Las Manitas is a progressive, women owned business that serves up tasty Tex-Mex and community involvement. The sisters who have owned the business for 26 years have held fundraisers for many causes including the Sandinistas and Zapatistas. It is a place frequented by politicians and locals of all persuasions. Even our favorite Turd Blossom visited.Unfortunately, since Marriott decided it wanted to place a hotel on top of Las Manitas, Cynthia and Lidia Perez are being forced out. Per NPR, J.W. Marriott was quoted in the Austin American-Statesman as saying, "Why should you hold up a several-hundred-million-dollar investment because of a small little restaurant?" Of course, he has since apologized to them...and I'm sure it was very sincere.
The city tried to intervene by providing them a loan to move elsewhere, but they declined to accept it. The sisters need to come up with $1 million to find a new place. Maybe the city will rally behind them though. However, Austin has been changing for a couple of decades now, so it seems unlikely.
2 comments:
How sad, magda. Is their a place to donate to them?
That I don't know. The only place I found was a website that seemed fairly old. There is however a contact page. The NPR article just made it sound like it was over. I hope not though.
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