Cuban entrepreneur in Spain: "When things are at their worst, that's when the goal is closest"

To eat at Bar Willy, in La Torre de la Horadada (Alicante, Spain), you have to make a reservation. It's always full, even when the season is slow in this coastal area, which gets filled with European tourists in the summer. The owner is Cuban, from Playa (La Habana). His name is Alejandro Ramírez Mustelier, and in Cuba, he didn't have his own business, although he considers going out to sell rum after his workday at a state-run company as a form of entrepreneurship.

Despite the fierce competition in the gastronomy sector in Spain, Alejandro Ramírez and his wife, Elenita, have managed to hook the residents of La Torre de La Horadada on tamales, ropa vieja, yuca frita, tostones, and, above all, the Cuban sandwich. The business has been open for 16 years, but the beginnings were not easy. In fact, Ramírez confesses that after running the bar for two years, he thought about selling it, but he persevered and patience and effort have paid off. "When things are at their worst, that's when the goal is closest," he pointed out.

Currently, Alejandro Ramírez, in addition to Bar Willy in La Torre, has a cocktail bar (La Bodeguita) in Los Alcázares (Murcia), a nearby town, and is starting a new plumbing business that allows saving up to 30% of water in the bills of large consumers. And a third of the bill is noticeable, in a region (the Spanish Levante) hit by drought, where many times more is paid for the water bill than for electricity.

Alejandro Ramírez left Cuba married to an Italian girl, whose family was closely linked to gastronomy. It was she who gave him the impetus to start the business. That's why they moved from Italy to Madrid and from Madrid to La Torre de La Horadada. In Madrid, Ale, as friends affectionately call him, dedicated himself to distributing advertising. And that agility he achieved in distributing flyers, he used in La Torre to advertise Cuban parties that he organized at Bar Willy with "free food" and charging only for drinks.

It was hard for people to get used to the idea that the traditional Bar Willy would gradually become a Cuban food bar that only opens eight months a year. And now, when closing time comes, many neighbors in the area order tamales to freeze them.

Alejandro Ramirez recommends to those who want to start a business to find a good location and dedicate a lot of time and effort. In his case, he and his wife are in the kitchen and do not let anyone meddle, because the kitchen, he explains, is more than ingredients: "It is heart."

Now, they have also bought a house in Cancun to rent out. The business continues to grow.