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Mariana Andrade, a native of Ecuador, said leaving her home country and moving to America was the right decision.
"It gave me the opportunity to do something I always wanted to do, and I couldn't do it in my own country," she said of her work.
Andrade remembers visiting family in America and returning to Quito with goods to sell that would supplement her income as a government employee.
But it was difficult to live as a divorced woman in Quito, which was conservative at the time, Andrade said. Despite her good life financially in Quito, she decided to sell everything she owned and move to the United States. She also left behind a strained relationship with her ex-husband.
She arrived in Stamford 30 years ago and began working in the accounting department at a women's clothing company in Norwalk. Insulted by what she termed a "pitiful" pay raise, she left the company.
"That was a very scary decision, but I had to do it," Andrade said.
She had planned to study for an MBA but decided to use that money to go into business for herself and became co-owner of Maria's Liquors at 220 Stillwater Ave. She also sold clothing and souvenirs from the business until one of her salesmen told her to stop.
"He said, 'You can't do that in this country.' So I opened this business," Andrade said with a smile, sitting behind the counter at Mariana's Clothing Store, also 220 Stillwater Ave.
Dresses for young girls hang in the store as two employees handle transactions at the Western Union counter in the store. That part of her business arose from the fact she was helping her employees send money back to their home countries and she decided to expand into that business.
She also had a pizza restaurant across the street from here current location but she closed it on the insistence of her late son Carlos who said he would work with her but only on the condition that she sell the pizza place.
"We liked to be together on Sunday, and I was always working at the restaurant," Andrade said, who also has two daughters, Maria Augusta and Maria Fernanda. "So he told me he would work with me but I had to sell it."
Andrade said leaving Ecuador was the best decision for her.
"I am very happy doing what I do. I never regretted it for one minute," she said.
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