned this industry. And as someone who has dated people who worked in this industry, who has friends who work in this industry, who has so much respect for chefs, I do think that the industry tells you success is Michelin Stars and Beard Awards and reviews at the New York Times and just going up and up and up and up and up and up. Those are nice, though. Those are all nice. Oh, of course. Of course. But at a certain point, I think you're right that, like, we are all, especially as women, trying to figure out what success actually means, separate from the accomplishments and the accolades. Like, success can be those things, absolutely. But also, if you are achieving all of that, but you're getting to the end of the day and you're not very happy with your life, then do you feel successful? Yeah, then that's not success. That's just you living for someone else's approval.

Whatever your values are, I think success is. living by your values, whatever those are. Absolutely. Because there's certain people who really value those things, and that could be their success. And if they value them, they're amazing. But there's certain people who value other things more. So I think it's your success is living truly in your values every single day. I love what Bresia just said about success is living your values every day.

And values are something I talk about a lot here on the podcast. And in fact, one of my main financial tenants is value-based spending, aligning your spending with your own values. But it's really hard to do if you don't actually have a plan at all for where your money's going. So if you're someone who struggles to figure out your spending, whether it's not knowing how to track or where your money is going, I built a challenge just for you. The savings sprint gives you one small doable task every day to build real momentum and to see your progress fast. You can go to her first hundredk.com slash ffpod to join this saving sprint.

It's completely free. And in less than a week, you can find extra cash hidden. your budget. You can automate your savings so you actually build wealth and you can finally feel in control of your money. So wanted to step in here really quick. Give you this free resource, herfirst hundredk.com slash fffpod. Use it to transform your savings. All right, back to the episode. We in our research found out that during the recession, your family made a choice to cut personal comfort instead of cutting their food quality at the restaurant. And that was a huge leap of faith, but also incredibly strategic.

Can you talk to me about that decision or like what went into it? The restaurant's been around for over 30 years, right? Like, it is while. She's old. In restaurant years, she's over 100, you know? Yeah. It is a long time. But I think that there's something to be said about legacy, tradition, and culture

that by definition just cannot be replaced because it's so embedded. somewhere. It has just such deep roots. So for us, it's just always remembering that. Like, why, why do we do this? Because when you do something that's so challenging every day and so taxing on your body and really the margins aren't great in restaurants, everybody knows that now, right? You're really doing it for your values, like I said. So it's like what do we value? We value community. We value quality. We value my job, I've always thought of it as not just preserving my culture, but really championing it and respecting in a way, because if I respect it, then others will respect it. So I means that I need to push my best foot forward. If I produce something, it's going to be the best because that's what we deserve,

and that's what we should be accustomed to. I'm just trying to set the standards higher for the next generations, then they have just a higher set of standards. So when they go and they ask for something, they know what to expect and say like, oh, no, I'm used to better. So I think for us it's just always been that and that's always been our North Star and everything we do. From producing our monthly festivals to every single day at the restaurant, except on Mondays, it is really to push our best foot forward for our culture and how we can do that. And it's just quality. The other day, I invited a group of friends for brunch at my restaurant. They were talking about how great the chilequillas were. I'm like, oh my God, the chilequas are just so great. Like, how are they not soggy? And they were just

going on and on and on and on. You read about all these techniques and how to get the chilequila soggy and nod and this and that. I'm like, I'm going to tell you guys the truth. You know why? Because those tortillas that you see right there were made in Oaxaca by a very specific group of women using a very specific group of corn. They were flown all the way to Los Angeles so you could have them. That really is why they taste so good. Like, there's just no other way of going around it, you know, and we do that. We do that because we really care. There's a running joke on this show that all I do is cry and you got me already. No, that's why I love food because it's such a immediate, it immediately helps you understand somebody's culture. It makes you respect them.

Yes. And when somebody like you is so passionate about it, I'm like, yeah, we're going to fly our tortillas in. And that's what's going to make them great. Like, I just fucking love that shit. It just makes me so happy. It's so good. It's so good. Thank you. Thank you. It's also great to know that people appreciate it, you know, because it does go notice every single day. I mean, we sell tons of selectibles. No one really understands. And that's what is just so important. And thank you for having me in the podcast. I think it's just so important to retell the stories over and. over again because the only way that our culture is going to continue to be pushed forward is through us. It's us. It's the people in the kitchen. Just give people great food. One of the things that really sort of blew my mind, I think I can say this in this podcast is the story. I had this like realization come to Jesus moments when I realized I am a margarita running in a martini race and I can't do that. I have to run my own race. I was at a conference, Cherry Bomb Conference. Cherry phone for those of you who don't know. It's a wonderful magazine. Women-owned, women-led. They highlight women in the industry. I love that magazine. So they had a great, beautiful event in

LA. I was privileged enough to be in a panel with other great women. And I met this woman who runs a restaurant group here in Los Angeles. She has six restaurants and I'm a huge fan. Because I only have one. And to meet someone who has six successful ones and who runs and who like runs to shit and does her thing. Like I'm always about many women like that. I mean like, like, tell me everything. What do you do? What's working? What's not? What are your profits like? What are your margins? Like, how are you up? Are you down? So we're always exchanging information with with each other. So I was explaining her we were 20% down this year. This was last year. Which is actually great because the industry was down 75. So I felt like I was kind of winning. But she was telling me that she

was up 15. And I believed it because I had been to her places. So that's a 35% swing. That's like crazy. like, but what's how? What is, what are you doing? What is happening? When is the thing? And she was saying how to you, she was strategizing. And she said, oh my God, Bracia, we have, you know what just really hit. It's like this $10 martini. People just really come for $10 martini because in their mind is just like cheap. It's great. And then they stay. And then, you know, blah, blah, blah. I'm like, oh, okay, cool. And then I started like thinking, oh, well, that's just like happy hour stuff. Like, that's okay. Okay. But why is yours like hitting so differently? And then I realized Oh my God, I know why.

Because the perception of this culture today has of a martini is $35. Somehow, the martini has been able to present herself as a $35 drink. Well, me and male, the margarita, poor margarita comes here. She's like made out of the most wonderful Jews come from the gods. An actual God came from heaven, stroked down with Maya Whel and out came the agave. an actual goddess, okay? She's an actual goddess, like facts. If I try to put a $10 margarita in the menu for as a special, people are going to be like, no.

If it's a special, keep me a $5 margarita. People's perception of a margarita is not $35. And I was like, holy. Like, I had this whole like coming to Jesus moment. I was like, I can't run that. I can't. I have to run my own ratings. I have to carve my own.

path. I have to run faster. I have to just, I can't. It's crazy that a martini made out of potato. Okay? She's just vodka. She's cold vodka. Look, nothing against a martini. I love a martini. Okay. Yeah, but it's not, it's not the same level of craft. It's not the same level of craft. It's not just tequila, but lime juice. You know how expensive lime juice? You know, expensive lime is? Go buy lines at the market. You know? I used to spend so much time looking at my money. Like, free me as a multimillionaire financial expert. I used to spend so much time obsessing over my budget, over trying to track every single penny.

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squarespace.com slash FFPob. What your story tells me and is also the perfect transition to my next question, anybody listening, chef or not, there's two things there that I think are really powerful. One, that you have a group of women who will talk openly about money with each other. Oh, yes. Because most people won't. And that we'll talk about margins and talk about wins and losses and talk about all of that. But also, too, that you've realized what worked for her will not work for me.

me. And what works for her restaurant or her niche or her situation might not be relevant for me. It might be, I might be able to learn or I might go, you know what, I run a different business. And my next question was going to be, why do you think that customers are willing to pay premium prices for certain things, but hesitate when it comes to Mexican food other than the obvious, which is racism? Like, why, what would you say to someone who generally doesn't understand why quality Mexican food shouldn't be cheap? Yeah. Well, listen. take the first part of the question because I think that's an important one. I think it's very important that if you, girlie, are listening out there, if you don't got girlfriends that share with you

their income, how they live their life, how do you invest and how they grow their money, they're not your friends. Friends will like make sure that you're taking care of. Friends will give you the truth. Friends will be like, listen, girl, this is how much I'm making, it's how much I spend. This is the way I manage my budget. This is what I'm investing in. You and you're going to get along. We love it. This is like, I read this article. I had a crypto chain in my WhatsApp group with some girlfriends back in the day. We're like, you girls. I'm like, I don't know anything about it.

Like educating each other. This is what you need. One of my best friends, she wrote, Louise Warriors, she wrote a book about finances. And in her book, she was talking about how like she, she's the one who brought me into knowing about how to invest. She was like the girlfriend in the group, her, my other girlfriend, Patty would always in the group chat. she was the one who first told me, Bisa, you got to buy your first Netflix stock. She's the one who pushed me into buying my first Netflix stock that I still have, like years ago. So I think it's just very, very important that you all are very open with your friends.

And if you don't feel comfortable with certain friends, then join some sort of networking group that will put you in a place where you feel safe talking about money. So the group that we are in, like I co-founded this nonprofit called Regarding Her, where it's, it's made. up of, I think we're over like 300 members now, all in the industry. I could be wrong. It's probably more. All in the food industry, all women. We have monthly Zoom calls. We talk about where we are, where are you, what's working for you, what's not working for you. This is the issues that I'm having. I got sued this week. So did I. You know, this guy's, this guy's charging me this much. That guy's, you know, hey, give me the contact. Oh my God. Yesterday this happened. My sales are down 10. my sales are up 20. My lunch is going up. My lunch is going down. Like all of these things,

how are you supposed to grow without information? You need to be around. That's why I love asking questions. Like if all of my friends who probably, if anyone listens to listening who knows me, they're going to be like, oh yeah, Risa asks all the questions. No, but that's what you want. And, you know, that's why we've created our communities and our programs and the community we have because as important it is, I think, to talk about money with the people in your life. For somebody who's never done that, that may feel really intimidating. And it's actually easier to talk to a stranger or someone who just connected to more as an acquaintance than someone who is your best friend or your partner or your parent. And so I love that you're doing that too.

Well, you're kind of like a money therapist, Tori. Call Tori. Tell her all your issues. I am not qualified. I have to say legally, I am not a therapist. I am not licensed a therapist, but also, yes. We talk a lot about the emotions of money, which I think are actually most of this battle. People think it's about numbers. It's not. Your Instagram post is pinned at the top. That's just like the lessons. And I was like,

they were all hitting, they were all hitting hard. I was like, yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Because it's emotions. And it's like the not facing it. The not like looking at it. It's, it was like, yeah, that is the thing. Because I'm guilty of it too now, too. I mean, there's certain persons who's like, oh, I'm not ready to look at this right now. but you should. Yeah, totally. Okay, so I do have to ask you, with that martini versus margarita example,

why do you think that's happening? Like, why do people hesitate to spend more money on Mexican food? Where they would be okay having a latte at Starbucks for $7, but then if I have a $7.00 or chata,

it's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, why are you charging $7 for an urchata? I have many thoughts. You know, you said it. I think people are just racist. It's just racism, right? I think that for a very long time, my community has been conditioned to just be okay

and take whatever it's giving to us and be thankful. I think that, like, when my father opened his restaurant, a restaurant, like, the first day, He didn't put prices on the menu. He waited for people to come and tell him how much they would pay for it. And then he was like, cool, five, three, four. And that just tells me, oh, yeah, you just take what you can get. And our community has always just taken what we could get.

We've never been in a place where we feel safe, secure, confident, valuable, where we can say, no, I'm actually going to need more. And I think that, I think if this is a new generation, And I think that this generation is now pausing and saying, no, I'm actually going to ask for more now. Yes, sure, I'm a $15 margarita, but maybe I'm a $45 paloma, baby. Who knows? Well, and, you know, we live in a country where we associate Mexican labor generally with this is cheap or this is easy to find. The classic thing of this country was built on free or stolen labor.

Yes. And so of course then that trickles into every aspect of the culture that trickles into food where you expect, oh, or I'm going to a taco truck and I'm paying $4. So all Mexican food should be like that when of course that's not realistic. What happens also, Mexico has a huge street food culture, huge, and it's delicious. And it's great. And everyone should go to Mexico and do a taco crawl. Everyone should go to Oaxaca and eat from the streets. Like you should. yes however I think that when people then transfer that

experience to a different country is yeah but you're no longer in Mexico sure

a cladier on the streets and wahaca is this awesome then why don't you book your flight

and go get one but like if you want it here this is how much it is like

it's just that's just what it is and I think that again for a long time a lot of people, especially a lot of smaller businesses who are just opening up, who are trying to figure it out,

will just take what they can get, and end up working themselves in a negative. I have seen many restaurants fail and fall into the same pattern of yes, yes, yes, but then they're just not even making money. They're slaves to their own business. They're not even really having a real life. You know, they would be better off working a nine to five, but they just love it so much. and they're there for the love and the passion, and I see it, but they're just not making financially sound decisions

that are not just affecting themselves, but they're affecting a lot more people. It's another thing where anybody listening, this is applicable to you, especially if you work at a nonprofit, we talk about that a lot on the show, of this belief of like, oh, I do mission-focused work,

so therefore I shouldn't be making a lot of money, or it's okay if I'm underpaid. And it's like, no, no, we need you compensated fairly to do this really, really important work in our society. And, you know, the vast majority of people listening to the show are women. We are often undercompensated because our labor is not worth as much. And I'm putting that in air quotes. But, like, that's what we're struggling against this whole time as, you know, the devaluation of labor.

Yeah. I also think that personally, in my experience and knowing a lot of women, I think that we, for some reason, have a harder time. I have had a hard time expressing my needs. Yes, absolutely. I have a hard time saying what I want out loud to people who I care about because I'm afraid of hurting someone's feelings. And I think of that translates into work where maybe I will not have a difficult conversation with someone who needs to have a conversation when needs to get let go. Right before I would take me longer now I can have those better. I think the same thing happens.

And then relationship, you know, stayed longer than we should have because I was so afraid of voicing what I actually wanted and then eventually. So just these little things that maybe we think are so small, not looking at your financials because you're afraid. Like all these little things we kind of put off. And I think person, I'm in at say myself, I don't know if my brother's this way. I don't know if male friends. I feel like men have an easier way of just,

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The guide is free to you at net suite.com slash ff pod. NetSuite.com slash ff pod. I think one of the things that is so interesting about talking with you about money is that perception or that belief, I think is so important that like I can make money, I can figure it out. How do you personally define wealth now? And how is that definition changed since you were younger? Well, I think if you really think about wealth, I think it's having just complete agency. But I think wealth expands beyond financial burden. But the thing is just like the financial burden is only just one

part of there's so many other parts like i think that wealth encompasses being able to take care of your health i think if real wealth comes from having the freedom having this sense of lightness around your everyday life waking up and just feeling light being able to this lack of worry right you you know i think like a lot so many of us would live every day of just tingling worries of like, this could happen and that could happen and these little voices, almost like K-pop demon hunters like that. Like they're just sort of around you all the time. I just sort of telling you, you know, just like, this could be gone soon.

I think that's one of the little voices I have because of how I, what I saw with my parents and what they went through, right? Sometimes the little voices can just really inhibit decisions because you were scared. So I think just when you kind of reach this point of wealth, this point where you don't really have these voices because it doesn't, I think like that at that moment, I don't think there's like a number. It's just a feeling of just being just lighter and everyday worries, including, but that includes your health, right? That includes how you move. That includes your relationships. That includes who you're sharing things with. That includes who's

coming over today. That includes, you know, as wealth in friendships and wealth and Just everyone around you and communication, wealth and communication with other people. And I think really in having great food and knowing and learning and just having the ability to keep growing, it is harder when you get older and you pile responsibility on yourself, children, businesses. It does get more challenging for you to grow as an individual because in order for you to grow as an individual, time is required. Time is required to learn any skill. You know, if you want to just pick up a new hobby.

Yesterday I had the realization that I have been wanting to learn how to ice skate for the past 30 years. And I have never learned how to ice skate. And I just sort of don't. And I'm like, what? Why has it? Right? And then I thought, man, you can do that.

I can do that, but it's a little more challenging for me because I have to rearrange schedules. I have to, you know, there's, it's a lot more challenging for me to find time. it would have been way easier as a 20-year-old, right, when I didn't have children, when I was just living, maybe I shouldn't skip a couple of those dinners, a couple of those bar hopping accessories that I used to do with my girlfriends, and maybe learn how I skate, right? But I think also it's never too late. And I think that I think wealth allows you, allows space and time for you to grow as an individual.

Yeah. For listeners who want to build something meaningful, whether that's a business, a career, a legacy, but feel torn between honoring their roots and also wanting more. What advice do you have for them? They're torn between honoring their roots and wanting more. Why are they torn between those two? I think you can do both. I think that the way that you honor roots goes in everything, anything that you do anything, I think that you can do anything. You can be in any basis. And I wear industry, right? You can mean the I wear industry. You can still honor your roots by that. There's ways that you can bring your truth to anything. You can you can create a diaper brand and have your culture and roots

be embedded in that. You can create a podcast. You can create a line of toys. You can do anything in this world. You generally can go out and create anything. There's, it is, I've never felt like I've lived in a moment where anything is possible. Like, I don't remember having this feeling when I was, when I left high school. I felt like it was just really, hard to do things. And I think like now, there's no excuse you can learn any language. You can you have the world at your fingertips. You have every resource at your fingertips to create anything today. The world is going falling apart. But I think there's so much hope and you can still create a lot for yourself. I mean, I feel the same way. There's a lot of horrible things happening.

and also I don't think it's been a better time to build something for yourself, especially if you're a woman, if you're a woman of color, if you're a member of a marginalized group where the situation you're currently in, whether that's your career or your lifestyle is not working for you, you have a bunch of resources and so many opportunities to change that in a way that we didn't before. Yeah. And I really believe that when you give women the power, they can change the world. And the only, I think one of the ways that women are going to be able to do that is for them to be financially free. When women are financially free, the world is going to change. Women are going to make just different decisions for themselves because they're just financially free. I did it for myself. I've been witnessed of women staying in marriages just because they feel they can't afford it. And it breaks my heart that that is the thing that's keeping. them in a situation that's not allowing them to grow. And I have seen these stories repeat themselves.

I have seen the beginning of that story. I have seen the end of that story many times in my life. So I think that maybe that is a lesson I learned early on about money. Maybe now that we're wrapping the episode up, I'm realizing that is the lesson. It's like I learned the importance of being financially free. I learned about the importance of the power you gain when you're able to make decisions for yourself that are not based on money, that you're able to move if you want to. You don't have to worry about food, that you can drive yourself somewhere, that you can have a shelter that you can feel safe. It's powerful when you feel safe and money. It's powerful. And I think that the more women feel that power, the world will change for better, for better.

Bresay, that's my entire thesis statement, so I love it. Okay, I got to do some rapid fire with you before we go. Okay, a dish someone needs to order at Gila Getsa for the first time. Gela Getsa. Gle Getsa. Shoot, I knew this was going to happen. We can keep this in here. Okay, say it one more time for me.

Gela Getsa. Gela Getsa. Okay, I'm saying it's the most white person ever who does not speak Spanish. Gela Gle getsa. Okay. No, no, no. I always tell people reminded it's like, you got a Gle Gle Getsa. That's not people to remember.

That's great. Okay. First dish someone's got to order. Chilers reyanos. Chicken. Tell me what that is. One chicken, one cheese. Chilas reyenos.

Chilas reyans are, I think, one of the most misunderstood dishes, I think, especially here in California, rather press of the country. Chilers reyennos here in America have been portrayed as just this soggy, oily, like, battered chili with like stuffed cheese inside that's just like just gooey and like weird but chile reenanos from wajaca are the best we actually fly our chillas from wohaca they're very specific they're called chillas-dawa it's delicious we stuffed them with this chicken piccadillo and the ones that we stuffed with cheese we put a pasote inside and they're served over with this like red sauce it's the best chile reyno you'll ever have have have it would have it would have it

with beans in a handmade tortilla. Okay, that's what I'm getting. That sounds great. Okay, the best Wahawk and dish you've ever had? I mean, my mom's. My mom's, yeah, like yesterday's, no. No, my mom makes this frihole and pata, which is a stew, a black bean stew with pick trotters in there. So like pork feet black bean soup

And it's my favorite dish that my mom makes Or salsa de carnifita Those two are just iconic I would have those anytime, any day Yes, pork, pork all day If you're kosher, you can't If you're kosher like you'd be not Oh, it's not happening for you

You're not getting a full experience The ingredients you take on a deserted island Let's say three It's, wait, wait, salt and ingredient? I'm in the sea, right? I can just get stuff in the ocean. Is that like, yeah, Yeah, yeah.

You mean just the ingredient. Okay. But you're talking about salt pepper we have. Do we have vinegar? Do we have oil? I don't think we do. Well, I would have to take vinegar oil. Like red wine vinegar?

What I mean? I need ingredients. I'm like, I need beans. What do you mean? Yeah. That's what you probably chicken. You need chicken or pork. Is there water?

I mean, okay. I would say, no, I would rather. You're doing the Dwight street thing where you're like, okay, is there water on the island? I need iodine. I need matches. I know, I know. Okay, I would say at the Surat Island, I would do like a turkey or a chicken,

maybe a turkey or a chicken because I could like, wait, am I killing this chicken? It's just like, I'm bringing the ingredients. You weren't thinking about this way too hard, girl. I also, my son does like to watch Survivor. That's his favorite show, my son. It's great. It's great show.

So I watch Survivor with him. So I think like I'm also, like when you say deserted island ingredients, like my much goes somewhere out. Occasionally get chicken. for their reward, but then they can never, ever, ever keep him in the cage. And they're always, like, chasing after the chickens. Like, that's half of the show, I think. It's just chasing after chickens on the island. But also because, like, my grandma kills chickens on the regular. Like, I've killed chickens. I'm very comfortable. Killing chickens, like, no problem. So I always think,

like, if I was a survivor, I'd be like, guys, what's wrong with you guys? Hand me the chicken. Here we go. Pay me the chicken. Here we're in a shuddy. Okay. I mean, beans, I think beans, because I could never live without beans. For my protein, oh my goodness, this is really hard because I love all kinds of proteins. But if I'm going to stick with the beans, I need to have tasajo. Tasago is just like my thing. I got to come with my tasjo. The beans, though, are really spicy because I'm not going to bring chilis with me, so my beans have to be spicy. And tortillas. What else am I going to have? That tortillas. That tortillas. Dia, some beans, and beef.

I mean, good. You're sitting pretty. Yeah. Favorite late night meal. A quesadia. A meal you'll never forget. A meal, I will never forget. So many meals that I've had this past couple of years that I never forget, to be honest, that I think, you know what?

I think the meal that I will never, ever, ever forget. It was the best time we ever had. It was my entire family, when I mean, my parents, my siblings are significant. and others, my ex-husband at the time, I had just opened Mama Rabbit, which was the first Missal cocktail bar to ever open in Vegas. I helped open. I was one of the leads and creative, creative, creative lead in all things there. And we would, they had us for the opening. It was amazing. I was hosting it. It was great. And then Jose Andreas invited us to his restaurant for dinner that night and reserved this private room for us.

and hosted my parents and my family. I want to cry. It was so beautiful. He just made us feel so special. And he made us feel so valued. And the entire staff came out. There was so much staff from Oaxaca that were there. There was just so happy to have us.

His chef gave us, that's what he gave us gin and tonics. We had tons of gin and tonics. We had tons of wine. Oh, my God. We were doing so much wine, so much ginatonics. and he curated the most epic dinner. And I think I loved it so much, not just because obviously,

I mean, if Osandra's curates you at dinner, it's going to be amazing. But I think it was more about seeing my parents just have that experience in Vegas, you know, and all my siblings are in my family, and it was just beautiful.

I'll never forget that one. Food brings people together. I love it. Thank you, chef, for being here. Plug away, my friend. Tell us what you got going on. Oh my goodness. You can always order my cookbooks. I have two cookbooks. I have Wajaka and Asada. So if you're

going to get up for the summer, you have to get a cup of Asada cookbook. You can always get those two. I have my third one coming up next year, which I hopefully have been back in this podcast to promote. But I would say plug in. I love micheladas.com. We are launching our new Micheamami flavor. And I am so excited to have her join, you know, just out into the world. It's like a first project that's very much still food-related. because I'm a chelada mix, but it's very different than restaurants. And it's the first product that we're like really, really, really, really putting all our effort into it, our little meat chamois flavor. And I'm so excited. And our monthly festivals, if you're in L.A., please come to our monthly festivals. There are tons of fun. You should come, Tori.

Put your botas on and let's dance some banda. I love it. I'm supposed to be in L.A. at the end of February. So I'm definitely going to visit the restaurant. And we'd love to meet you. And, yeah, that would be great. Thank you so much for being here. No, thanks for having me.

Thank you for listening to Financial Feminists, produced by Her First 100K. If you love this show and want to keep supporting feminist media, please subscribe or follow us on your preferred podcasting platform or on YouTube. Your support helps us continue to bring this content to you for free. If you're looking for resources, tools, and education, including all of the resources mentioned to this episode, head to herfirst00K.com slash sfod. If you love Financial Feminist and you're listening, so I hope you do, we've got something to take your learning even deeper from the podcast, especially if you've ever felt like

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