Olga García Quintero was a woman ahead of her time and with a privileged mind. She and her husband, José Felipe Díaz, opened the small inn or food house in the Santo Domingo neighborhood, in La Guancha, where they fed with ration cards in which, curiously, gofio was not included. .
There were many people who came from Santa Cruz to try Doña Olga’s dishes, because she was a reference, especially the meat with potatoes and fresh fish, which at that time was low cost and was caught on the beach. neighborhood.
Olga was born in San Juan de la Rambla, in the center of Tabaiba, but she went to live in the neighboring municipality. A few years later the couple moved to a new location, a house they built themselves. In addition to housing, it had a huge room that was used for catering and they added a general store where you could find everything from groceries to clothing, footwear, gasoline and butane were dispensed, and it had the only public telephone.
There people met to talk, with prior notice from their owners. It also functioned as a post office and buses would stop there and leave packages or correspondence that their recipients would later pick up. When the last of their children got married, the couple decided to close the dining room and dedicate themselves exclusively to work in the store.
At 56 years old, Olga was left a widow with everything in charge. Her children were all already married and had started their own families, so she had no choice but to take over the business. And so it was until she was 92 years old, when she died on January 15, 2012. “Until that moment she did the calculations and sums mentally. She would sit with her cane at the sale and supervise everything,” recalls Pilar, one of her granddaughters and current manager of the store, located at number 37 Avenida VIII de Agosto.
There are still many neighbors who continue to call the business Doña Olga, its old name, but new customers already do so by the current one, which is Disa Santo Domingo, because it maintains the pump.
He remembers that there was a law that did not allow gas stations to open on Sundays, but since his grandmother’s business also had a sale, he was allowed to serve. “There were terrible lines from morning to night,” she says.
She and her three sisters went to help their grandmother, especially on weekends, when her employee was off. They were called “the girls who pump gas” and they were the first women to pump gas, a task that at the time was exclusively male. Her grandmother always lived in a man’s world and perhaps that is why she always repeated a phrase: “You have to give yourself respect.” In her case, her character and everything she had achieved were enough. She didn’t need anything else, her work supported her.
In the books, which the family still keeps, he wrote down everything. Like many businesses of the time, it sold on credit and recorded clearly and carefully who owed it, the amount they gave and the date on which each person did so. In 2004 she received recognition from the La Guancha City Council as a businesswoman. She was one of the first to get it.
Pilar is an economist and always worked in management and administration and when Olga died she considered taking over the business together with Jorge, her husband, given that their respective professions allowed them to combine this challenge and continue with their grandmother’s legacy. Her parents and uncles were already retired and her cousins had no intention of doing so, so they decided to “try their luck.”
They have been there for 11 years and have managed, despite the difficulties, for Doña Olga to turn 70 today. And they are going to celebrate, because there are not many small companies with their track record that last so long. Older people continue to come to shop there because it is a meeting point and because they receive personalized treatment that they do not receive in other establishments. The same happens with suppliers. Her grandmother always had the habit of inviting them for coffee when they arrived and Pilar and Jorge continue to maintain it. “Our difference with other stores is the service, the direct relationship with the customer, the familiarity. “Many people come because you treat them with kindness,” says Pilar.
Patricia, Acoremy and Alicia have a lot to do with that. “The staff is the most important value we have, because it is a family business, we all know what we have to do, and if the business works it is because they work, since they are their main image and they have excellent treatment with customers” . Alicia is the oldest, she has been working in the sale for 22 years, 11 of them with her grandmother.
Being a small business, the employees’ vacations and weekends are covered by Pilar and Jorge. “We cannot grow, we are where we are and we have to put numbers, hours and head into it because with the slightest carelessness, the numbers do not close,” she points out.
The effort all this time has been worth it. Not only because they have managed to keep the sale open, but also the philosophy of her grandmother, “that she always was to provide a service to the neighborhood and help it have its activity,” Pilar concludes.
A 70th anniversary with promotions for two weeks
Pilar and Jorge, Doña Olga’s grandchildren, were clear that they wanted to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the store with those who have been with them all this time, neighbors and suppliers. Thus, in addition to the toast that they will make for two weeks, until the 24th, they will celebrate this 70th anniversary with different promotions.