Immigrant is Successful Business Owner

Aldo Monge has lived in Newton for over 12 years. In that time, the Mexican immigrant has opened and owned four businesses. He sounds like many American entrepreneurs, worrying about the state of the economy and bemoaning the massive amounts of paperwork involved in business.

His first business venture, a Hispanic grocery store, opened on Spring Street six years ago. The store’s name is Jake’s, but it’s pronounced “Jackie’s,” since it’s named after Monge’s wife, Jacqueline.

“When we decided to open the store, it was more because it…had been necessary for the community,” he explains. “The Spanish community had been growing fast, and except for a couple of things in the [existing] store, there wasn’t much for them.”

It took Aldo and Jacqueline six months to save up enough money for the rent and capital for the storefront, but they recognized the opportunity when they saw it.

Now, Aldo has also been able to open Salsa, a Mexican restaurant on Spring Street that seats eighty. With the help of partner Jose Orlando Castillo, Aldo realized his long standing dream of owning his own restaurant on November 16, 2008.

“It was very exciting, there were many hopes…Now I ask myself, did I make a mistake? But it’s an opportunity,” Aldo says of Salsa.

Although the partners worry about the ailing economy’s effect on their fledgling business, they are confident they will be successful. Salsa, open seven days a week, offers both Tex-Mex and more traditional Mexican cuisine – from appetizers and entrées to drinks and desserts.

Customers come from not only the Hispanic community but also the Court House, local offices, Sussex County Community College, and the hospital.

Like many immigrants in the area, both Castillo and Aldo worked in restaurants as cooks and waiters before they were able to launch Salsa.

Neither Monge nor Castillo planned to open a business when they first came to America.

“I came to Newton because someone hired me, from when I was in Mexico,” comments Aldo.

He had been working at a small hotel in Mexico, where he had worked his way up from the front desk to manager. He had previously attended a school for hotel and restaurant management, although he didn’t finish – he got married.

Aldo didn’t intend to stay in America, but after a year, he realized life for his family would be better in Newton. It took two years before he was able to save up enough to bring Michelle and Jacqueline over.

Castillo’s story is quite different. The Colombia native owned his own transportation company in Bogota when his friends convinced him to go to America. He didn’t tell his family about his plans; he didn’t want them to worry.

The journey took 23 days.

“Very, very hard,” he says simply of the trip.

Castillo went to Florida first, and then Queens, before moving to Newton 14 years ago. He chose Newton as his final destination for both a change of pace and to be closer to his brother, who had already been living in Newton.

Monge’s other businesses have also been named for his family. Three years ago, he opened a deli near the Weiss in Newton; he called it Michelle’s, after his teenage daughter. After two years, Monge had to close the deli for personal reasons.

For eight months, he also owned Mixel’s, a boutique he named after Michelle and his now four-year old son, Aldo Axel.