Story by Kai Turik
Video by Daniel Masterson
As winter transitioned into spring in 2019, North Carolina native Erica Ramazzini traveled to Guatemala with her husband, Christian. He was born and raised around the Guatemala City area, and the pair made visiting Guatemala an annual tradition. This trip, they decided to visit the indigenous Mayan community of Aguacatán for the first time.
While shopping in a local pharmacy, Erica was approached by the owner.
“(They) said…‘you’re not from here,’” Erica said, tucking her dirty blonde hair behind her ear with a laugh. “And I said, ‘No, no, I’m from the United States.’ And they said, ‘Oh, Morganton?’”
As the Ramazzinis continued to explore the dusty dirt roads of the Aguacatán central market, certain pieces for sale really caught their attention.
“They even have these bags, these souvenirs that have Morganton embroidered on them,” Erica said. “That’s how big the connection is between that specific town and this specific town.”
Morganton is a small town about 60 miles east of Asheville. Just as the peaks of mountains start to become visible on I-40, one veer off the highway will land you there. It’s best known for its picturesque state parks, misty mountain town energy and the singular road for shops, nightlife and restaurants known as Main Street.
There are a few similarities in the climate and landscape of Morganton and Aguacatán. Morganton’s location in the Catawba River valley in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains resemble peaks such as Cerro Bichabal in Aguacatán, and both are situated near natural rivers and springs.
What most visitors don’t know about Morganton is its prominent connection to Guatemala. Out of Morganton’s population of more than 17,000, about 20% are of Guatemalan heritage – many of whom migrated from the Aguacatán area.
“When we moved here: our neighbors were Guatemalan,” Erica said. “There’s Guatemalan food; (Christian) can speak Spanish every day. He got right in with the soccer crew playing on the soccer fields around here. We found out real quickly about this amazing Guatemalan population. And for us that was very, very meaningful.”
The couple owns and operates a business that has become a core feature of the Burke County community. They call it Little Guatemala.
Little Guatemala is a restaurant and coffee shop sitting just off Main Street that offers traditional Guatemalan cuisine, coffee roasted from beans directly imported from Guatemala, indoor and outdoor soccer spaces, and traditional crafts made by community members. The Ramazzinis founded Little Guatemala in 2018, offering Guatemalan roasted coffee out of a horse trailer that Christian had renovated into a mobile coffee cart. They opened the doors to their 8,000-square-foot property in 2021.
“You want to talk about a success story – it has been so amazing to watch Christian and Erica grow their business and their family here,” said Tonia Stephenson, president and CEO of the Burke County Chamber of Commerce. “(Little Guatemala) has immensely increased the visibility for the part of town it is in, and it has started a revitalization boom for that area that has really been wonderful to watch and see.”
At first glance, Christian and Erica Ramazzini seem an unlikely pairing. Christian grew up in Guatemala, moving back and forth from the capital, Guatemala City, and the rural countryside at different points in his life. He met Erica when she was sent to Guatemala for mission work in 2007.
Two years later, they exchanged vows in Guatemala and moved to Morganton because Erica’s parents had lived there when she was in college. They were unaware that there was a Guatemalan community in Morganton when they decided to move.
“We just came here thinking that she was gonna go to medical school, and little did we know that there were so many Guatemalans living here,” Christian said. “Being a Guatemalan myself, I didn’t expect that, but I felt right back at home.”
When they arrived in Morganton, there were few central gathering spaces for the Guatemalan community. Christian saw the need for a community space after talking with his neighbors and teammates on the local soccer team.
“They never could find a place to do sports or never could find a place where they felt comfortable or safe,” Christian said. “And they were having issues with mental health, like being afraid of not being documented.”
Christian has always been a dreamer. When he moved back to Guatemala City as an adult, he worked at various restaurants and coffee shops, gaining business experience and crafting his own ideas for entrepreneurship. He just needed the space to bring his ideas to life.
“Even when we were dating, he was always just talking about ideas to start businesses and do things like that,” Erica said. “It’s just part of how he works, how he is.”
Achieving such an ambitious dream didn’t come without its challenges, though. The building that now houses Little Guatemala was once a feed and seed business, and an incredible amount of work was required to transform the space.
“We worked on it for three years,” Erica said. “We got it for a really good deal because it was totally run down by the time we got it— holes through the ceiling, holes through the floors. And since we were changing the purpose of it to do a restaurant, you have to make it up to code. And we needed to change tons of stuff.”
Since opening its doors in 2021, Little Guatemala has served as a pinnacle for the Guatemalan community in Morganton, but that doesn’t erase the challenges that come with immigration. In the 1980s and 90s, civil war forced many Guatemalans to migrate. While they originally sought shelter in Florida, the Case Farms Chicken Plant in Morganton heard about Guatemalan migrants and transported them to North Carolina for their hard work after struggling to retain the existing workforce, Erica said.
“It’s not easy to be here… is a huge change,” Rosa Velasquez, a Guatemalan Morganton community member, said. “In our country it is so different, but…the community now it’s growing. When I moved here there was not a lot of Guatemala stores, but now a lot of families, they have their own business and they sell Guatemala dressings, blouses, shirts and shoes. They’re growing so fast.”
Within the past few years, the Ramazinnis said they’ve seen a spike in Guatemalan businesses and vendors popping up in Morganton, which was part of their hope in opening the restaurant.
“Maybe they felt like they couldn’t (open a business) over here and when they saw Little Guatemala taking place, now more businesses are starting to pop up,” Christian said. “And they come to us asking those questions like – ‘Where do I get a tax ID?’ or ‘How do I get a permit for the health department?’ And to me, that’s what I want our business to be all about; to extend help to them.”
The community-building dream of Little Guatemala physically manifested on a grand scale in September of this year through GuateFest, an event celebrating Guatemalan Independence Day. The two-day celebration featured dancers and music performers that flew in from Guatemala, as well as craft and food venders from across the state. The outdoor soccer field behind the restaurant was packed full of Guatemalans creating community and celebrating their culture with one another.
“That’s the whole idea that we want to do here; showcase Guatemalan culture, build bridges, have Guatemalans love their culture, pass it to their kids…and so much of that was happening at GuateFest,” Erica said.
“I was just so thankful that, here are all these local Guatemalans [and] Guatemalans from Guatemala, and it’s right here in this town– we’re just all celebrating together. There were several moments that I was looking around me and thinking, ‘I’m just so thankful for this.’
