Gene and Yolanda Camarena

President, La Raza Pizza, Wichita

Board of Directors, Kansas Hispanic Education and Development

Entrepreneurship can involve the whole family, as this joint interview of Gene and Yolanda Camarena shows. Raised in an entrepreneurial family, Yolanda went on to work for the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. Gene followed and a few years later, the Camarenas returned to Wichita where Gene worked for Pizza Hut. Soon, however, Gene left the security of corporate life to strike out as a franchisee, operating Pizza Huts on the plains of Texas and New Mexico. Yolanda remained as a partner and ally, remembering that:

I'm you know, I think when I look back on what we've gone through, I always tell Gene, I think our best days were when we were struggling, we were taking those risks, not knowing whether it was going to be successful or not because it brings out a strength that you didn't realize that you have in yourself. 
Yolanda Camarena

Ever the risk taker, Gene expanded again to operate the first Pizza Huts in Indiana and later, as a franchisee in hotels. Many, including family, say to Gene that "you make it look so easy." He responds with, "you're seeing kind of the results of ten or 15 years worth of work that you're just kind of recognizing that now."