LAKE ELSINORE, CA - The start of the year is a time of reflection as well as resolution. Of goals becoming accomplishments, paving the way for an even brighter horizon.

As 2025 wound down, Dr. Oscar Guzman, Vice President of Marketing and Sales for Progressive Produce, took the time to tell me of how he has been watching a dream come to life.

It’s easy to forget among big business names today that even the most far-reaching banners were each once a mom-and-pop shop, cutting the ribbon on a dream come true. Now, after helping such chains gain and navigate success, Cesar Guerrero is doing just that: opening the doors to his own waking dream.

“For years, Cesar dreamed of working for himself—but he hesitated to take the leap,” Oscar tells me of his friend, who ventured into opening his own grocery market early last year.

Cesar carried with him 23 years in retail between Albertsons and Fiesta Mart’s El Super, procuring everything from apples, pears, and citrus to onions, potatoes, and tropicals. He’d helped expand new business by focusing on customers, distributors, supplier needs, and new marketing opportunities, and overseen negotiation of contract pricing to ensure value, quality, availability, and food safety.

But while these were highly valuable credits to his profession, Cesar shared the portfolio he’d spent a career building overqualified him for many positions he pursued, despite promising interviews and opportunities.

“After a long career at Albertsons, where he rose from produce manager to buyer, Cesar learned what it takes to make a store thrive and truly understand customers. His career later took him to a Southern California Hispanic grocery chain, where he discovered the deeper value of community—buying fresh produce for neighborhoods much like the one he grew up in,” Oscar reflects.

In speaking with Oscar, I can’t help but think that fate was pushing Cesar to take the chance he’d been hesitating on for so long.

“Frustrated but determined, Cesar decided to stop waiting for the right opportunity and create it himself,” Oscar shares proudly.

Doing so meant Cesar was doing more than entrepreneuring: he was taking up his place in a legacy laid down by his grandfather, Antonio Escalera, back in Zacatecas, Mexico. He too owned a small neighborhood market, La Puerta del Sol, meaning “The Door of the Sun.”

“It was named for the morning light that streamed through its doorway. Carrying that legacy forward was the perfect way to connect Cesar’s family history with his new venture,” Oscar observes, explaining that this chapter too is a family affair. “His cousins, brothers Alex and Christian, are his partners and biggest supporters. Alex, the older brother, comes from a construction background and now works for the City of Moreno Valley in graffiti removal. Christian, the youngest, recently left his job as a forklift operator at FedEx. Together, they bring trust, hard work, and a shared determination to succeed.”

Deepening those roots initially planted by buying fresh produce for neighborhoods that reminded him so much of his own childhood, Cesar and his family were incredibly intentional about La Puerta del Sol’s flagship location in Lake Elsinore, California. Finding home in an underserved neighborhood where the nearest full-service grocery stores are four or five miles away in either direction, Oscar paints for me a picture of home away from home, where produce clerks and deli operators know you by name.

“The location was no accident. When Cesar moved here in 2020, he noticed the local convenience stores lacked fresh produce or stocked only a limited, poor-quality selection. He saw an opportunity to change that by bringing fresh, high-quality fruits and vegetables to a community that had long gone without them.”

And it is working! As one shopper reflected, the store is small but mighty, with praises across the internet for its friendly staff, good quality produce and meat, and cleanliness showcasing the shop as a rising beacon of fresh in the community.

So, as you lay out plans for a new year and all its possibilities, think on the man who followed his fresh produce path to realizing a longtime dream: Opening his own doorway to the sun.

And next time you’re in the Lake Elsinore area, stop by La Puerta del Sol, pick up fresh ingredients for your holiday table and gatherings by the lake, and say hello to our friend Cesar.