Check Out Angelica Urrego’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Angelica Urrego. Them and their team share their story with us below:

Angelica Urrego is the creator of ArepaBabe, a pop-up business created in September 2020 while visiting her friends in San Diego, CA, but launched in December 2020. This pop-up brings Colombian street foods to the hungry and curious bellies of Phoenix, Arizona. Angelica is driven by her mission to create a space for a cultural experience, food, and fun centered on the traditional flavors of Colombia. In doing so, ArepaBabe is the main ambassador of Colombian Sabrosura in the Southwest desert.

Angelica is a native of Bogotá. This concrete jungle nestled in a valley of the Andean mountain range in Colombia inspires her. Angelica’s family raised her to value the spices, flavors, and culture that represents tradition (especially the street foods). Yes, grew up eating a lot of street foods. But the journey to creating ArepaBabe is one of introspection, healing, and reconnection. After some personal situations she was facing, the urge to seek help to reconnect with her roots was the reason to start this journey in the kitchen.

Angelica realized she had wounds that hadn’t healed, but also she felt her identity was weakened by the cultural shock of being an immigrant and trying to adapt herself to the American culture. A local healer -Kitchen Curandera- recommended she reconnect to her roots through cooking. She gave it a try. Chopping, mixing spices, curating recipes, and making her favorite Colombian foods: arepas. Angelica found a place of authenticity in the kitchen.

The taste of this food made with tradition and intention gave her strength and a sense of identity she had lost as an immigrant trying to adapt to the US. In this space, Angelica perfected the arepa – made from pure ground corn and a combination of cheeses- that is now the staple of her business. In Phoenix, Angelica is known among her friends as a giver, often hosting gatherings where she shared traditional foods of Colombia. Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic put an end to those gatherings.

In the spring of 2020, Angelica found herself stranded for three months in Bogotá, unable to return to the US when Colombia’s government closed down its international borders. What was supposed to be a quick birthday trip ended up becoming a three-month internship at her mom’s, Rocio, kitchen. At that time, Angelica honed in on her mother’s cooking techniques, like the magic caldo (broth) and traditional stews. In the fall, ArepaBabe was launched.

The first pop-ups were held at Stoop Kid inside of The Churchill in Downtown. Where someone found out that there were arepas from Bogota in Downtown Phoenix and wrote about it and also made a video about it. The inception of ArepaBabe has been received enthusiastically by the Phoenix community. The end of 2020 was fantastic, a lot of work was put into these pop-ups, a lot of new knowledge, experiences, people, etc. It was a great year for ArepaBabe. 2021.

In January after being unemployed for months, Angelica found a job with a fantastic family as a nanny. Angelica always wanted to work with children as a teacher, but unfortunately, the income offered was too low to be the support of her family back in Colombia and for herself here in the States. She has been in the children’s world for about 10 years on and off. This opportunity was key so she could fund her own business.

Around this time of the year, the applications for Fuerza Local are open for small and local businesses to be part of their business incubator program and ArepaBabe was selected (last-minute since other businesses dropped out). For six months, this program helps entrepreneurs to grow their businesses. After several months of hard work, savings, and donations, ArepaBabe was finally official and graduated from a Local First organization.

So for a whole year, Angelica was working a full-time job and establishing her business all by herself with the help of her closest friends.
In the fourth quarter of 2021, the audience was so excited to receive now officially ArepaBabe LLC so her first official pop-up as a licensed LLC was helped at Bodega in Grand ave in collaboration with Caffio Espresso they did a successful brunch. Then after that ArepaBabe LLC started at the Downtown Phoenix Farmer’s Market on Saturdays and it has been her home for the last 6 months.

By the end of the year, the enthusiastic and busy energy of December showed Angelica the opportunity to work at ArepaBabe full time leaving her job as a nanny. 2022. In January of this year, ArepaBabe was welcomed to join the Uptown Farmer’s Market community for Wednesdays. This market has also received very enthusiastically the Colombian Sabrosura.

The food pop-up culture has been growing so much, and people are craving and craving more culinary experiences and that’s why ArepaBabe LLC is working every week to rotate a menu that will satisfy the hungry community!! To keep up with the weekly updates follow Angelica on her social media @arepababe some entertainment will be found there between advocating for the community, good music, live videos, and many other serious and silly content.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle-free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
Building a business from scratch has been a whole new experience. Getting to know an American system to create a business is a whole new chapter in my life. Always being employed by any company was a different world.

Being an entrepreneur means being disciplined, determined, passionate, and willing to be adaptable because each day comes with its own struggles. Transportation though has been the most difficult one, renting a van is not fun or sustainable for any mobile food pop-up business, but it is what’s available for now.

It’s been a rough road, but with many supportive friends helping out.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I am creative. Connecting with people has been always a natural skill. I went to school for advertising and marketing and I never thought I would put all the knowledge and communication experience into my own business.

I never thought I would own my own food business, but creating in the kitchen has been the best way to get to know myself more, heal, channel my energy, and heart feeding others!

If we knew you growing up, how would we have described you?
Being Colombiana means a lot of things. I grew up in Bogota, as I mentioned before. Very family-oriented, my parents were always working so I was always with my grandparents and they were always super generous with the community.

I learned about generosity, being put up, manners, kindness, passion, etc at a very early age thanks to my four grandparents. It’s interesting how my mother’s parents were entrepreneurs and my father’s parents were employed. So it runs in my DNA haha both worlds.

Not gonna lie, I was also very spoiled. Until I moved to the States, I became independent from my family, back in Colombia the culture is just different, my parents were always there, cooking for you, doing things for you, supporting you in general.

Contact Info:

• Email: arepa.babe@gmail.com
• Website: Www.arepababellc.com
• Instagram: Www.Instagram.com/arepababe
• Facebook: Www.facebook.com/arepababe
• Twitter: Www.twitter.com/arepababephx
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/channel/UCOFEgvgSvnFFZMxjc9xeUnA

Image Credits
Nancy Thomas