Congratulating Mary Githens

Floor Speech

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Mr. CARTER of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to congratulate Savannah restaurant owner Mary Githens for her placement in Georgia Trend's annual 40 Under 40 list.

Mary immigrated to the United States when she was 17, and one of the first objects of her homesickness was the lack of authentic food from her native Peru.

She took to Georgia Southern University's Armstrong campus and enrolled in entrepreneurial courses, dead set on fixing Savannah's apparent lack of Peruvian cuisine herself.

Just a year after she graduated, she put those entrepreneurial skills to use and opened the first Latin Chicks location in the Oglethorpe Mall food court in 2009. The restaurant was a huge success and quickly expanded to a second location.

Today, Mary is the owner and operator of three restaurant enterprises: Mint to Be Mojitos, which offers Latin-inspired cocktails; The Apparition, a bar and speakeasy; and, of course, Latin Chicks, the venture that started it all.

Mary's story exemplifies perfectly what the American Dream is about. No matter who you are and where you come from, you can achieve great things with a bold vision and the ambition to achieve it.

I want to commend Mary for her hard-earned success and Georgia Trend for recognizing her accomplishments.

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