Saveur – July 2019

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making a living. A few brave souls headed north seeking jobs and

affordable housing, and landed in New York City. But rising rents

and the restaurant downturn in the wake of the September 11

terrorist attacks forced them to look elsewhere—and they set-

tled in Philadelphia. Ever since, hundreds more have followed

their family and friends, working and sending money back home

to provide for those left behind. Today, it’s estimated that a third

of Ozolco’s former population, more than 1,000 people, currently

reside in South Philly, the majority undocumented.

City life had definite appeal. “I had work, I made money, I

could help my family, I was building a house [in Ozolco],” Leo

says. “But at the same time, you work every day. And I missed

a lot of things.” These included his hometown’s festivals and

the annual planting of the maiz. After two years, he decided

to return, and f lew home to a big meal of his family’s beloved

mole de olla.

The rest of Milli’s owners returned in waves, connecting and

planning as opportunities arose, and growing various projects in

fits and starts. Leo and his co-founders each speak of their time

in America as something both in the past and still alive. They

all have family and friends there; cellphones keep them con-

nected. There’s a biweekly courier service that leaves Ozolco on

Clockwise from top

left: Ricardo Peréz

preps food in the

Milli kitchen; the

iconic Iglesia de

Nuestra Señora de las

Remedios sits atop

the Tlachihualtepetl

pyramid; boiling

nopales at Milli.

in his early 20s had never so much as left
his hometown, made three attempts at
walking through the deserts of northern
Mexico before he made it into the U.S.
He eventually landed in Philadelphia
too, where he stayed with family for two
years, working where he could as a dish-
washer, cook, and boat refurbisher.
While it may seem an unlikely desti-
nation, the journey to Philadelphia is a
well-worn trail from Ozolco, a poor agri-
cultural town in the state of Puebla, nes-
tled on the slopes of two volcanoes about
two and a half hours from Mexico City.
In the 1980s, Puebla’s economy was par-
ticularly dire, with few opportunities for