In the foothills of North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Mountains, a nondescript white clapboard house has become one of the most popular restaurants in rural Stokes County: Luna’s Mexican Kitchen.

This is Trump country (he got 79 percent of its votes last year), overwhelmingly white, and favored the president by nearly 82 percent in 2024. Yet, stereotypes notwithstanding, Luna’s owner, Angel Hernandez, 35, says “there are no words to explain our reception. Everyone was very nice. Everyone helped me.”

After 18 months in business, patrons come from neighboring Surry County and as far as Virginia for Luna’s pan-Mexican cuisine. The weekly Stokes News featured the restaurant in its “Loaves and Dishes” column.

Hernandez, a stocky man dressed in a black Cinco de Mayo T-shirt, spoke as music from a Colombian radio station filled the small restaurant.

Twenty years ago, on the advice from an uncle living in the U.S., the teenager immigrated from northern Mexico to North Carolina’s Piedmont region. Hernandez joined “The Great Latino Migration,” a historic movement that brought millions of Spanish-speaking migrants to the Southeast.

After years working various area jobs, Hernandez wanted to start a restaurant and so began driving in Stokes and Surry Counties. “I saw this little spot,” he recalled. “It was so cute.”

The restaurant is a family affair, named for his daughter, Luna, one of his two American-born children. His young son helps out when not in school. His wife Andrea’s name appears on the restaurant’s blackboard specials (“Andrea’s Burrito”). She is also an apartment manager.

Hernandez and his restaurant exemplify a much larger trend,........

© The Hill