Blanca and Jaime Sotelo are Mexican immigrants who have lived in the City of Newburgh for 15 years. In the city they found a constantly growing and improving community that they too wanted to make a mark on.

Last Wednesday, the Sotelos had their grand opening for their business, Blanca Tailoring. The tailor shop is named after Blanca, and honors the years of hard work the Sotelos went through to establish themselves.

“Couple of years ago we start at home,” said Blanca. Little by little, it’s hard in one shot to do everything. But little by little we started doing things for the customers. Now is the time, said everybody; the time for Blanca [Tailoring] to come up.”

Blanca has a background in fashion design. Before opening the shop, she went to school for fashion design. In addition, she’s been working in tailoring for 14 years.
“This is one of the dreams coming true,” said Blanca.

The shop offers various forms of alterations like wedding gown alterations. The shop also offers a dry-cleaning service, and tuxedo rental service. In addition, the shop will offer custom made designs. For the Sotelos, the shop is a way of welcoming others to the community through fashion.

Blanca Tailoring is not only a dream come true for the Sotelos, it is also one of the many steps forward to revitalize Liberty Street. In 2018, the city went through a tragic tornado. The tornado destroyed buildings all over the city.

Blanca Tailoring is located in one of the buildings that was impacted negatively by the tornado. Looking at photos of the building from its renovation, one would be pleasantly surprised to see how much the building has changed since the tornado.
Since the tornado, the city has worked to help bring new business to Liberty Street. Every step has been an effort to restore one of the city’s most popular areas.

“It’s a wonderful experience to witness the resurgence of the Liberty Street Corridor,” said Mayor Torrance Harvey. “After the tornado in 2018, a lot of people stuck together, came together as a community. From all over, all four corners of the city. This is evidence that Newburgh is open for business. Newburgh is still thriving. Even with our challenges that we have ahead of us, we’re still going to continue to turn this city around and revitalize.”