Hope and faith - with a healthy dash of sweat - can be found on the corner of Louise Avenue and North Main Street.

It is here that Francisco Salvador is doing what Americans do best. He’s opening a business. The government didn’t tell him to do so. Instead it was his own intuition and commitment to maximize his freedom to succeed in America.

Working for yourself is risky, especially in the restaurant business. Salvador has two successful LaEstrella Taquerias in Manteca under his belt with the intent to extend that number to three.

And he’s doing it with Manteca stuck at 14 percent unemployment, everyone seemingly on edge about the economy thanks to the motor mouths on cable TV news, the political grandstanding on both sides of the aisle, and at a time where most big banks are more likely to cut their CEO’s compensation to $1 a year than make loans to small businesses.

But perhaps the most amazing thing about the entire venture is he’s doing it with property that has set stubbornly vacant for close to a decade right on top of Manteca’s busiest intersection.

The transformation isn’t done but it already has put what the Long John Silver’s at that location looked like in its prime to shame. Everything from the paint accent to the landscaping shouts success.

The first reaction from many upon learning the former fast food fish joint was going to become what seems likes Manteca’s 100th place to grab Mexican cuisine (It actually comes to about 27 if you count various Mexican markets that serve prepared food) was essentially, “not another Mexican restaurant.”

There are very few that are copycats. But even more important they have business to keep them going.

The Salvadors of this country are those who will generate jobs, not Uncle Sam.

The federal government with its stimulus generates work in the private sector that is only for the duration of a project. Private enterprise, in comparison, creates jobs that tend to have staying power.

It also speaks volumes about Salvador’s confidence in the economy.

Yes, foreclosures are still happening. Yes, unemployment is at 14 percent.

But at the same time all of those foreclosures are selling and 86 percent of Manteca’s employable population is working. Manteca is still adding 300 new housing units a year which is more than all of the rest of San Joaquin County combined. That means more consumers although most folks aren’t spending like drunken sailors anymore.

This isn’t a time that you can open a business and expect to get rich quick.

But you can still make a living.

It isn’t easy, but then nobody promised those who fought King George and won that it would be a rose garden being free to succeed or fail on their own.

What you are seeing at Louise and North Main is a vote of confidence in a single man’s ability to do what it takes to succeed and to not allow the relentless drumbeat of bad economic news cloud over the fact that the economy is still moving although not as healthy as it should.