TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) -- Tampa Hispanic Heritage is honoring fifth-generation Gonzmart, Andrea Gonzmart-Williams, as the 2024 Hispanic Woman of the Year.
For decades, Andrea Gonzmart-Williams has been walking through the kitchen of the iconic Columbia Restaurant in Ybor City.
"When I walk through the restaurant, I don't have employees. I have family members," Gonzmart-Williams said.
It's a culture that started in 1905 by Andrea's great-great grandfather.
"Growing up I thought my life was like every other child," she said.
She quickly learned, not every child was learning the ropes of a restaurant with 15 different dining rooms. However, as a fifth generation Gonzmart, she continues to carry her family's legacy.
"We were just so rich with our culture, our heritage and our family," she said. "We talk about how in Latin and Hispanic cultures, food brings you together, so I love that what I do for a living is what brings so many families together."
Gonzmart-Williams makes her way into the Columbia nearly everyday. However, if she is not in the restaurant, she's in the community. For years, she has given back to the Tampa Bay community in many ways, including through several organizations, like serving on the Humane Society Advisory Council, the Florida Aquarium board and more.
"Like USF Foundation, the USF Latino Scholarship Program," she added. "We proudly sponsor 30 students allowing some of them to get their first college education in their family."
It's this kind of work that has earned Gonzmart-Williams the title of Tampa's Hispanic Woman of the Year. An honor she found out about one evening while at a hotel.
"It's 9 o clock at night and I get this phone call and it's Maria from Tampa Hispanic Heritage," she recalled. "In the lobby of this hotel, I literally broke down like a baby. I was so overwhelmed with emotion."
It's an honor she does not take for granted.
"Immediately I thought of all of the other people who came before me," Gonzmart-Williams said. "These are big names, names I've grown up my whole entire life and I don't put myself in that caliber."
Now, she's carrying the torch that her own Grandmother once held.
"Now I can say I'm following her footsteps and my father was a past Hispanic Man of the Year," she said. "I now get to proudly say I'm a part of a three generation family that has received this honor."
Gonzmart-Williams will be honored at the Hispanic Man and Woman of the Year Gala on Saturday, September 21 at the Hilton Tampa Downtown.