The drop was precipitous. By late April things reached “a point where we were like, if we don’t get more customers or cash, we’re going to close on Monday,” she recalls.

A federal loan arrived in early May 2020, providing enough money for eight weeks of payroll, she says. During the months that followed, additional loans and grants—and Yuca’s ability to adapt to pandemic restrictions—kept the business alive, though the stress remained.

“We always said, we’ll figure out how to pay that loan back later,” Herrera says. “It was, just stay alive. Just stay alive.”