Meet Cafe Azteca Chef Antonio Guerrero

José Antonio Guerrero Trejo was born in Mexico City in 1955. As a young boy he always enjoyed cooking. He liked to walk to the market with his mom and help pick out the ingredients,  and because there were ten brothers and sisters, everyone had to pitch in to make the food for the whole family.

Chef Antonio and Mary (Patricia Alvarado/WGBH)

In 1983, Antonio moved to Dallas, Texas, with his wife Mary O’Brien Guerrero, where his first son was born. Soon after, the trio traveled across the country to Massachusetts to be closer to Mary’s family. There, they bought a home in Lawrence and they still live there today.

When Antonio first arrived in Massachusetts, he worked many jobs, including dishwashing in a Mexican restaurant. He soon began to dream that he would open his own Mexican restaurant. He notices that the way the food was served in many places did not highlight the quality of true Mexican food. He wanted to offer food that would be true to his culture. Soon Antonio started copying phone numbers off of every sign he found where he thought a restaurant could be opened and now Lawrence can boast about Cafe Azteca.

Besides his obsession to open a restaurant, Antonio trained and ran in the Boston Marathon. That's how he finally found Cafe Azteca's location at 180 Common St. People who visit Cafe Azteca say they are very happy with the quality. Often the customers asked to meet the chef and joke that they wanted to take him home. Cafe Azteca has been a success for almost 20 years.

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Watch Neighborhood Kitchens online to learn more about Cafe Azteca and Lawrence, MA.

VISIT NEIGHBORHOOD KITCHENS