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Tradition of Mexican food started out in a local bar

By ELVIRA CROCKER
Special to the Traveler

When the culinary history of Arkansas City is written, it should include the name of Lucy Mora under the heading of "Mexican Food."

It was Mora, now a resident at Presbyterian Manor in Arkansas City, whose recipes for tacos, enchiladas, tostadas, refried bean, rice and salsa provided the staples for what probably was the first generation of the city's Mexican food aficionados in the 1960s before franchise restaurants.

At 86, the slightly built woman is battling Parkinson's but has eyes that twinkle when you mention the Green Door. It was a bar, owned by Wes Robinson, who offered her the setting for what rapidly became a one-room food delight. She started simply with a few dozen tacos sold over the bar initially.

"I didn't know how many to make, because I didn't know how popular they'd be," she said.

They became a hit, and, as the clientele grew, Robinson offered a room adjacent to the bar for her to stretch the menu into a bigger operation.

At her side was her husband Edward, who worked for the Rodeo meat packing plant and then came home after his shift to help prepare the food. Her sister, Josephine (Rodriguez) also of Arkansas City, "was by my side through the whole thing. I made the tacos and she made the enchiladas," she recalls.

The food was carried into the bar from home.

So from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday, Mexican food was available at the Green Door. What surprised her was that patrons would come in for the food and take their place in the lines that frequently formed because of the size of the room.

It was about the size of a living room with maybe 10 tables that seated four. She figured that people wouldn't wait long for the food. They surprised her and waited for their fix of Mexican food - no matter how long it took.

Her clientele wasn't just local. They came from the surrounding areas and from as far north as Wichita and as far south as Ponca City and Oklahoma City - sometimes further. "Of course," she points out, "we were the only ones doing Mexican food in Ark City at the time."

Once, while visiting in California, she ran into some people who asked where she was from. When she said Arkansas City, they smiled and said they'd heard of this great Mexican food there. It was the Green Door and her food they were talking about - it was a real boost to her ego.

It's clear that there were two very important ingredients to her success - a strong work ethic and the help of various family members who worked in a variety of capacities over the years.

Since Mora came from a family of nine children and all of them grew up in Arkansas City, there were plenty of family members to call on.

She was born to a couple who came to Arkansas City from Mexico to work on the railroad. They were from Leon, Guanajuato, where Mora was born.

Her parents wanted her to be born in their home city and country.

As a result, she later had to become a U.S. citizen. Mora lost her husband in l993. She also lost a son, Thomas. Her surviving son, Michael, lives in Ark City.

She now has 10 grandchildren and 13 great grandchildren. A visit to her Manor health center residence provides proof of the importance of her family. A number of pictures of them line her living area.

As much joy as she got out of her food she says she wouldn't consider doing that business again. After eight years, she was ready to quit.

The reason? It was just too labor intensive and she was getting ulcers. It was hard work when you consider that "everything was made from scratch" - from the tortillas to everything else that went into or on them, she explains. Those who remember her food tend to salivate when talking about it.

These days she isn't eating a lot of Mexican food at the Manor, but when she gets a hankering for it, she wangles her son, Michael Mora and his wife Cathy, into getting a carryout from La Familia Green Door.

It's a full scale restaurant now owned by a nephew, Raymond Ramirez. Another Mora nephew, Raymond's brother, Charlie Ramirez, runs a second La Familia Green Door in Winfield.

"They have their own recipes," she says, and a more expanded menu then she ever offered.

Her own recipes live on, however, through Michael and Cathy Mora and other family members. Mora says Cathy cooks more like she did, to which Cathy responds: "I had a great teacher."

Above: Michael Mora, left, is helping to continue the tradition his mother, Lucy Mora, started.