Rosa Santamaria and family

Rosa Santamaria has always been an amazing cook. Nervous to start her own business, Rosa’s husband and family encouraged her to make the leap and start Paleteria Oasis in 2017.

“We would all encourage her,” Her oldest daughter, Adrianna Chavez remembered. “She would make everything at home and we would taste it. Everybody would tell her that her food was really good. She needed that push.”

Originally wanting to open a taqueria, Santamaria decided to open a paleteria since it would be a little less time consuming. She spent time in Mexico learning how to make everything, including the ice cream, paletas (ice pops), and syrups for snow cones, limonadas and chamangos (mango smoothie) homemade.

“We don’t use any powders or artificial flavors,” Chavez said. “Everything is fresh fresh. The ice creams and popsicles are made from scratch here so we can sell them at a lower cost.”

Paleteria Oasis on New York Avenue, has now expanded their menu to include tortas, ceviche and homemade michelada mix. And after their first year in business, they moved out of their original shop a few doors down, into their bigger storefront.

“We are originally from Houston. We lived in Grand Prairie for a little and then moved to Arlington,” Chavez translated. “We would always pass by here on our way to church, and my mom saw this community was very active and Hispanic oriented, so we wanted to open our shop here.”

Paleteria Oasis is open seven days a week from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Learn more about Paleteria Oasis at their store at 2202 New York Ave # 916. Or you can visit the One Start Development Center, on the second floor at City Hall from November 27 – December 1, 2023, during Small Business Promotion week. The City’s Planning and Development Service Department is also hosting Customer Appreciation Week during the same time and will be providing refreshments and bottled water for the customers visiting the Small Business Promotion table.

The City of Arlington is highlighting minority-owned and/or women-owned small businesses throughout 2023. Canales Furniture, another Small Business of Arlington, who has grown substantially in the last few years, wants to give back to the community and is sponsoring this program with the Planning & Development Services Department for the year 2023. In their new headquarters at 102 E. I-20 Highway, they have dedicated a training room for their growing community, including free English-speaking classes, citizenship classes, and teaching small businesses on how to utilize social media as a marketing tool.