Florería Yare
Small Business Owner, Big Dreamer
Photo by Carina Lofrgren
Guillermina Figueroa Carrillo chose to open Florería Yare on Lake Street to be a part of the vibrant Latino-owned businesses in the area. Guillermina has been a tenant of Lake Plaza for over 12 years. Lake Plaza, also known as Plaza Mexico, is a cultural shopping mall that hosts a myriad of small businesses from florists to restaurants.
Florería Yare specializes in floral arrangements for holidays, weddings, as well as everyday arrangements as a gift or for your home. Guillermina even offers arrangements with fruit and decorations on vehicles! To complete the service for special occasions, Florería Yare has baptism outfits and accessories.
Sitting just 4 blocks away from the future I-35W and Lake Street Transit Station, Plaza Mexico has been hugely impacted by the construction that began on Lake Street in 2018. Guillermina remains optimistic through the construction by looking forward to the end result in Fall 2021, “[Lake Street is a] good place to spend your day and will be a very beautiful street when all the construction is done”.
In March, Guillermina joined the millions of small businesses around the world who decided to close in prevention and preparation for the spread of Covid-19. While Florería Yare was still closed due to Covid-19, the civil uprising left Plaza Mexico broken into and vandalized. The entire mall was forced to close. With the help of a grant from the Lake Street Council’s We Love Lake Street fund, Florería Yare was able to reopen in June but business is still slow for the entire mall. To the over 70,000 donors of the We Love Lake Street fund, Guillermina says, “Please continue to support us. Thank you for all you do for small business and Latino families.”
Despite these major setbacks for a small business owner, Guillermina stays positive and plans for the future of Florería Yare, “My dream is to build a website so I can sell my stuff online too… We are small businesses but we are big dreamers in order to support our families.”
“We are small businesses but we are big dreamers in order to support our families.”
Guillermina Figueroa Carrillo, Florería Yare owner