Miriam was 11 years old when she and her parents caught the last flight out of Cuba on Oct. 19, 1962, during the height of the Cuban missile crisis, with one suitcase between them.
"Everything was fear-driven, as we boarded our flight from Havana, Russian missiles were in Cuba pointed at Miami."
In Miami, they met her brother who had left Cuba six months earlier.
"We had to start over," she said. "We were refugees."
But they were refugees with marketable skills. It took some time for her father, who had been a lumberjack in Cuba to find work. But her mother, who was a seamstress in the garment industry, found work almost immediately after arriving in the United States.
Life in Miami was different -- fallout shelters, radiation drills, a different language and a new way of life. Miriam was one of only five children in her school who spoke Spanish.
These experiences helped shape Miriam into the person she is today.
Miriam Vigoa didn't foresee making a Spanish olive oil splash in the health food industry when she added spices to her great-grandmother's herbed olive oil recipe and began serving it on menu items at Cafe Latte.
She was already busy running Cypress Lighting -- a business she purchased in 1983 -- investing in and maintaining real estate and helping run Cafe Latte, the coffee shop she opened with partner Kristi Linebaugh in 1995.
Miriam was happy sharing a bit of her heritage with cafe patrons who were requesting the Spanish olive oil -- now known as Canary Island Garlic and Herb Splash.
After doing some research, she began hand-blending herbs and Spanish olive oil into Splash and bottling it in her kitchen -- just in time for Christmas 2002.
The Splash is now bottled in a small cannery in Winter Springs, Florida but is still hand-blended.
Vigoa and Linebaugh decided to hire extra employees to run the cafe on Fridays and to close it Saturday through Monday.
Weekends are now spent hauling a trailer full of Splash throughout Florida -- and often out of state -- attending trade shows and marketing the product.
"Everything was fear-driven, as we boarded our flight from Havana, Russian missiles were in Cuba pointed at Miami."
In Miami, they met her brother who had left Cuba six months earlier.
"We had to start over," she said. "We were refugees."
But they were refugees with marketable skills. It took some time for her father, who had been a lumberjack in Cuba to find work. But her mother, who was a seamstress in the garment industry, found work almost immediately after arriving in the United States.
Life in Miami was different -- fallout shelters, radiation drills, a different language and a new way of life. Miriam was one of only five children in her school who spoke Spanish.
These experiences helped shape Miriam into the person she is today.
Miriam Vigoa didn't foresee making a Spanish olive oil splash in the health food industry when she added spices to her great-grandmother's herbed olive oil recipe and began serving it on menu items at Cafe Latte.
She was already busy running Cypress Lighting -- a business she purchased in 1983 -- investing in and maintaining real estate and helping run Cafe Latte, the coffee shop she opened with partner Kristi Linebaugh in 1995.
Miriam was happy sharing a bit of her heritage with cafe patrons who were requesting the Spanish olive oil -- now known as Canary Island Garlic and Herb Splash.
After doing some research, she began hand-blending herbs and Spanish olive oil into Splash and bottling it in her kitchen -- just in time for Christmas 2002.
The Splash is now bottled in a small cannery in Winter Springs, Florida but is still hand-blended.
Vigoa and Linebaugh decided to hire extra employees to run the cafe on Fridays and to close it Saturday through Monday.
Weekends are now spent hauling a trailer full of Splash throughout Florida -- and often out of state -- attending trade shows and marketing the product.
About the Author:
Using a recipe developed by her great-grandmother over 200 years ago in the Canary Islands as a base, Miriam Vigoa has harmonized the ingredients to create this Spanish olive oil product. For more information about Canary Island Garlic and Herb Splash visit http://oliveoildip.com where you can purchase the product.
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