Editor’s note: Some quotes in this story were translated from Spanish into English.
Leer la versión en español aquí: ‘Le echas ganas y vas por arriba otra vez,’: Isabel Ponce, una fuerza de emprendimiento y comunidad
After a flood, a fire and a dream, Isabel Ponce knows how to start over.
She walks in Latinus Cafe with her best friend María Clayclamp’s 5-year-old granddaughter bouncing behind her, hair curled and braided in an up-do that would make a Disney princess look shabby.
The cafe is decorated with small American flags, glass cases filled with sweets from croissants to conchas and a rainbow of glass-bottled sodas.
This is one of Ponce’s four businesses that fill a red-roofed strip mall in Seymour, Indiana, off East Tipton Street. There’s her hair salon Estetica Isabel, a cellphone store called Multiservicios María, Latinus Cafe and the newest addition, Luxo Gift Shop.
Ponce’s days are filled with running in between her businesses, highlighting hair, mixing drinks in the cafe and chatting with customers.
Wanting to be her own boss, Ponce followed her lifelong passion for cosmetology. Shortly after arriving in Seymour 27 years ago from Veracruz, Mexico, she attended Seymour’s Hair Force Beauty Academy.
After graduating, she rented a room from the academy and began taking clients.
“The teacher Alan rented me a tiny room where only my little table, my chair and a customer fit,” Ponce said.
She later moved to a storefront next door. Then disaster struck.
Coming home from a trip to México vistting her mother, she returned to see her salon and home in flames. The fire was caused by a towel catching on fire after being left in a dryer. The damage was irreparable.
This wasn’t Ponce’s first time starting over; nearly a decade earlier in 2008, her home in Columbus flooded.
Ponce’s best friend María Clayclamp remembered calling Ponce the day of the fire.
“When the fire happened, we were left with nothing,” Ponce said. “Every time she was the very first person that came to see me and support me.”
One week later, she reopened her salon at its current location, where it now includes a nail salon, waiting room and stylist stations for men and women.
Isabel Ponce (left) puts the finishing touches on a hair style April 1, 2026, at Estetica Isabel in Seymour, Indiana. She dreamed of being a hairstylist since she was a child.
“I think that when you like to work and you do it with love, everything works out well,” Ponce said.
Ponce is grateful for community members who helped her get back on her feet by donating money and supplies, including families in Seymour and St. Ambrose Church Catholic Church. She feels Seymour is “a magical little town.”
Ponce is part of a strong community of migrants that now accounts for 14.9% of Seymour’s population, according to a 2024 survey by the U.S. Census Bureau.
Both Ponce and Clayclamp were attracted to Seymour because of manufacturing jobs, which make up 32.4% of the town’s industry for employed civilians over 16. Ponce’s brother-in-law convinced her to move and work in a factory in Seymour after she spent a few stressful months cleaning hotel rooms in Chicago.
“It's way more boring than it seemed,” Seymour Mayor Matt Nicholson said. “We're just a little southern Indiana town with some new residents over the years.”
Nicholson credits migrants with the growth of businesses in Seymour, especially restaurants and food trucks. Ponce has also noticed an increase of migrants from Mexico.
“Here there are quite a few Latino businesses because there are quite a few Latinos,” Ponce said.
She finds this useful for her businesses; she estimated 80% of customers at the hair salon and nearly all of her customers at Luxo Gift Shop are Latinos. Latinus Cafe is closer to half.
Ponce enjoys her job but also worries for the future. She’s noticed a high level of anxiety in the Latino community in Seymour about increased immigration enforcement and hopes for a future where “there’s not so much fear.”
In August 2025 Immigrant and Customs Enforcement Agents alongside the Seymour Police Department, and Jackson County Sheriff’s Office arrested 11 immigrants.
“I think that the people are afraid because of what they watch on the television, not because of what is happening here, because Seymour is calm,” Ponce said.
Ponce’s businesses are also affected by the overall workforce in Seymour. Claycamp specifically mentioned the NTN plant in Columbus, which is set to slowly close in the next 18-24 months.
“When work is bad and the factories are bad, she feels it,” Clayclamp said.
Regardless, Ponce will continue to get up, go to work, and do what she loves.
“Give it your all and go up again,” Ponce said.
Elizabeth Schuth covers immigration issues in southern Indiana. Her work is supported by a rural reporting grant from the Hearst Foundation. Edith Morales, also supported by the grant, contributed to this reporting.
