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Business & Tech

Exploring Diverse Cultures in Albany is as Easy as Walking Down the Street

Even at 1.7 square miles, Albany is a rich microcosm with business owners of many backgrounds, and each has a story to tell. Here are just a few.

If you've ever tasted Zand's moist pistachio baklava, scented with rose water and cardamom, you would never guess such a sweet confection had been concocted by someone with Monier Attar's bitter memory of her homeland.

Attar left Iran in 1984, after Ayatolla Khomeini's ascent to leadership in 1979. Attar, who said she opened one of the first French pastry shops in Tehran in the 1970s, said Khomeini's religious government constantly harassed her and threatened to shut down her store, warning her and her female customers to conform to traditional Islamic customs and cover their heads with scarves.

"When I got on the plane with my son and daughter, I wondered, 'What will become of us?'" said Attar, who is in her 50s.

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She said she had only $200 when she arrived Emeryville in 1984 to stay with her aunt. But, four years later, she opened Zand's, an Iranian grocery store, on San Pablo Avenue. She moved the shop to its current location on Solano Avenue in 2001 to expand the business. Now her store sells a wide range of Iranian products, from rose water ice cream to Iranian music.

While pouring Turkish coffee, Attar said she is proud to run the successful store, and be able to offer jobs to four employees. She opens the store daily at 10 a.m. and stays until it closes at 8 p.m. She said she makes from scratch fully half the products she offers for sale. Deli foods and pastries, such as falafel, hummus, halva, and her signature Crème puff all are crafted from her original recipes.

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Attar is not alone in Albany among business owners who have woven their cultures and traditions into the city's fabric. Walking down Solano and San Pablo avenues, businesses that are run by people from a wide range of backgrounds add to the city's melting pot.

Penny Opal Plant comes from a rich mix of ancestral heritages. Her relatives were Yaqui, Mexican, English, Dutch, Choctaw, Cherokee and Algonquin to name just a few. The Bay Area native opened Gathering Tribes, a Native American craft store, on Solano in 1991.

California has the largest population of people of Native American descent in the United States, according to the 2000 U.S. Census. Plant's family had certain Native American values, but she said it wasn't until after she spent six months in an aboriginal community in Australia that she seriously came to realize the wisdom of indigenous people.

"I wanted to share the beauty of Native Americans," said Plant, 52, of San Pablo city.

Plant's store features arts, crafts and jewelry from North, Central and South America. One of its products is crafted by Michael Horse, Plant's husband. Horse was born on a Yaqui reservation near Tucson in 1951, and lived there until he was 10. He is known for his silver and turquoise jewelry, which he makes with tools passed onto him by his family ancestors.

"This jewelry is unique. You have to have a special tool to make it," said Horse, who appeared in the television series Twin Peaks as a Native American police officer. Horse said the tools he uses to make jewelry are one-of-a-kind pieces made by his ancestors, which makes his jewelry impossible to copy.

Horse is also a ledger painter. Ledger art is narrative drawing or painting on paper or cloth. The term comes from the accounting ledger books that were a common source for paper for Plains Indians during the late 19th century.

Plant said many customers come to her store from around the globe, partly because she hosts lots of events related to Native American art, such as Zuni carving crafts.

Plant is also proud of her merchandise.

"If you want to have an American gift, this is the place," she said.

But Gathering Tribes isn't the only shop in which to find unique treasures.

For Guillermo Robles, starting a Mexican gift shop felt like a natural transition when he retired from the Berkeley Police Department after 21 years. The 60-year-old Mexican immigrant came to America in 1966 to study business at San Francisco State University.

The Oaxaca native opened Casa Oaxaca on Solano in July 2004. The ambience of his store is festive, with ghost figures hanging from the ceiling, a typical decoration for Cinco de Mayo, a holiday to celebrate Mexican pride and heritage. The wall of his store holds many shiny and colorful ornaments, lots of which feature pictures of artist Frida Kahlo. There is also a case full of silver jewelry and racks of traditional clothing. Robles said he buys these products directly from craftsmen at fair prices.

"I was always fascinated by Mexican art, because of how it was influenced by other cultures and how it influenced other cultures. And I wanted to share that with other people," said the Berkeley resident.

Robles hatched the idea of opening the store many years ago, but said it wasn't until 2004 that it felt like the right time. For a long time, he said, there was no market for the goods. Their popularity in recent years has been, to a certain extent, the result of the economy, he said, as more and more people started to visit Mexico rather than travel to Europe or more distant places.

"I love people. I talk to people and I listen to people," said Robles. "Being a police officer isn't much different from being a business owner."

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