Lázaro Francisco Centeno Sequeira has been working in the world of bread and pastry for about fifteen years, he says with pride. His career has taken him to Nicaragua, Panama and the United States, where he currently resides. He started a business a month ago in Little Havana, Miami, and he is convinced that he will conquer the entire country with his traditional Nica bread.
Centeno, 46, from El Viejo in Chinandega province, says there is no better definition of Nicaragua than traditional bread. “Pico has always been our standard, anything baked, cheesecakes, pineapple cakes,” he says in an interview with La Prensa.
Panica from Little Havana
In 2023, he immigrated to the United States in search of better opportunities. He recently arrived and settled in Oklahoma, where he worked for three months in a pastry factory. There, he realized that many companies rent spaces to manufacture, bake or cook their products; and then sell them. He explains, “Here, it is difficult to rent a place, and it is very difficult to set up for someone who has just arrived and started working, in addition to the financial cost, the licenses and everything that takes time and is delayed.”
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Centeno embraced the idea and moved to Little Havana, Miami, to live with her daughter Miriam Centeno and start Raices Bakery. He says he strives to make sure his products are 90 percent the same as traditional Nicaraguan products. “Miami is perfect because there’s a lot of Nicaraguan produce,” he says. Her daughter is dedicated to baking, decorating, the accounting part of the business and social media.
Raíces Bakery offers boxes that contain pineapple cakes, cheesecakes, oven baked goods, or pineapple truffles. They have two packages, one with 10 units for $22 and one with 16 units for $30. The customer can choose what they want in the box.
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Centeno rents a space three days a week and prepares his menu, as he works on orders in advance. “Our idea and our main concern is not only to conquer Nicaraguans, but also the millions and millions of people who are here from all over the world and we hope that it will happen, just as Nicaraguans appreciate (our bread), because all these millions of people come here from all over the world.” “People of different nationalities can appreciate our product,” says Centeno, who reveals that they have already sent their products to more than 25 states, but they hope to conquer the entire country.
Centeno is fully dedicated to his work, processing business licenses and says he also has a delivery and shipping service to other states. “We are looking forward and hoping to open our first physical store as soon as possible and we are dreaming, we are dreaming big, this country is huge. People are recommending us and we are hoping to reach more people, who are not going to say tomorrow after opening our first store here in Miami, we can open in another state and thus grow big.”
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Nicaraguan bread in Nicaragua, Panama and the United States
Before arriving in the United States, Centeno had already been selling bread in Nicaragua and Panama. He learned by experience and in 2009 was able to establish Mi Pastelito Bakery in Chinandega. In 2014, he obtained a baking technician diploma, which allowed him to certify his knowledge and experience.
Centeno says he learned the bakery trade experimentally in 2009, when he returned to Nicaragua. He managed to create the Mi Pastelito bakery in Chinandega, and in 2014 he was able to obtain a baking technician diploma, which allowed him to demonstrate his knowledge and experience.
Read also: “In this country I have worked in everything,” the Nicaraguan who managed to set up his own store in Cincinnati
The Nicaraguan decided to return to Panama City, where he lived between 2003 and 2005, and earned a degree in Arabic bread making and also a diploma in safety and hygiene. He says he noticed there were many Nicaraguans and no bakeries, so he started over and sold the typical Nica flavor.
His recipes not only reached the taste of Nicaraguans, but also conquered Panamanians, Venezuelans and Colombians.
“Social media evangelist. Student. Reader. Troublemaker. Typical introvert.”
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