Chinese-Venezuelan Family Sells Arepas in Queens

When customers call TuArepa Pizza Cafe in Forest Hills, Queens, to order pizza, or the recently added Venezuelan dishes, they hear the owner’s Venezuelan-accented Spanish. But when they stop by the eatery, some get “confused,” as co-owner Ysabel Chang puts it, “by my appearance.”

In an article by Eric Jankiewicz in Queens Courier, she describes her multicultural background.

“We don’t look Venezuelan but we are. I consider myself to be Oriental and also Spanish,” Chang said. “So it’s all about the arepas for us.”

Ysabel’s parents come from China while she and her sister Elena – who co-owns the business as does her husband Francisco Duran – were born in Venezuela.

What took their parents from China and Hong Kong to Venezuela? And what eventually brought the Chinese-Venezuelan family to the United States? Visit Queens Courier to find out.
via www.voicesofny.org