Detroit Will Hustle

How Third Culture Re-Built A City’s Soul

In the heart of the Midwest is Detroit, a city built on grit and perseverance. For Carlos Parisi, owner of Aunt Nee’s, that began during the great financial crisis in 2007, when his family and others needed money in the wake of mass automotive layoffs and the resulting impact on the community. Parisi and a friend began a salsa company that sold simple dry-mix salsa. It saved two families and indebted Parisi to the community of Detroit.

In this Whole Story, we explore what happens when children of first and second-generation immigrants are given the space and opportunity to write their own narrative and fight to maintain the spirit of Detroit.

“You wake up every day, and you think to yourself, am I doing enough? Am I doing the right things?’ I think that’s come from the way that we’ve seen our parents do things and the way that they’ve put in the time and the effort and a lot of themselves to do everything that they can to raise us, and I sometimes don’t believe that I do enough.”