Our History

My Little Best Friends Early Learning Center was opened in 2012 by Hilda Torres and Gerardo Loza. Hilda’s dream for this center was for it to be a family like environment. She remembers her very first teaching job as an assistant at a daycare in Chelsea where her two children attended. At the time, she was working as a beautician but didn’t feel very fulfilled in her career. During drop off one day, she recalls chatting with the lead teacher of her child’s room and her saying “that it is a beautiful feeling when you are able to love someone else's child the same way that you do your own”. These words stuck with her for sometime. A few weeks later, she decided to speak with the Director to see if she could get a position with them. Hilda still believes “this was the best decision of my life”. She ended up being the assistant teacher in the classroom where her son was and fell in love with the field while continuing to be a beautician in her spare time until she decided to have more children. Hilda has stuck with childcare ever since and has four children and two grandchildren. She took early childhood education classes and earned an associate’s degree at Bunker Hill Community College.

Hilda is Director II certified and worked in other centers for about 16 years before opening MLBF. Deciding to open up a center of her own was a huge undertaking; her children were all still young and she knew it would take a lot of support from family and friends to make this happen. When speaking with family about it, she gained the support from her cousin Gerardo Loza who decided to partner up with her in this venture. Gerardo has three children of his own and 6 grandchildren. Hilda is very involved in the Malden community and believes that she chose the best place for this center. She thought “To me, it’s a town where everyone knows each other and it is a good place for kids to grow up. There is a lot of diversity here.” In 2016, they were named one of five Immigrant Entrepreneurs of the Year by the Immigrant Learning Center. They were the first winners from Mexico and the first business from Malden to be recognized.

When they first opened, it took some time to get up and running. They started off with three classrooms and 4 students; they are now with 10 classrooms and a capacity of 116 students! The center’s curriculum focuses on English and include Spanish, Mandarin, and American Sign Language. “The first five years of life, children are like sponges,” Hilda said. “And kids who speak different languages will have better opportunities in life. We have to educate the new generation for the future.” As a person who needed to learn English when she first arrived here, she understands the difficulty it can be to not understand the native language and the work needed to be comfortable speaking. “I am so happy to come into the school every morning and see the kid’s smiles and their parents feeling comfortable leaving them in our care. Being with kids is my passion and keeps me young. I don’t see myself anywhere else.