Moreno Bakery

Reprinted from the Tampa Bay Times, July 11, 2013. The man in the boot cast covering his broken left foot still smiles, and its a smile as fresh as the Cuban bread he bakes. In Moreno Bakery, the Brandon shop Jose Moreno shares with his wife, Susan, the Cuban-bornbaker refuses to skip a step in the five-hour traditional process of crafting Cuban bread, with two stages of rest and growth. The painstaking method doesnt even account for the time it takes to harvest and wash palmetto leaves he uses as veins to provide a natural break in the bread. I love doing this, Moreno said. I love to bake. Its the only thing I know. Im not even good at cutting my grass. Such passion from Jose and Susan helped the bakery at 906 W Robertson St. blossom from a small operation to a Brandon destination that draws hundreds each day. His smile, despite the broken foot, reflects his appreciation because he knows others have more difficult struggles, whether it is the person with two broken limbs he sees in the orthopedic waiting room or the people he left behind in communist Cuba. For Moreno, baking Cuban bread serves as a metaphor for the life he began as a youth in Cuba. The process of learning the craft began then and he eventually rose to own his shop in the United States. His grandfather owned the Golden Eagle Bakery, the only one around his Cuban neighborhood, and his mom took care of payroll for the company. In sixth grade, he began stopping by the bakery after school to play with the dough. By the time he was 12, he made Cuban bread. In 1993, Moreno escaped Cuba. He boarded a motor boat with eight friends and two children in hopes of reaching his aunt in the United States. After a week at sea, the boat ran out of gas near the Bahamas where the U.S. Coast Guard found them and brought them to safety in America. Had it been a year later, Moreno most likely would have been returned to Cuba under the U.S.-Cuba Migration Accord that went into effect in 1994. It allowed o