Documentary shares stories of diversity and businesses along Edmonton’s Alberta Avenue

Nestled on a side street of Alberta Avenue, El Rancho’s quiet comfort food is highlighted by the rich culture of its beginnings.

When Dora Arevalo and her family first opened the quaint Edmonton restaurant 15 years ago, there were only six tables.

“When you walk through our doors, it’s like, ‘Wow, you are in El Salvador. We are going to experience something different,'” Arevalo said as she expressed her passion for sharing her culture through cooking.

READ MORE: The sound of music graces Edmonton’s Alberta Avenue once again

El Rancho has changed and grown over the past decade and a half, much like the community it calls home.

“It’s overwhelming,” Arevalo said. “We don’t realize everything that is changing along 118 Avenue.”

“We definitely believed in it,” Arevalo reminisced.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "We definitely believed in it," Arevalo reminisced.

Arevalo is one of 11 community champions chosen to be a part of a new documentary, focused on business owners in that area.

Everyone featured in the documentary is an immigrant. There are business owners from Laos, Portugal, Jamaica, Vietnam and beyond.  All have overcome great hardship to call Edmonton and Alberta Avenue home.

“This area has been known as an area of immigrants, of newcomers,” said Arts on the Ave executive director Christy Morin.

“Alberta Avenue, from NAIT to Northlands, is really the world,” Morin said about the cultural diversity that can be found there.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "Alberta Avenue, from NAIT to Northlands, is really the world," Morin said about the cultural diversity that can be found there.

WATCH MORE: Edmonton’s Alberta Avenue continues to evolve

The documentary was created to showcase what the avenue has to offer in hopes of bringing more people to the avenue and to show off what happens outside of the popular festivals like Kaleido Family Arts Festival and Deep Freeze: A Byzantine Winter Festival.

Morin added that because of a large number of newcomers that have once called the community home, a number of  Edmontonians have ties to the community.

“This short is going to expose Alberta Avenue the way it needs to be opened up and shared,” she said. “We really want people to come back and see what the neighbourhood has become.”

“Some people may think that 118 Avenue is not safe,” Arevalo said. “Please come down, walk down the avenue and see what we have to offer.”

The premiere of The Champions of Alberta Avenue will be held on Saturday Nov. 4 at the Parkdale Cromdale Community League. Tickets are available at the Carrot Coffeehouse.