One coffee shop has sat on Chickamauga Avenue for three years serving the Rossville community coffee and other sweet snacks.
However, her mother was detained nearly three weeks ago and faces possible deportation, owner Leticia Gomez says she made the tough decision to close Buenos Dias Coffee.
It was just kind of like this kind of like the only option we had of moving that to go, Gomez says.
Arrests documents we obtained say 53-year-old Laura Secundino-Portano was arrested by Georgia State Patrol in Walker County on April 21st for driving without a valid driver’s license and two other traffic violations.
Those documents say authorities later transferred her to ICE custody.
She was the one making sure that everything was in the kitchen that needed to be in the kitchen, go and buy her groceries, stuff like that, Gomez says.
Gomez says she and her siblings initially tried to keep the coffee shop open after their mother’s detention.
But as time passed and uncertainty rose…the family came together to discuss their next steps and decided to close the business and prepare for a move to Mexico.
I guess once we realized that that wasn’t going to be an option of her being released, me and my siblings were like, well, it looks like we’re going to go to Mexico, Gomez tells us.
Long-time customer Sophia Lee says Buenos Dias Coffee brought a comfortable, family-like vibe to Rossville and that the community won’t be the same when the doors are shut.
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Places like this are so significantly important, places where people can gather and enjoy great food and great coffee, and it’s a real blow to the community for it to go away, Lee says.
