From Venezuelan engineer to Miami baker: 78-year-old finds sweet success
Translated from Spanish, summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.
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- Máximo Mendoza, a former civil engineer from Venezuela, rebuilt his life in Miami after fleeing his country's economic collapse.
- At 78, he found success selling cakes, learning the culinary craft from scratch based on his daughter's recipe.
- Mendoza's journey highlights resilience and the ability to forge a new path despite significant life changes.
Máximo Mendoza, a 78-year-old former civil engineer from Venezuela, has found a new calling and success in Miami, Florida, after rebuilding his life from the ground up. Mendoza, who once worked on major projects in his home country, decided to emigrate following the economic collapse in Venezuela.
They took everything from me. I had my company, and they snatched it away. State contracts disappeared.
His career in engineering in Venezuela was long and stable, involving significant projects like Parque Central in Caracas. However, his business and livelihood were drastically impacted after Hugo Chávez was elected president. Mendoza stated, "They took everything from me. I had my company, and they snatched it away. State contracts disappeared." This led him to try agriculture, but that venture was also eventually confiscated by the government.
Facing limited options, Mendoza and his wife moved to Florida in 2018, initially visiting for their granddaughter's First Communion. His daughter urged them not to return to Venezuela due to the ongoing crisis. After settling in Florida and applying for permanent residency, Mendoza struggled to find employment, facing rejections at hospitals and hardware stores. His wife found work in a boutique.
If you have to start again, you start again. If you get stuck in what you lost, you will die thinking about it.
His daughter then suggested he start selling cakes using a recipe she had created over 30 years prior. Despite admitting he previously "burned water," Mendoza learned the pastry trade from scratch under his daughter's guidance. He began selling his cakes at a small market in Key Biscayne in March 2025. Initially, sales were slow, but he gradually built his brand, achieving significant success after rebranding his business to "Max & Crust."
he burned water
DistantNews Editorial
Originally published by La Nación in Spanish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.
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