His grocery store is a staple on Las Vegas' Historic Westside, and his youth baseball league aims to foster police-community relations.

Mario Berlanga of Mario's Westside Market is our guest this week on Nevada Week In Person.

♪♪♪ Support for Nevada Week In Person is provided by Senator William H. Hernstadt.

Welcome to Nevada Week In Person.

I'm Amber Renee Dixon joining you from Mario's Westside Market on Las Vegas' Historic Westside.

A part of this community since 1997, its Latino co-owner and namesake has worked hard to earn the business of the residents in this historically black neighborhood.

Mario Berlanga, thank you for joining Nevada Week In Person.

-Thank you.

-Okay.

So 1997 is when your original location opened, but we are in your brand new location which opened in October amid a lot of fanfare with a ton of community support, local leaders, state leaders, but that amount of support hasn't always been here.

And back to 1997, I understand that when you were opening, there were some people who planned to picket.

Why was that?

(Mario Berlanga) Well, Jimmy's-- the store before we had it was called Jimmy's Westside Market.

And he, you know, it was it was a market that, you know, Jimmy was a great guy.

And he served the community well, and that store, our store is a place where you can find products that people in this community need.

You can have any type of store, but if you don't have the products that the people in this community use, it's worthless.

It's like having no store.

So Jimmy Banks started that.

He was a great businessman.

And when he retired, you know, me and Sam Johnson bought it.

And it's been great ever since.

And I think the community thought we were going to change it from what they were used to.

And why change a good thing, you know?

He had started off, he started great thing, and we just added on to it and just made it better.

-How did you go about earning this community's trust?

-Well, I'm really a believer in giving back to the community in which you do business in.

We have a back-to-school, you know, we give out backpacks.

We have a "Christmas in the 106," where this year, we probably had close to 1,000 kids out here that we gave toys to.

Then we started, in 2016 I started the Bolden Little League with Captain Plummer over from the Bolden Area Command.

And he came by and said, Hey, what can we do to improve the relations in the community?

And I said, Well, let's start a baseball program.

They haven't had it over here in several years.

So we started it.

I mean, the joy on these kids' face when Opening Day and as they're playing the games is worth every minute of my time.

-And as you told me off camera, it doesn't cost the kids a dime.

-It doesn't cost the kids a dime to play.

This year we're going to probably have 277 players, and not one of them has to pay a penny.

Through community support, you know, it's not just myself.

Anthem Blue Cross is a big supporter of Bolden Little League.

And then the, of course, the Police Department-- -And the Police Foundation.

-Yeah, the Police Foundation.

They support us.

But the biggest part of it is, in any organization, mine included, if the person at the top does not validate it or go with it, it doesn't allow, like myself, doesn't allow my employees to have time to go over and coach some of these kids.

And same thing with the Police Department.

If the Sheriff wasn't 100% behind us, he wouldn't allow-- he's the one that makes the time for these officers to pass it on down the chain of command-- -To coach.

- --to let officers have time to go and be part of the community.

I think that speaks a lot on our Sheriff, that he-- you know, Sheriff McMahill was a captain over here at Bolden.

And he was always a big supporter of this neighborhood.

-And here at the opening.

-And here at the-- he came to the opening.

And on our opening day, he was there, threw out the first pitch.

And so, you know, it takes our community leaders to be part of it also, not just one organization.

Commissioner McCurdy, Councilman Crear-- -Representative Steven Horsford, who-- - --Congressman Horsford.

-Yes.

-That's all behind us and pushes, and it opens some gates, because sometimes them gates are locked.

And it takes somebody in that political power to say, hey, let's see what we can do to help to get this going.

Matter of fact, they turned us down for when we first applied for the ARPA grant.

They turned us down.

They said it's not for profit businesses.

So they said no.

We go back, and Commissioner McCurdy said, Wait a minute, we're in a food desert area.

This area needs this.

And, of course, with Congressman Horsford's help and Cedric Crear's help, they said reapply.

And we reapplied, and they gave it to us.

-Let's talk about the food desert aspect, which means you're in an area where there is a lack of access to nutritious and affordable food.

At what point in your life did you become aware of that issue in this community in which you grew up in?

-Well, when we bought the store, they told us, You'll never sell produce over here.

And I'm like, no, that can't be right.

And we sold the staples.

So then we went, when we came to this new location, we went from, say, 16 feet of produce to over 60 feet of produce and brought in items that I never-- you know, just everything we brought in, and it sold.

You know, we went from doing 3- or $400 a day in produce to doing over $1,200 a day in produce.

So that tells me we can sell produce over here.

Our customers, this area does want nutritious, healthy foods.

And that just pushes me more.

They tell me I can't do something, I do it.

-Wow!

Tell me about your childhood here, where you grew up in this area and how this area impacted the man you've become.

-Well, I was born in Marble Manor, which is a couple streets over from the store.

And then from there, down the street in Casa Rosa, a project that we lived in until junior, until middle school.

So this is my neighborhood also, and I love giving back.

Sam would jump on me sometime, because he told me I go a little too far sometimes.

And he says, You can only do so much.

But that's just telling me to do a little bit more.

-You do the opposite?

-Right.

-And Sam Johnson, by the way, is the co-owner of this store.

-Yes, he's my partner.

He's a very smart man.

I wish, I hope when I finish what I'm doing here, that I'll be half as smart as him in learning how to run a business.

-You're 1 of 11 children.

What was dinner like for you?

-It was, it was tough.

You know, my mom, we were on-- back in the days they gave commodities, which is cheese and flour.

And that's what got us through.

So, you know, I know what the feeling is not to have.

I feel that people don't understand the truly need of someone unless they've been in their shoes.

And I've been there.

I've been where we haven't had nothing to eat.

Where we go to the ice cream truck and everybody say Mario, you're not gonna get nothing?

No, I'm not hungry.

I was hungry.

I just didn't have no money.

And I knew better than to go ask my parents, because they knew that I knew that we didn't have it and not to embarrass them.

So, you know, that's always stuck in my mind.

And that's why I think I do what I do, because I've been there.

I know the feeling.

I know the feeling of wanting and not having.

And someone, it seemed like someone always helped us.

So I gotta just push that forward.

-And I imagine that is the reason behind you doing things like allowing senior citizens who can't afford groceries to get those groceries and maybe pay at a later date.

-We let people in the community come and charge, you know, charge groceries when they didn't have.

And again, Sam would tell me, Yeah, you got to slow down.

The word is getting too big.

But in his heart, he knew what I was going to do.

He knew we were going to keep going.

And that's what got us where we're at.

And that's what got us the love of the community.

It's because we give.

You know, you can be a business someplace and people come every day, you take their money, but at one point you have to give some of it back.

And that's what we do.

We try to be fair.

Of course, we have bills to pay too, but--and Sam reminds me of that all the time--but we also want to make sure that our community is taken care of.

-On a personal level, because you are helping take care of the community, you are also a father of two, as you told me.

But how many people call you dad around here?

-It's got to be a 100.

I mean, I have people come in all the time.

And people will look at me funny because, you know, I'm Hispanic, and you'll have an African American young man come in say dad.

And people will look, and it is what it is.

[laughter] -How do you develop that relationship?

I mean, you have actually welcomed some kids into your home and helped raise them, correct?

-Correct, yes.

You know, it's-- again, it goes back to knowing not having, and that gives you a little more compassion to want to help people, because you've been there.

-Yeah.

Part of how you have also earned this community's love is the products that you provide, which we spoke about at the beginning.

What are some of the most popular items you have here?

-Well, we have an aisle that has a lot of the Southern stuff that folks from Louisiana and back South use.

And I have people come from all over Las Vegas looking for them products.

I have, you know, come in, and-- because this is where they can find them.

So that's our little niche.

That and if you look at our meat case, it's not the typical meat case you'd find at one of the big-box stores.

I think we have every part of the pig over there that you can think of.

But that's the type of products and that's the type of stuff that the people come here to look for, because that's what they're used to having at home and making their family meal.

-How did you go about learning what people wanted?

-Well, I was like, say, being raised in the projects.

I'd go over to the neighbor's house and eat and, you know, just look at the food that was different from the Hispanic food that my mom would make.

And going over to the next-door neighbor, and I'm eating greens and yams and stuff.

And in the area you're in, you learn to adapt to the products that fits that neighborhood.

And that's what I did.

-Yeah.

Mario Berlanga, you are an asset to this community.

I wanted to read a quote to you from Congressman Horsford.

He said, "When other big grocery chains closed down and moved out, Mario's Westside Market was here.

When other people didn't want to invest in our community, Mario was here."

What does it make you think when you hear things like that?

-You know, it gives you a good feeling that what you're doing, you know, people are paying attention to.

And it just warms me that people see what we're doing.

Because that's what it takes.

It takes other people to see what you're doing, and maybe someone else would do the same thing.

Because that's-- you know, we're all here together, and we need to try to help each other out.

And again, I don't-- everybody knows me because I'm the person out in the front, but it takes more than just myself.

You know, Bill O'Connor and Kathy O'Connor, they're Sam's daughter and son, they do all the behind the stuff that, that I don't like doing.

[laughter] You know, Bill takes on all the financial stuff.

Kathy takes care of all the human resource stuff.

She, you know, she's the one that helped, that actually designed most of this building with the architects and, Let's do this, let's do that.

She'd come to me and Bill and say, Hey, what do you think about this?

So, it took a group of us to where we're at today.

It's not just like-- say I'm the one that's out here on the aisles.

But if you look behind the walls, Kathy and Bill are just as important to this business, and Sam, to make it successful.

-Mario Berlanga of Mario's Westside Market, thank you for joining Nevada Week In Person.

-Thank you.

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