She digs her gloved fingers into the bowl by the griddle and begins to pack a ball of masa. She smooths and rounds the dough before smashing a filling of cheese over its top, pinching it closed and slamming it flat between her palms.

The molding of Salvadoran pupusas is second nature for El Paraiso owner Maria Rodriguez. Her firm slaps against the dough sound almost staccato — a rhythm her son Marvin, age 32 and set to open his own shop, still tries to recreate. On June 26, he gazed at her across their restaurant kitchen, where the two shared space for over a decade, taking in the music for one of the last times.

The Rodriguez family opened likely the first Salvadoran restaurant in Reisterstown, creating a taste of home for the rising number of Hispanic residents who migrated to the predominantly white neighborhood in the early 2000s. On July 1, Maria, 63, retired after 22 years of running the eatery with her husband, Mercedes, and three sons. The legacy they leave behind extends beyond what many would expect from a family-run restaurant.

“There’s a lot that’s changed out here in this community,” Marvin Rodriguez said.

Marvin remembers being one of the few Spanish-speaking students at Franklin Middle School when El Paraiso opened in 2003. Customers who came into the business couldn’t place Salvadoran food, so his parents rebranded the eatery as “Tex-Mex.” His twin brother, Elmer, said classmates saw them serving tables after school and mocked them for being the kids from “the taco shop.”

But they knew the restaurant was their parents’ dream. Maria’s first taste of independence as a teenager was working as a cook at a restaurant in San Salvador, El Salvador. It’s where she met Mercedes, who she said seduced her with his food. Together, they fled the country in the ’80s under President Ronald Reagan’s asylum policy and built a life in Los Angeles, where Maria worked as a baker.

There she was surrounded by Spanish-speakers and a rich immigrant community.

But their time in California didn’t last. The family had to keep up with Mercedes’ job as a manager for a produce company under BJ’s Wholesale Club and jumped between Maryland suburbs. Maria and Mercedes worked full-time for the retailer, sometimes up to 10-hour shifts, when they bought the El Paraiso space from a local car dealership owner for $30,000 — an amount so cheap it still makes Maria laugh.

As one of the few Latin businesses around, El Paraiso quickly became a resource. “Customers would say they came in because they were looking for someone who spoke Spanish,” Maria said with the help of Marvin, who translated.

She’d make her favorite pupusa revueltas, filled with pork and cheese, as Mercedes grilled his signature carne asada. The family’s daily fresh batches of corn tortillas reminded people of home, Marvin said.

Many of their customers worked local jobs in construction or landscaping to send money to family back in Central America. But they didn’t have the resources that Maria found in California. At 14, Marvin remembers a man in his 30s coming into the restaurant for food, and then asking if the teen could help him translate a driver’s test.

“It ended up taking on a life of its own,” Marvin said.

He split time out of school between the kitchen of his family’s restaurant and taking customers to driver’s exams on Reisterstown Road. Then Elmer started translating for customers at Westminster’s traffic court when he wasn’t serving tables. The oldest, Edgar, became a notary and notarized bank documents, job forms and immigration paperwork for customers while also manning the register.

“We were inspiring to a lot of families being three brothers, a mom and dad all working long hours under the same roof,” he said. “People would tell us: ‘This is something I wish my family could do.’”

It became a part of the restaurant’s brand, said Elmer, and led to exponential growth for the restaurant. Families looking for resources started inviting community members, who fell in love with the food and passed around praise.

Longtime customer Richard Pedro, who couldn’t bear to see the eatery close, is taking over the business with his wife, Magna.

“I said years ago to Mercedes, ‘If you ever don’t want this I’ll take it,’” he said. “I want to continue making it a space where people feel comfortable.”

The Pedros plan on keeping the same menu and eventually adding Peruvian ceviches when they take over in mid-July. It’s a nerve-wracking prospect for a couple who has never run a restaurant, and especially one serving a community that’s facing new challenges.

The Rodriguez family had differing opinions on how much the restaurant should be putting themselves out there to assist customers in matters other than food. In recent months, new levels of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the area have kept many patrons home. Several customers canceled their orders two week ago when more than a dozen ICE cars parked near the restaurant for a meeting.

“It became overwhelming,” Elmer said. “It’s one thing to be worried about our system giving out over the internet as I’m doing a pickup for produce and meats. It’s another to be worried about ICE agents raiding a business.

“What about our problems?” he said.

The brothers have set off on their own journeys. Edgar is a professional pastry chef. Elmer opened a boutique business selling a mix of premium matcha and horchata at farmers markets in Baltimore County. Marvin plans to turn his Fells Point Farmers Market stall, Aru Aru, into a brick-and-mortar on Eastern Avenue this fall. He’s straying from his mother’s traditional pupusas, using ingredients like kimchi and pulled brisket.

The Rodriguez family is helping El Paraiso’s transition to new ownership — especially Maria, who struggles to imagine a world without the work that’s consumed so much of her life.

“Her dedication and her values when it comes to the work is top-tier compared to anyone else I’ve met in my life,” Marvin said of Maria, who continued to work full-time at BJ’s while running the restaurant.

“It makes me want to do the best I can to represent myself and my family.”

This article has been updated to correct misspellings in the photo captions.