Teresa Corona was born in Durango, Mexico. She is the second oldest of eight children. Teresa left Mexico when she was sixteen years old and began going to school and working in Southern California. After moving to Laguna Hills from Long Beach, CA in the late 80’s, she found it difficult to find some of the ingredients she needed to cook traditional Mexican food. After doing some grassroots surveying, Teresa discovered there were many Latinos just like her in the area that were traveling long distances to acquire traditional grocery products. From there the idea was born to start a Latin grocery to service Latinos in the area. With the help of her family, Teresa left her job of sixteen years and started the store in 1992. At first, many vendors refused to come as far south as Laguna Hills, but as sales increased, Teresa was able to convince them that there truly was a need for their products in the area. With the store located directly across the street from Laguna Hills High School, Teresa’s three oldest daughters, Michelle, Wendy and Bernadette have all contributed to the family business by working at the store during high school and during summer break in college. Teresa’s youngest daughter Monica continues the tradition by helping out at the store. Additional family members help out in the store and behind the scenes to make Mercado Corona truly a family business.