For more than thirty years, in the shadow of the Cross Bronx Expressway, neighbors gathered at The South of France, a vibrant restaurant known for warm hospitality, neon cocktails, and plates of savory mofongo. On any given karaoke night, lively regulars glided across worn checkerboard floor tiles, belting ‘70s R&B songs alongside salsa classics with uninhibited joy. Onlookers, faces glowing beneath dim orange lights, leaned against a retro glass-block wall, soaking in the joyful chaos of a place that felt like home. The lived-in dining room hadn’t seen a renovation in ages, but its scuffed floors and mismatched decor only added to its charm. Yet, behind the restaurant’s good vibes, The South of France was quietly struggling.
Virginia Gonzales, the beloved business owner and chef who managed the restaurant since 1996, was diagnosed with a brain tumor in the spring of 2024. Her daughter, Maribel Gonzales, temporarily took over in a limited capacity to keep things afloat. However, the relentless demands of running a restaurant in an increasingly competitive market proved overwhelming. Her inconsistent hours left some longtime patrons assuming the restaurant had closed. Moreover, the business staggered under debts that had mounted since the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Not seeing anyone, not having anyone, the fear of the illness — you know — the heartbreak of losing people, family, relatives. I mean, customers, we lost like 15 customers, you know. But then, the struggle of not having any support. No workers wanted to come in, so it literally was only my mother and I,” Maribel explained.
Although The South of France survived the pandemic, even donating 2,000 meals to hospitals in the Bronx, it emerged financially battered, struggling to stay afloat. Eventually, the financial and emotional toll became too much. Maribel and her mother faced a lawsuit for the accumulated debt and, ultimately, eviction proceedings. Earlier this year, the landlord prevailed, and the business was evicted.
“In that process, you got a lot of conflicting information. The eviction process is, you know, the courts are very backed up and it’s not going to happen for months. And then the next thing you know, we had 30 days.”
The Bronx County Civil Court issued a warrant of eviction, and Maribel agreed to vacate the premises in July 2025, closing the doors on a beloved neighborhood institution. At the heart of the landlord-tenant dispute was a standard form lease contract. But did the tenant truly understand the English-language agreement she signed, given that her native language is Spanish? And if she did not, on what basis could the court enforce a contract that one of the parties may never have fully understood? Even after hiring an attorney, the language barrier issue was not fixed. For Maribel and her mother, the challenge remained.
“They can’t explain and translate every single thing. So after the fact, you know, the language barrier was still a problem because even though you paid somebody to represent you and they have your back, it’s like they say, ‘watch the small print’ right?”
Nearly half of New York City’s small businesses are owned by immigrants, yet according to the New York City Department of Small Business Services, approximately 49% of foreign-born New Yorkers have limited English proficiency. This means that roughly half of all immigrant business owners are negotiating complex commercial leases, with personal guarantee provisions, arcane legal terminology, and intricate default clauses, without the language skills to understand what they’re signing.
The challenge extends beyond individual cases like The South of France. Across the city, immigrants operate barber shops, take-out restaurants, nail salons, and countless other small businesses that anchor their communities. These businesses provide employment, diverse food options, and essential services for their neighborhoods. Yet the framework they navigate was designed with the assumption that all businesses have equal access to experienced attorneys and a sophisticated understanding of English-language contracts.
Jaime Lathrop is an experienced landlord tenant attorney and frequent presence at the Civil Courthouse in Brooklyn. He has argued a range of cases in the residential and commercial landlord tenant context including disputes over non-primary residence, rent stabilization, and license agreements.
Lathrop, who primarily represents working-class tenants, explains that New York law heavily favors commercial landlords because leases are business contracts and the law presumes a level of sophistication and the ability to hire an attorney to negotiate the terms. The end result, however, is that common lease terms are written to benefit the landlord and negate possible defenses to nonpayment.
“The skyscrapers in Manhattan are not built on a foundation of bedrock and concrete. The skyscrapers are high because commercial landlord tenant law is so strong. It’s very unforgiving for tenants, very unforgiving to commercial tenants.” Lathrop argues the best way to protect immigrant business owners is not through new legislation or court rules. Rather, Lathrop says tenants simply need experienced attorneys to guide them through the lease transaction: “It’s always easy to get on a soapbox and say people need help. It’s very difficult to find actual solutions for working people when the shortest solution is just hiring a lawyer.”
However, some business owners may not understand the benefits of hiring an attorney to review their contracts. For many struggling businesses, paying a stranger thousands of dollars to read a piece of paper is a luxury they cannot afford. This mindset often gets people into costly legal disputes that otherwise could have been avoided.
Many immigrant businesses throughout New York City are faced with unfair “take it or leave it” contracts that they must accept in order to start their business. It’s difficult for a non-English speaker to obtain employment from a business operated primarily by individuals who only speak English. These small businesses give hard-working immigrants a chance to work for themselves and employ loved ones.
A study by the Association for Neighborhood & Housing Development found that 36% of immigrant small business owners report that the City does not provide enough resources in their language. Also, among tenants experiencing landlord harassment, 56% say their landlord refuses to issue or negotiate lease terms. The consequences are significant: the Association for Neighborhood & Housing Development study found that 19% of surveyed immigrant businesses operate without any lease at all, operating month-to-month with virtually no protections.
Nearly all once held leases but lost them when landlords refused to renegotiate, a process that becomes much more challenging when business owners speak limited English. Without a lease, they can be evicted with 30 days’ notice and have little recourse against harassment or other disputes with the landlord. The precarious position leaves business owners vulnerable to a sudden eviction and hampers their opportunity for sustained growth.
I spoke with two New York City judges who handle landlord tenant cases but neither could comment extensively on the record. One judge explained that commercial leases include complex terms, especially for non-native English speakers. “This is very much an issue in New York City where there is a large immigrant population from different countries and regions.”
The judge stated that commercial tenants may primarily be concerned with their monthly payment or the lease term, but details tucked into seemingly standard lease provisions can have serious consequences for the business. “There are various terms and clauses that are difficult to understand and they are usually on preprinted forms and contain legalese terms. Those can be very difficult to understand to a person with limited English proficiency.”
In recent months, immigrant business owners have faced additional pressures from aggressive federal immigration enforcement actions, including workplace raids and audits. This heightened enforcement climate has created an atmosphere of fear and uncertainty that extends beyond immigration status to affect business operations.
Yet immigrant entrepreneurs continue to play a vital role in New York City’s economy, creating jobs, revitalizing neighborhoods, paying taxes, and providing essential goods and services that sustain everyday American life. The contribution of immigrant-owned businesses to the city is undeniable, even as the legal challenges they face continue to mount.
Despite these contributions, current policies expose a troubling contradiction: rather than protecting those who drive economic growth and innovation, landlords can pressure desperate business owners to sign lease agreements they don’t fully understand. The choice before many immigrant business owners is to sign an onerous contract or lose the opportunity to earn a livelihood. The high stakes situation is not an accident. It is structural, built into a system that profits from their vulnerability.
For Maribel Gonzales, the unforgiving financial ramifications of a complex lease contract meant the end of a thirty-year Bronx institution. Without systemic changes, whether through legislation, expanded legal services, or multilingual tenant protections, theirs is a story likely to repeat across immigrant-owned businesses throughout the city. The formerly packed dining room may be empty, the neon lights dimmed, but the legal challenges that closed The South of France’s doors remain, waiting for the next family business that cannot navigate a system designed without them in mind.
“They can’t explain and translate every single thing. So after the fact, you know, the language barrier was still a problem because even though you paid somebody to represent you and they have your back, it’s like they say, ‘watch the small print’ right?”