These Central Valley Latina ‘foodpreneurs’ say culture is their ‘superpower’ for success

Gladys Martinez knew since she was a child that she wanted to be her own boss.

The Fresno State graduate and daughter of Mexican immigrants is a “foodpreneur,” or food entrepreneur. In 2018, she started a food truck that sold coconut-based snacks, but when the pandemic hit, the business went south.

While figuring out her next steps, a light bulb went off: She had a great Michoacan-style family birria recipe that she could sell. After all, birria – a regional Mexican dish of beef or goat simmering in chiles and spices and served as a stew or tacos – has exploded in popularity in recent years, fueled in large part by social media.

Martinez, 38, connected with a food scientist friend and together they perfected the recipe for jarred adobo sauce that serves as the base for preparing birria. In 2021, Nelia’s Birria was born.

Nelia’s Birria sauce is currently sold online as well as in a growing number of Fresno grocers such as Valley Foods on Fulton Avenue and Divisadero Street, The Meat Market on Alluvial Avenue and the Ventura Supermarket on Cesar Chavez Avenue.

Martinez hopes her sauce will one day be a staple in pantries nationwide just like another famous, decades-old Mexican mole sauce.

“I want to be like the Doña María in the sauce world with my birria sauce,” she said.

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For decades, Central Valley Latinos have been creating successful businesses and food brands, such as Mexican frozen food manufacturer Ruiz Foods, La Tapatia Tortilleria and Mexican candy and snack manufacturer Candies Tolteca.

Now, a new generation of Latinas like Martinez are creating innovative food businesses rooted in culture.

Nationwide, Latinos make up a growing number of the country’s business owners, creating jobs and generating significant economic activity for the nation’s economy. Latinos, who make up about 20% of the country’s population, own roughly 5 million out of 33 million small businesses nationwide, or around 14%.

Latino-owned businesses are outpacing the revenue and growth rates of White-owned businesses and American businesses, in general, according to a report this year from Stanford Graduate School of Business about the state of Latino businesses.

Between 2007 and 2019, Latino-owned businesses nationwide grew by 34%, while the number of White-owned businesses dropped by 7%, the report found.

In Fresno County, Latinos make up 55% of the population and own a greater share of the region’s businesses compared to nationwide data.

According to a July 2023 analysis from the U.S. Small Business Administration, Latinos own 30% of the 70,902 small businesses in Fresno County. Meanwhile, women of all backgrounds own roughly half, or 40.8% percent, according to the SBA.

Statewide, Latinos make up nearly 40% of the population and own 23.4% of California’s 4.2 million small businesses.

Martinez is currently working on a gallon-sized jug version of the birria sauce for commercial restaurants as well as on collaborations with other local food businesses, such as vegan-friendly Mexican food truck, La Jacka Mobile, and locally-owned tortilla company, La Tapatia Tortilleria.

For Martinez, it makes sense that the Central Valley is home to a number of unique Latino-owned food businesses and brands, especially given that many Latinos come from parents and grandparents who worked in the local agricultural fields.

“How could we not be producing food products, if we’re the major agricultural hub in the world?” Martinez said.

Cher invests in Forbes-recognized Latina aguas frescas entrepreneur

Hanford-resident Kayla Castañeda, 31, got the idea to create Agua Bonita, her line of canned aguas frescas, during the pandemic when her Mexican mother-in-law would make fresh aguas frescas for the family everyday.

Aguas frescas are refreshing, sweet drinks made from fruits, cereals, seeds, sugar and water. The ritual her mother-in-law followed reminded Castañeda of her childhood when her grandfather, a farmworker in the Central Valley agricultural fields, would bring fresh fruit and either eat it with chile sprinkled on top or prepare fresh aguas frescas for the family.

“I was just like, ‘Oh, I wish that I could have just like a healthier version of this.’ And then I was like, ‘I bet you a lot of other people feel that way too,” Castañeda told The Bee.

With a decade of experience in the beverage industry working for Coca-Cola and as an independent consultant, Castañeda knew how to build a beverage brand. She focused on creating healthy, unique aguas frescas flavors, such as pineapple-cucumber, mango-habanero and watermelon-chile. Agua Bonita drinks are made with significantly less sugar than the typical agua fresca.

Agua Bonita boasts investors such as superstar Cher and global spirits producer Pernod-Ricard. Castañeda was featured on the Forbes 30 under 30 list for Food & Drink in 2022 and is the first Latina-owned business in her industry to raise $1 million within her first year. Agua Bonita is now sold at major chains like Target and Whole Foods, both nationwide and in Fresno.

Castañeda credits her brand’s success to her cultural heritage.

“Our cultural experiences have really been our superpower,” Castañeda said. “I think now is the time where bringing that perspective to a brand… is really important and valuable.”

Fresno’s very own ‘Mexican Willy Wonka’

Kayla Delgado, 24, the creator of Highly Addictive Candy, started selling candies to her peers while a student at Kerman High School as a way to support herself.

Not everyone supported her budding entrepreneurial spirit at school, though. The unauthorized candy business nearly got Delgado suspended.

Years later, while studying education at Fresno State, she continued to sell candy to help pay for her college tuition, buying products in bulk and adding Mexican flavors such as chamoy – a sweet, tangy sauce common in Mexican treats – to candy like peach rings. She slowly started building her clientele by promoting her treats to fellow Fresno State students through Facebook groups and by selling at pop-up markets.

Soon, candy covered all the available space in Delgado’s 900 square-foot apartment.

“I couldn’t even sit down on my couch,” she said. One day, her cousin paid her a visit and laughed in disbelief when he saw her candy-filled home. That’s when he gave her the nickname “The Mexican Willy Wonka,” – Mexican because she puts chamoy on everything, she said with a laugh.

Today, Delgado sells at pop-ups like the River Park Farmers Market, Manchester Center Farmers Markets, and other Valley-wide events. In addition to her candies, she sells fresh fruit like watermelon and cucumber covered in Fruit Roll-Ups, chamoy, and her “crack powder” – a spicy mango-flavored chile powder akin to Tajín. Her treats have recently gone viral on TikTok.

Eventually, she hopes to produce her own candies here in the Central Valley – such as a Frankenstein-shaped gummy or a Gobbstopper-inspired hard candy. But for now, she’s focused on opening her brick-and-mortar storefront after recently securing a place on Gettysburg and Blackstone avenues in Fresno.

When Delgado wakes up with back pain from standing for long hours during her pop-up sales, she is reminded of why she loves being an entrepreneur.

“I would rather have my back hurt for my business, than my back hurt for somebody else’s business,” she said, a nod to her agricultural roots. “I’m in pain, but I wake up happy.”

For anyone interested in starting their own food business, on Oct. 20, Fresno-based nonprofits Cultiva La Salud and Fresno Metro Ministry are hosting a Fresno Food Academy workshop designed to support the region’s food entrepreneurs and the local food entrepreneurship ecosystem. On Oct 20. You can find more details on Cultiva La Salud’s Facebook page.