November 6, 2025 • 30 mins
What do sacred crops and chips have in common? Turns out, more than you’d think! In this episode, Eva and Maite uncover how Latin America’s native ingredients - corn and potatoes - went from offerings to the gods to the cornerstone of billion-dollar snack industries. They talk about how the Mexican American company Siete Foods is redefining what it means to “know your worth” in the snack aisle, and why honoring your roots might just be the most revolutionary business model of all.
History, culture, flavor, and empowerment… all that and a bag of chips!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
I love this episode. It's Frito's doritos to topos, Oh
my everything chips that should be the episode. Yes, oh my.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
My name is Eva Longoria and I am Myra and
welcome to Hungry for History, a podcast that explores our
past and present through food. On every episode, we'll talk
about the history of some of our favorite dishes, ingredients,
and beverages from our culture.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
So make yourself at home.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Even I'm excited, nothing makes me happier than chips. Literally.
I yeah, I'm not a doulcy person. I don't like
chocolate and cookies and candy. But give me a.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
Bag of chips.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Give me a bag of chips, and you've made my day.
Speaker 4 (00:54):
Yeah, you love the salty. I'm I'm the opposite. I
do love a good bag of chips. But of course,
given a cookie or a bag of chips, I will
always choose the cookie.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
Bye.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
Oh, I will never choose the cookie. I will never
I will always choose the bag of chip, the cup
of olives, the bag of pretzel, the sardine, the like
u oh chocolate, and yeah, give me salt any day.
Welcome back to the show. Everyone. Our thesis that latinos
are interwoven into every aspect of American culture continues from
(01:29):
your bags of ruffles and fritos to your jar of
peter Pan peanut butter. We are integral.
Speaker 4 (01:37):
We are We have entire episodes devoted to the history
of potato and corn. We did that last season or
season one, I think, But in this episode we'll focus
on everyone's favorite snacks, chips, potato chips, and also to topos, fritos.
Speaker 3 (01:52):
Eva. What do you prefer potato chips or corn chips? Oh,
that's so hard, you know.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
I eat more potato chips because I like salty potatoes.
But if I'm having a fri doo pie, if you know,
you know, you know, corn chips is like is the
Holy Rail?
Speaker 4 (02:12):
What's your favorite bag of chips? I love a bag
of fritos. You know what I love about fritos. So
when you look at the label, it's like corn salt
oil bag of fritos with tons of lime juice and
like Sasa Alentina.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
And I'll tell you know, the great thing about eating
a bag of Fritos is licking your fingers. I know,
I know, flaming hot Cheetos gets like or Cheetos gets
gets the like finger licking stamp of approval to your fingers.
But no, I think after eating a bag of fritos
and licking your finger after every other bite.
Speaker 4 (02:42):
It's so salty, it's so sad, Like heaven, where did
where did that phrase all that and a bag of
chips come from?
Speaker 3 (02:49):
It's such a good thrid.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
I love that saying.
Speaker 3 (02:51):
I do too.
Speaker 4 (02:52):
I love all food related, you know saying so that
saying all that and a bag of chips at first
surfaced in the early.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
Nineties, so it's not that old. The show yo, MTV
raps the host, Oh I remember this? Do you remember
that show?
Speaker 1 (03:06):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (03:07):
He mentioned it in a nineteen ninety one interview for
The Baltimore Sun, and he explained how people were upgrading
the slang all that adding with a bag of chips
as a way of saying that they have the whole
package and then some and then it hit mainstream culture
in the TV series French Prince of bel Air.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
I've shifted, yeah, they said it.
Speaker 4 (03:29):
Yeah, so it shifted from or it brought it from
street slang to American just mainstream pop culture.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
But I'm wondering what he meant by it all that.
Speaker 4 (03:38):
It's like, oh, you're everything, but then a bag of
chips is so good, it's so satisfying.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
It just like, uh, yeah, you're that and throwing a
bag of chips? Who like egst? But you know what
I want to know, Here's something I.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
Always wondered because I feel like this is like the
bag is a modern invention, but like when did the
chip meet the bag? Yeah, because it must have not
started in the bag, right, potatoes?
Speaker 3 (04:04):
So this is what I love about this show.
Speaker 4 (04:06):
Learning so many things, or even just thinking about so
many things. We did a whole episode on potatoes right
season one, I think it was so Potatoes were first
investigated in the Andes around like five hundred seven hundred BC,
and the Incas cultivated hundreds of varieties in different altitudes,
in different climates. You know, there were frozen overnight, dried
(04:26):
in the sun, pounded into these lightweight, long lasting food.
Potatoes arrived in North America via British and Irish colonists,
not directly from South America in the sixteen hundred thing.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
That's weird. That was a long way around, so away
from South America to Europe and then to the United States.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
And then to the United States.
Speaker 4 (04:49):
Yeah, so it didn't get here until it get to
the United States until the sixteen hundred, so pretty late.
So the first person credited with the potato chips is
a chef named George Crumb in Saratoga County, New York.
He was this guy was He was half African American,
half Native American. And legend has it that in eighteen
fifty three, a disgruntled customer at Moon's Lake House, which
(05:12):
was this high end resort where he was chef at,
returned his potatoes fried potatoes. He was like, these are gross,
these are soggy, these are disgusting. So frustrated, what he
did is he cut those potatoes that were returned paper thin,
and he fried them until they were super crisp, and
he added salt to them. And so rather than be offended,
(05:35):
this guy was like, oh my god, this is amazing.
And the Saratoga Chip, which was the early name for
the potato chip, was born, and so they became Itsn't
it cool? They became the signature dish. They spread across
the country, and then he went on to open his
own restaurant, and he became a local celebrity. And today
(05:56):
Americans eed billions of pounded potato chips each year.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
This is crazy because he was black and Native American
in eighteen fifties.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
In the eighteen fifties, and the.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
Civil War was eighteen six eighteen sixties. Yeah, this is
crazy that some a person of color at a high
end restaurant and by the way, not only African African American,
but also Native American, I know. And he had the
access and the ability to create one of the most
iconic billion dollar industries we know today, like Bravo, George Bravo.
Speaker 4 (06:32):
But at the same time, he never patented it. He
didn't package it, he didn't mass produce the chip. This
is just something that he did. So he didn't. He
should have been you know, he should have made billions
of dollars, you know him his family could have had
generation all the wealth.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
No, but they didn't.
Speaker 3 (06:51):
He didn't, so he didn't know that he didn't.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
He died never knowing the fortune that his invention would bring.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
Exactly so potato chips were.
Speaker 4 (07:01):
They were sold in bulk out of barrels or tins
at local grocery stores or like little mom and pop shops,
and often they were made daily and the chips at
the top of these barrels were really nice and crispy,
but the ones at the bottom often turned stale or
turned greasy.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
Yeah, so then when did we start seeing chips in
a bag? Because this barrel situation does not seem sustainable.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
No, I can imagine.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
It's like, she's just like coffee in a barrel at bars,
you know, you're like, oh, on Friday, you're having Monday's coffee.
At the bottom of the barrel.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
It's just like burnt.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
The chips at the top were called crisps, and that's
what they call them in England.
Speaker 4 (07:43):
Oh, then that's what they call them in England. Yeah,
they call them different there. And the ones at the
very bottom not only were they soggy and stale, but
they were just like little pieces. Right, it's not really
a chip, so the chip meets the bag. In the
nineteen twenties, this woman named Laura Scudder. She was a
trainer and later she became a lawyer and a businesswoman.
She was the first female attorney in Ukaya, California, Northern California.
(08:08):
So in nineteen twenty six she started her own potato
chip business. They were sold in barrels at the time,
it didn't keep them fresh, and she really wanted to
preserve this quality and this freshness and this deliciousness. So
she had discovered the advantages of wax paper to improve
potato chips packaging. So she asked her female employees to
take home sheets of wax paper and hand iron them
(08:32):
into little baggies so that she could start, you know,
selling chips in these little baggies, right, so to guarantee freshness,
and competitors picked up on this idea. They kept the
fresh the chips fresher, crisper, and they were easier to
sell in these individual portions, didn't.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
She also began putting like dates on the bags to
just remember, you know, when when that particular potato chip
was from made.
Speaker 4 (09:01):
Yes, she was the first one to show freshness date
on a food product.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
This woman, Lauren West, isn't that cool? And so that's cool.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
Also, like she was a nurse, a lawyer and a
businesswoman like that. Those are three careers and she was
all of them.
Speaker 3 (09:17):
She was all of them. It's crazy.
Speaker 4 (09:19):
So Yes, she's credited to the England inventor of the
modern snack food bag and by nineteen fifty three she
had one thousand employees and fifty percent of the potato
chip market.
Speaker 3 (09:30):
No wild.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
Oh, and then she sold her company in nineteen fifty seven,
and she so she settled for less money to a
buyer in order to secure jobs for her employees.
Speaker 4 (09:42):
I know, isn't that crazy? And she's still in business.
Her company's still in business today. It's gone through different owners,
but she's this rare example of a successful female entrepreneur
in the early twentieth century food industry.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
Laura Scudder's marketing slogan was the noisiest chips in the world.
What is the science I guess behind the crunch? Like,
obviously potatoes are starchy and fried, but you know what
makes this perfect crunch.
Speaker 4 (10:13):
When you thinly slice a potato, the water evaporates, leaving
behind this sort of starchy, porous starchy network, like a
little crispy lattice of starch. And at the same time,
by adding this into hot oil, it triggers this Maillard reaction,
which is the same browning effect that makes bread cross
(10:37):
or seared steak tastes so good. And it gives chips
their golden color and this kind of brittle texture.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
And so when you bite into.
Speaker 4 (10:47):
A chip, that noise that you're hearing is physics, right,
It's this rigid start structure and so it releases this
sort of sound waves and that's what it is. And
there have been studies that that's say that hearing the
crunch makes the chip taste fresher and more.
Speaker 1 (11:07):
Enjoyable because the brain connects sound and texture and flavor
to create this like full sensory experience of the crunch.
Speaker 3 (11:18):
Yeah, that makes sense. It's the same thing like when
you eat spicy food.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
That's science as well, right, Like spicy is addictive and
then you're like, this is burning my mouth.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
I want more. This is burning my mouth, I want more. Exactly,
that's the same. That's why who was the one? Oh
this is where the lay's slogan comes in.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
Bet you can't eat just one ugambi. So guys, these
slogans are slogans.
Speaker 3 (11:46):
It's science, yes, science, because I can't eat just one?
Can you eat just one?
Speaker 1 (11:51):
No?
Speaker 3 (11:52):
Impossible? So it's science. We're not just glatten. This is science.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
So do they do they quate like a louder crunch
with higher enjoyment because I do feel like some of
the chips today are even crunchier, Like you know those
the more natural ones, or I forget the one the
kettle kettle chips. Those kettle so loud, like in my
own ear, I'm like, Jesus is so loud.
Speaker 4 (12:18):
Yeah, And there's also thicker, right, the kettle chips are
much thicker.
Speaker 3 (12:21):
I think maybe that's also.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
I'm wondering if thicker equals crunchier equals louder.
Speaker 3 (12:25):
But that's why I don't know.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
If you've ever fried as a fish, you know, like
if you just do like a fried fish, if you
just put a little corn starch on the outside of
that fish, it makes it just a little crispy on
the outside, or on a chicken breast, if you're like
just brying a chicken breast, if you put a little
bit of corn starch, it gives that kind of little
crispy texture. Not a lot, but this you're saying, the
(12:46):
potato has that natural starch that gives it that porous texture.
Speaker 4 (12:51):
Exactly exactly, and it's called they call it. Scientists call
it the bliss point. So your brain says yes before
you even think about saying no. And so this crunch,
like that spicy food, it releases these dopamines, so it's like, okay,
give me another, give me another, and all.
Speaker 3 (13:08):
Of a sudden the bag is gone.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
Yeah. So there's like they put salt to spark your
taste buds, fat to make it rich and comforting, and
starch that breaks down into sugar in your mouth. So
there you know this trio. It's a trio, the trio
of the Bliss Point. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (13:28):
And this is the same for corn chips, right, they'd
still it has the same crunch.
Speaker 3 (13:39):
So when did Laize come into the picture?
Speaker 1 (13:41):
Because I grew up with Lays, Like, when did the
potato chip hit big time mainstream general market mass production.
Speaker 4 (13:48):
So in the nineteen thirties and forties, this guy named
Herman Lay. He drove around the South selling chips out
of the trunk of his car, and he turned Lays
into the first nation wide potato chip brand.
Speaker 5 (14:01):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (14:01):
And at the same time, this is the thirties and forties, right,
this is a little after the Great Depression, we start
seeing supermarkets in the US. It's the beginning of America's
car culture, and so car culture created this demand for
packaged portable snacks, and so chips became a staple. And
(14:21):
then by the sixties and seventies we start seeing the
flavored chip craze, and in the seventies and eighties they
were like in every vending machine and in kids lunchboxes.
Today it's worth tens of billions of dollars, you know, annually,
with hundreds of different flavor combinations.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
I can't eat a tuna sandwich without potato chips inside
of it. And not only that, it has to be lays.
Speaker 3 (14:47):
It has to be lays.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
Potato chips inside my tuna sandwich.
Speaker 4 (14:52):
I do love Why what is it about putting chips
inside a sandwich?
Speaker 3 (14:56):
I do love that too. It just it just tastes
bout it's the crunch.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
It just tastes better texture and especially again something as
soggy as tuna salad like. I just think it's the perfect,
perfect combo. But you know, as Mexicans, we grew up
with the to topo, right, the torrilla chip and corn
has obviously been a staple and Meso American civilizations for
thousands of years. But I never knew where the word
to topo comes from. Obviously, no wadl Right.
Speaker 4 (15:23):
It's a It's a Nawa word, the the bochli, which
means toasted thing or thing that crunches when eaten, and
so traditionally the topos they were just toasted on on
a comal. Now we use it the topos for scooping salsa,
for scooping Ca Marle. You can't really scoop with a
potato chip, right, it needs to be something to work.
Speaker 3 (15:43):
It needs to have durability. It needs durability.
Speaker 5 (15:48):
Yes.
Speaker 4 (15:49):
So a pioneer Mexican woman, a Mexican American woman in
li first made the to topo popular in the US.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
OH.
Speaker 3 (15:57):
Her name was Rebecca Webb Caran Sash.
Speaker 4 (15:59):
She was born born in Durango, Mexico, and her family
fled to al Pasco during the Mexican Revolution and eventually
settled in Los Angeles. And then by the nineteen forty
she and her husband were running a thirtiya factory, Tarape
thirtilla factory, and they had just installed this new machine
that cranked out tortillas and bulk, but it produced a
(16:20):
lot of just misshapen or broken thirty yeas, and so
she ended up cutting these broken thirtias into little triangles,
frying them and adding salt.
Speaker 3 (16:29):
And this is something she didn't invent this.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
Right, people have been doing this forever, Like I know
at all, I was like, wait, it wasn't until the
nineteen forties. No, it had to be before this. But
she was one of the first to what like bag
them and sellem exactly.
Speaker 3 (16:41):
She was the first to bag them and sell them
in the US.
Speaker 4 (16:43):
But she would sell them as torteships for ten cents
a bag, and she sold them at the thirtilla factory.
So she didn't invent it, but she's considered the first
to commercially produce it as a practical way to combat
food waste and to make extra money from these scraps.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
Let me tell you something. This is so Mexican because
my aunt she would use the entire chicken. She would
make one chicken last the whole week, all the way
in too, like using the bones for the cardo and
the guts for something.
Speaker 3 (17:10):
Else, and the feet for flavorings of I mean.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
Like, yeah, we're not nothing those two waste in a
Mexican household.
Speaker 4 (17:18):
Nothing goes to it, and you can make a feast
out of anything.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
And there's also enough food for everybody. Stead a little
more water, a little more.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
Cardo, yeah, stuff, yeah, a little more.
Speaker 3 (17:27):
Stretch it out, stretch stretch it out.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
So what is the difference between tortilla chips and corn chips,
because technically torthia chips are corn chips.
Speaker 4 (17:38):
So there's different there's the tortilla chip, the to too
that's made from massa. Right, they're thinner, they're sometimes big,
they're usually triangular.
Speaker 3 (17:47):
And then there's the corn.
Speaker 4 (17:48):
Chips, like the fritos that aren't made from nixtamalized you know,
corner massa that it's made from ground corn meal, So
they're thicker, they're crunchier, and they're usually fried, and they're
heavily salted. Because so topos can be fried or baked.
Corn chips you know, are fried.
Speaker 1 (18:06):
That's what makes them like pop and snap in your mouth.
Speaker 3 (18:09):
And then licking your fingers.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
Saltiness and why why are corn chips ors? But like
why why are corn meal based fried snacks so strong
with just Mexican America communities?
Speaker 3 (18:23):
Why wouldn't everybody eat these? I know?
Speaker 4 (18:25):
Well, the interesting thing free the freedo friito means fried.
Something that's friito is something that's fried. Right, This is
where kind of frido's enters the picture. So this is
in nineteen thirty two in San Antonio, this man named
Charles elm All.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
Good things come from San Antonio.
Speaker 4 (18:46):
So Charles Elmer Doulan here responded to an ad in
the San Antonio Express placed by a Wahakan guy named Gustabogin,
and it listed for sale and original recipe for fried
corn chips along with this adapted potato riser that he
was using to make these fried corn chips and nineteen
(19:08):
retail accounts. So this is right after the Great Depression.
Doolan had sampled these chips at Algain's store and he
really really liked them, and he bought this little business
venture for one hundred dollars. He borrowed the money from
his mother, Daisy, who had sold her wedding ring in
order to get it. And Olgin he called them fritos,
(19:30):
little fried things, and he said there were just the
beech food of Mexico. And so Doolan started experimenting with
this recipe in the mother's kitchen. And they ran a bakery,
and they wanted to add a little smalty snack to
their line of products, just to make a little bit
more money. So they started going to the local dor
(19:53):
the area and buying massa and experimenting with the Massa
and then he started using corn instead, which is not
nick stimalized, and so he founded the Freedo Company in
nineteen thirty two. In nineteen thirty three he had applied
for a patent and Fredos became the original American corn
(20:15):
chip brand. This Mahigano sold this for one hundred dollars.
So at this, I know it makes me crazy. At
the same time, we know that Herman Ley was selling
potato chips from the trunk of his car. He ended
up finding founding the Hwla and Company, and then the
(20:37):
two of them were growing in parallel in between the
thirties and the fifties, one with potatoes chips, one with
corn chips. And then by the time Duelan died in
nineteen fifty nine, the sales of his fritos exceeded fifty
one million dollars. This is like twenty five years after
(20:59):
he bought them. And so they merged in the early
in nineteen sixty one, Lays and Frido they merged to
create the Freedo Lay Company and which was then purchased
by Pepsi Co. In nineteen sixty five, creating this snack
empire that covered potato and by the way, it man.
Speaker 1 (21:16):
By the way, PepsiCo that owns Freedo Lay, which owns Lays,
also makes Flaming Hot. They own the Flaming Hot brand.
And so here's the crazy thing, because I feel like
the dorrito is in between the fritto and the to Topo.
Am I right?
Speaker 3 (21:34):
Or Am I wrong? Kind of? I mean they yeah,
they are, And.
Speaker 1 (21:40):
To Too had a baby and you covered it in cheese,
it would be the dorito. It would be the dorrita.
Speaker 4 (21:47):
But the funny thing is, I don't know if funny
is the right word. Fascinating All of this I find
just mind blowing. But Dorritos were born in the nineteen
sixties Esque at Casa de Fritos, which was a Disneyland
restaurant run by the Friedo company. So instead of throwing
out the leftover torti yaz, the employees cut friday and
seasoned them and people loved them.
Speaker 3 (22:08):
Basically this toos. But so this Fredo let.
Speaker 4 (22:13):
Executive saw the potential in Narch launched doritos and the
first one didn't really.
Speaker 3 (22:19):
Sell well because they were just too plain.
Speaker 4 (22:21):
And then he added one faco flavored Doritos that came
out in nineteen sixty seven, and then they took off
eventually in the early seventies they did the Natcho cheese,
which is really an American classic. I love a good
dorito is live.
Speaker 1 (22:39):
Cho cheese dorito, everything with line, by the way, everything
with way. Here in Mexico we have papas preparallas, and
so I just had it literally an hour ago, and
you put Worcester Sauce, Maggie Valentina, Pulemon, and that's papas preparas,
and so like it's it's potato chips with all this
(23:00):
stuff on top of it.
Speaker 3 (23:01):
It's lovest all my savory snack in the.
Speaker 5 (23:04):
World, but the sun delicious.
Speaker 1 (23:17):
I love a good dorito. My son loves doritos. And
you know, in Europe the doritos different. It's called the
text Mex flavor. In Spain they don't have. It's not
called nacho cheese. It's called the text Mex flavor. So
it is kind of a cross between a taco flavor
and a nacho cheese flavor because it is it doesn't
taste like American dorito.
Speaker 3 (23:38):
Interesting.
Speaker 1 (23:38):
And then when did they create tostitos, Because Frido le
also invented tostitos.
Speaker 4 (23:44):
Yeah, nineteen seventy eight as the quote unquote authentic Mexican
style snack for the American market. When I was in
high school, I think every day I had a bag
of the ritas concina for lunch.
Speaker 1 (23:56):
Totally every day I had a bag of Every day
I had a Friedo pie. And for those of you
who don't know, a Freedo pie in Texas As you
take a little Freedo bag, you cut it sideways with scissors,
and you pour chili like meat chili inside of the
bag and top it with cheese and you just eat
it out of the bag. We would have them at
baseball games for lunch. I had a Freedom Pie for
(24:19):
lunch every day, fifty cents fifty cents every day. That
was my lunch Freedom Pie.
Speaker 3 (24:26):
It's so Texas.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
I remember there was a controversy with the Freedo Bandido,
which was this little cringy cartoon kind of mascot that
Freedom made to promote the Freedo corn chips. Like I
don't know. It was like in the sixties, late sixties.
Speaker 4 (24:41):
Yeah, Mel Blanc, who voiced Bugs Bunny, he was the
Freedo Bandido and he was and he would say, I'm.
Speaker 3 (24:49):
Going to steal your fritos. It's so wrong. It's like
the speedy, the speedy.
Speaker 4 (24:56):
Gonzalez of advertising.
Speaker 3 (25:00):
So wrong. It was horrible. It was like, this is racist,
you know, stereotype.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
Well, because it was a Mexican bandit with a bandit
with a big sombrero, with a droopy mustache and a
gold tooth and pistols like and he's like, I'm in
Asterellio Friedo.
Speaker 3 (25:15):
So yeah, it was like.
Speaker 1 (25:16):
The depiction of it with the voice, with the slogan,
and so this obviously ruffled a lot of feathers, like
the National Mexican American Anti Defamation Committee and Image, which
was the involvement of Mexican Americans and Gainful Endeavors. They
were formed in nineteen sixty eight to come back negative
(25:36):
stereotypes of Mexican Americans in advertising. And so these groups
argued that the Freedo Bandito promoted negative stereotypes of Mexicans
and they promoted promoted us as untrustworthy and you know,
a cartoonish slant on our community. And so they did
retire the character under pressure. That's so good, right, nineteen
(26:00):
seventy one, Yeah, because yeah, you know why because because
the controversy. I remember I had I learned about this
in Chicago studies. But it was such a big win
in this moment in nineteen seventy one because the Freedom
Bandito scandal kind of is often cited as like this
key moment in history of advertising, and this was a
huge win that said activism can spark change in how
(26:25):
you know, we're portrayed or depicted in marketing to people.
And so I remember it being you know, like a
landmark moment for our community. I love it.
Speaker 3 (26:37):
I love it.
Speaker 4 (26:37):
We just need to speak out. Yes, So speaking of
Freedo l A and Pepsi Co. Didn't PepsiCo buy see
it the foods see that the foods knows they're worth.
Speaker 1 (26:48):
Let me tell you something, because there was almost I
remember there's some people from our community who were like, booh,
you sold out. But the idea of you know, creating
wealth for all of these employees and all of these people,
and for a brand like from our community to be
worthy of bigger distribution, getting it, you know, into other markets,
(27:14):
you need a company, a bigger company to do that.
Because see at the foods is family founded, family run
since twenty fourteen. They're based in Austin and it was
founded by Verdonica Varsa and her siblings and they're from Laredo.
Speaker 4 (27:28):
They're from Laredo, my hometown, A proud Laredo Pra Laredo prow.
Speaker 1 (27:33):
But you know, I was introduced to them through Claudia,
our friend Claudia, who was like, oh my god, you
got to try these almond flower tortillas. And I was like,
almond flower and I read the story on the back
of the on the back of every package to this
day has their family story because siet This started because
Veronica had dietary needs. She couldn't really eat what her
(27:55):
family was eating, and so she wanted to enjoy Mexican food,
but she, you know, had a dietary complication. So she
started making these tortillas with almond flour and everybody loved them.
And then she started selling them locally a co op
and then people liked them. Yeah, and more people liked it.
And that I mean literally it was this is there,
(28:18):
like the jewel in their crown is the almond flower tortilla.
But now they have cassava tortillas. They they use avocado
oil for frying. They all of their totapos are grain free.
You know, it's just they they're really like the healthier
alternative to Mexican snacks. And now they have list like
(28:40):
this broad line of really our heritage inspired products. They
have their own version of the Heen. They have all
the to topos. They have a scooping to topo, their
triangle to topo, their lime totapos. They have all these
different tortillas, you know. So a bit of trivia, a
bit of trivia because when I invested in see It,
I had to go meet but they don't. And I'd
(29:00):
known her through through Cloudy a little bit. But when
we finally sat down to have a meeting, she was like,
You'll never believe this.
Speaker 3 (29:09):
You are my cheerleading coach in Laredo.
Speaker 1 (29:12):
What I was Banonica's cheerleading coach when she was in
high school. I went to Laredo and because I worked
for NCAA, which is this company, cheerleading company, and I
went taught them a routine I sent. She's like, you
sent us little good luck for the competition bags. I
was like, I did, but it sounds like me I
(29:33):
found that. But the fact that she remembers She's like,
I think that's my cheerleading coach when I came out
on Desperate HOUSEWBS.
Speaker 3 (29:41):
That's hilarious. Oh my god, that's such a good story.
Speaker 1 (29:45):
It's a small world.
Speaker 3 (29:46):
That's why you're never real means bags of chips. Yeah,
you never know who.
Speaker 1 (29:50):
You're going to run into in life, so be nice,
to be kind to everybody.
Speaker 3 (29:54):
Be kind to everybody.
Speaker 4 (29:55):
That is the number one lesson, and eat a bag
of chips.
Speaker 1 (30:02):
Well, I love I loved this episode. I this episode
surprised me and I'm so excited. We did a deep
dive because the dato.
Speaker 3 (30:09):
Chips, corn chips, they're not just snacks.
Speaker 4 (30:11):
They're not their history, their science, their culture, and every
little crunchy bite.
Speaker 3 (30:17):
Leave us a message. We love hearing from you. Thank
you for listening, Thank you for listening.
Speaker 1 (30:25):
Hungry for History is a Hyphenite media production in partnership
with Iheart'smkupura podcast network.
Speaker 4 (30:30):
For more of your favorite shows, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
I love this episode. It's Frito's doritos to topos, Oh
my everything chips that should be the episode. Yes, oh my.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
My name is Eva Longoria and I am Myra and
welcome to Hungry for History, a podcast that explores our
past and present through food. On every episode, we'll talk
about the history of some of our favorite dishes, ingredients,
and beverages from our culture.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
So make yourself at home.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Even I'm excited, nothing makes me happier than chips. Literally.
I yeah, I'm not a doulcy person. I don't like
chocolate and cookies and candy. But give me a.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
Bag of chips.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Give me a bag of chips, and you've made my day.
Speaker 4 (00:54):
Yeah, you love the salty. I'm I'm the opposite. I
do love a good bag of chips. But of course,
given a cookie or a bag of chips, I will
always choose the cookie.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
Bye.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
Oh, I will never choose the cookie. I will never
I will always choose the bag of chip, the cup
of olives, the bag of pretzel, the sardine, the like
u oh chocolate, and yeah, give me salt any day.
Welcome back to the show. Everyone. Our thesis that latinos
are interwoven into every aspect of American culture continues from
(01:29):
your bags of ruffles and fritos to your jar of
peter Pan peanut butter. We are integral.
Speaker 4 (01:37):
We are We have entire episodes devoted to the history
of potato and corn. We did that last season or
season one, I think, But in this episode we'll focus
on everyone's favorite snacks, chips, potato chips, and also to topos, fritos.
Speaker 3 (01:52):
Eva. What do you prefer potato chips or corn chips? Oh,
that's so hard, you know.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
I eat more potato chips because I like salty potatoes.
But if I'm having a fri doo pie, if you know,
you know, you know, corn chips is like is the
Holy Rail?
Speaker 4 (02:12):
What's your favorite bag of chips? I love a bag
of fritos. You know what I love about fritos. So
when you look at the label, it's like corn salt
oil bag of fritos with tons of lime juice and
like Sasa Alentina.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
And I'll tell you know, the great thing about eating
a bag of Fritos is licking your fingers. I know,
I know, flaming hot Cheetos gets like or Cheetos gets
gets the like finger licking stamp of approval to your fingers.
But no, I think after eating a bag of fritos
and licking your finger after every other bite.
Speaker 4 (02:42):
It's so salty, it's so sad, Like heaven, where did
where did that phrase all that and a bag of
chips come from?
Speaker 3 (02:49):
It's such a good thrid.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
I love that saying.
Speaker 3 (02:51):
I do too.
Speaker 4 (02:52):
I love all food related, you know saying so that
saying all that and a bag of chips at first
surfaced in the early.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
Nineties, so it's not that old. The show yo, MTV
raps the host, Oh I remember this? Do you remember
that show?
Speaker 1 (03:06):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (03:07):
He mentioned it in a nineteen ninety one interview for
The Baltimore Sun, and he explained how people were upgrading
the slang all that adding with a bag of chips
as a way of saying that they have the whole
package and then some and then it hit mainstream culture
in the TV series French Prince of bel Air.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
I've shifted, yeah, they said it.
Speaker 4 (03:29):
Yeah, so it shifted from or it brought it from
street slang to American just mainstream pop culture.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
But I'm wondering what he meant by it all that.
Speaker 4 (03:38):
It's like, oh, you're everything, but then a bag of
chips is so good, it's so satisfying.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
It just like, uh, yeah, you're that and throwing a
bag of chips? Who like egst? But you know what
I want to know, Here's something I.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
Always wondered because I feel like this is like the
bag is a modern invention, but like when did the
chip meet the bag? Yeah, because it must have not
started in the bag, right, potatoes?
Speaker 3 (04:04):
So this is what I love about this show.
Speaker 4 (04:06):
Learning so many things, or even just thinking about so
many things. We did a whole episode on potatoes right
season one, I think it was so Potatoes were first
investigated in the Andes around like five hundred seven hundred BC,
and the Incas cultivated hundreds of varieties in different altitudes,
in different climates. You know, there were frozen overnight, dried
(04:26):
in the sun, pounded into these lightweight, long lasting food.
Potatoes arrived in North America via British and Irish colonists,
not directly from South America in the sixteen hundred thing.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
That's weird. That was a long way around, so away
from South America to Europe and then to the United States.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
And then to the United States.
Speaker 4 (04:49):
Yeah, so it didn't get here until it get to
the United States until the sixteen hundred, so pretty late.
So the first person credited with the potato chips is
a chef named George Crumb in Saratoga County, New York.
He was this guy was He was half African American,
half Native American. And legend has it that in eighteen
fifty three, a disgruntled customer at Moon's Lake House, which
(05:12):
was this high end resort where he was chef at,
returned his potatoes fried potatoes. He was like, these are gross,
these are soggy, these are disgusting. So frustrated, what he
did is he cut those potatoes that were returned paper thin,
and he fried them until they were super crisp, and
he added salt to them. And so rather than be offended,
(05:35):
this guy was like, oh my god, this is amazing.
And the Saratoga Chip, which was the early name for
the potato chip, was born, and so they became Itsn't
it cool? They became the signature dish. They spread across
the country, and then he went on to open his
own restaurant, and he became a local celebrity. And today
(05:56):
Americans eed billions of pounded potato chips each year.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
This is crazy because he was black and Native American
in eighteen fifties.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
In the eighteen fifties, and the.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
Civil War was eighteen six eighteen sixties. Yeah, this is
crazy that some a person of color at a high
end restaurant and by the way, not only African African American,
but also Native American, I know. And he had the
access and the ability to create one of the most
iconic billion dollar industries we know today, like Bravo, George Bravo.
Speaker 4 (06:32):
But at the same time, he never patented it. He
didn't package it, he didn't mass produce the chip. This
is just something that he did. So he didn't. He
should have been you know, he should have made billions
of dollars, you know him his family could have had
generation all the wealth.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
No, but they didn't.
Speaker 3 (06:51):
He didn't, so he didn't know that he didn't.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
He died never knowing the fortune that his invention would bring.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
Exactly so potato chips were.
Speaker 4 (07:01):
They were sold in bulk out of barrels or tins
at local grocery stores or like little mom and pop shops,
and often they were made daily and the chips at
the top of these barrels were really nice and crispy,
but the ones at the bottom often turned stale or
turned greasy.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
Yeah, so then when did we start seeing chips in
a bag? Because this barrel situation does not seem sustainable.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
No, I can imagine.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
It's like, she's just like coffee in a barrel at bars,
you know, you're like, oh, on Friday, you're having Monday's coffee.
At the bottom of the barrel.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
It's just like burnt.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
The chips at the top were called crisps, and that's
what they call them in England.
Speaker 4 (07:43):
Oh, then that's what they call them in England. Yeah,
they call them different there. And the ones at the
very bottom not only were they soggy and stale, but
they were just like little pieces. Right, it's not really
a chip, so the chip meets the bag. In the
nineteen twenties, this woman named Laura Scudder. She was a
trainer and later she became a lawyer and a businesswoman.
She was the first female attorney in Ukaya, California, Northern California.
(08:08):
So in nineteen twenty six she started her own potato
chip business. They were sold in barrels at the time,
it didn't keep them fresh, and she really wanted to
preserve this quality and this freshness and this deliciousness. So
she had discovered the advantages of wax paper to improve
potato chips packaging. So she asked her female employees to
take home sheets of wax paper and hand iron them
(08:32):
into little baggies so that she could start, you know,
selling chips in these little baggies, right, so to guarantee freshness,
and competitors picked up on this idea. They kept the
fresh the chips fresher, crisper, and they were easier to
sell in these individual portions, didn't.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
She also began putting like dates on the bags to
just remember, you know, when when that particular potato chip
was from made.
Speaker 4 (09:01):
Yes, she was the first one to show freshness date
on a food product.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
This woman, Lauren West, isn't that cool? And so that's cool.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
Also, like she was a nurse, a lawyer and a
businesswoman like that. Those are three careers and she was
all of them.
Speaker 3 (09:17):
She was all of them. It's crazy.
Speaker 4 (09:19):
So Yes, she's credited to the England inventor of the
modern snack food bag and by nineteen fifty three she
had one thousand employees and fifty percent of the potato
chip market.
Speaker 3 (09:30):
No wild.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
Oh, and then she sold her company in nineteen fifty seven,
and she so she settled for less money to a
buyer in order to secure jobs for her employees.
Speaker 4 (09:42):
I know, isn't that crazy? And she's still in business.
Her company's still in business today. It's gone through different owners,
but she's this rare example of a successful female entrepreneur
in the early twentieth century food industry.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
Laura Scudder's marketing slogan was the noisiest chips in the world.
What is the science I guess behind the crunch? Like,
obviously potatoes are starchy and fried, but you know what
makes this perfect crunch.
Speaker 4 (10:13):
When you thinly slice a potato, the water evaporates, leaving
behind this sort of starchy, porous starchy network, like a
little crispy lattice of starch. And at the same time,
by adding this into hot oil, it triggers this Maillard reaction,
which is the same browning effect that makes bread cross
(10:37):
or seared steak tastes so good. And it gives chips
their golden color and this kind of brittle texture.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
And so when you bite into.
Speaker 4 (10:47):
A chip, that noise that you're hearing is physics, right,
It's this rigid start structure and so it releases this
sort of sound waves and that's what it is. And
there have been studies that that's say that hearing the
crunch makes the chip taste fresher and more.
Speaker 1 (11:07):
Enjoyable because the brain connects sound and texture and flavor
to create this like full sensory experience of the crunch.
Speaker 3 (11:18):
Yeah, that makes sense. It's the same thing like when
you eat spicy food.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
That's science as well, right, Like spicy is addictive and
then you're like, this is burning my mouth.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
I want more. This is burning my mouth, I want more. Exactly,
that's the same. That's why who was the one? Oh
this is where the lay's slogan comes in.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
Bet you can't eat just one ugambi. So guys, these
slogans are slogans.
Speaker 3 (11:46):
It's science, yes, science, because I can't eat just one?
Can you eat just one?
Speaker 1 (11:51):
No?
Speaker 3 (11:52):
Impossible? So it's science. We're not just glatten. This is science.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
So do they do they quate like a louder crunch
with higher enjoyment because I do feel like some of
the chips today are even crunchier, Like you know those
the more natural ones, or I forget the one the
kettle kettle chips. Those kettle so loud, like in my
own ear, I'm like, Jesus is so loud.
Speaker 4 (12:18):
Yeah, And there's also thicker, right, the kettle chips are
much thicker.
Speaker 3 (12:21):
I think maybe that's also.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
I'm wondering if thicker equals crunchier equals louder.
Speaker 3 (12:25):
But that's why I don't know.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
If you've ever fried as a fish, you know, like
if you just do like a fried fish, if you
just put a little corn starch on the outside of
that fish, it makes it just a little crispy on
the outside, or on a chicken breast, if you're like
just brying a chicken breast, if you put a little
bit of corn starch, it gives that kind of little
crispy texture. Not a lot, but this you're saying, the
(12:46):
potato has that natural starch that gives it that porous texture.
Speaker 4 (12:51):
Exactly exactly, and it's called they call it. Scientists call
it the bliss point. So your brain says yes before
you even think about saying no. And so this crunch,
like that spicy food, it releases these dopamines, so it's like, okay,
give me another, give me another, and all.
Speaker 3 (13:08):
Of a sudden the bag is gone.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
Yeah. So there's like they put salt to spark your
taste buds, fat to make it rich and comforting, and
starch that breaks down into sugar in your mouth. So
there you know this trio. It's a trio, the trio
of the Bliss Point. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (13:28):
And this is the same for corn chips, right, they'd
still it has the same crunch.
Speaker 3 (13:39):
So when did Laize come into the picture?
Speaker 1 (13:41):
Because I grew up with Lays, Like, when did the
potato chip hit big time mainstream general market mass production.
Speaker 4 (13:48):
So in the nineteen thirties and forties, this guy named
Herman Lay. He drove around the South selling chips out
of the trunk of his car, and he turned Lays
into the first nation wide potato chip brand.
Speaker 5 (14:01):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (14:01):
And at the same time, this is the thirties and forties, right,
this is a little after the Great Depression, we start
seeing supermarkets in the US. It's the beginning of America's
car culture, and so car culture created this demand for
packaged portable snacks, and so chips became a staple. And
(14:21):
then by the sixties and seventies we start seeing the
flavored chip craze, and in the seventies and eighties they
were like in every vending machine and in kids lunchboxes.
Today it's worth tens of billions of dollars, you know, annually,
with hundreds of different flavor combinations.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
I can't eat a tuna sandwich without potato chips inside
of it. And not only that, it has to be lays.
Speaker 3 (14:47):
It has to be lays.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
Potato chips inside my tuna sandwich.
Speaker 4 (14:52):
I do love Why what is it about putting chips
inside a sandwich?
Speaker 3 (14:56):
I do love that too. It just it just tastes
bout it's the crunch.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
It just tastes better texture and especially again something as
soggy as tuna salad like. I just think it's the perfect,
perfect combo. But you know, as Mexicans, we grew up
with the to topo, right, the torrilla chip and corn
has obviously been a staple and Meso American civilizations for
thousands of years. But I never knew where the word
to topo comes from. Obviously, no wadl Right.
Speaker 4 (15:23):
It's a It's a Nawa word, the the bochli, which
means toasted thing or thing that crunches when eaten, and
so traditionally the topos they were just toasted on on
a comal. Now we use it the topos for scooping salsa,
for scooping Ca Marle. You can't really scoop with a
potato chip, right, it needs to be something to work.
Speaker 3 (15:43):
It needs to have durability. It needs durability.
Speaker 5 (15:48):
Yes.
Speaker 4 (15:49):
So a pioneer Mexican woman, a Mexican American woman in
li first made the to topo popular in the US.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
OH.
Speaker 3 (15:57):
Her name was Rebecca Webb Caran Sash.
Speaker 4 (15:59):
She was born born in Durango, Mexico, and her family
fled to al Pasco during the Mexican Revolution and eventually
settled in Los Angeles. And then by the nineteen forty
she and her husband were running a thirtiya factory, Tarape
thirtilla factory, and they had just installed this new machine
that cranked out tortillas and bulk, but it produced a
(16:20):
lot of just misshapen or broken thirty yeas, and so
she ended up cutting these broken thirtias into little triangles,
frying them and adding salt.
Speaker 3 (16:29):
And this is something she didn't invent this.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
Right, people have been doing this forever, Like I know
at all, I was like, wait, it wasn't until the
nineteen forties. No, it had to be before this. But
she was one of the first to what like bag
them and sellem exactly.
Speaker 3 (16:41):
She was the first to bag them and sell them
in the US.
Speaker 4 (16:43):
But she would sell them as torteships for ten cents
a bag, and she sold them at the thirtilla factory.
So she didn't invent it, but she's considered the first
to commercially produce it as a practical way to combat
food waste and to make extra money from these scraps.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
Let me tell you something. This is so Mexican because
my aunt she would use the entire chicken. She would
make one chicken last the whole week, all the way
in too, like using the bones for the cardo and
the guts for something.
Speaker 3 (17:10):
Else, and the feet for flavorings of I mean.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
Like, yeah, we're not nothing those two waste in a
Mexican household.
Speaker 4 (17:18):
Nothing goes to it, and you can make a feast
out of anything.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
And there's also enough food for everybody. Stead a little
more water, a little more.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
Cardo, yeah, stuff, yeah, a little more.
Speaker 3 (17:27):
Stretch it out, stretch stretch it out.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
So what is the difference between tortilla chips and corn chips,
because technically torthia chips are corn chips.
Speaker 4 (17:38):
So there's different there's the tortilla chip, the to too
that's made from massa. Right, they're thinner, they're sometimes big,
they're usually triangular.
Speaker 3 (17:47):
And then there's the corn.
Speaker 4 (17:48):
Chips, like the fritos that aren't made from nixtamalized you know,
corner massa that it's made from ground corn meal, So
they're thicker, they're crunchier, and they're usually fried, and they're
heavily salted. Because so topos can be fried or baked.
Corn chips you know, are fried.
Speaker 1 (18:06):
That's what makes them like pop and snap in your mouth.
Speaker 3 (18:09):
And then licking your fingers.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
Saltiness and why why are corn chips ors? But like
why why are corn meal based fried snacks so strong
with just Mexican America communities?
Speaker 3 (18:23):
Why wouldn't everybody eat these? I know?
Speaker 4 (18:25):
Well, the interesting thing free the freedo friito means fried.
Something that's friito is something that's fried. Right, This is
where kind of frido's enters the picture. So this is
in nineteen thirty two in San Antonio, this man named
Charles elm All.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
Good things come from San Antonio.
Speaker 4 (18:46):
So Charles Elmer Doulan here responded to an ad in
the San Antonio Express placed by a Wahakan guy named Gustabogin,
and it listed for sale and original recipe for fried
corn chips along with this adapted potato riser that he
was using to make these fried corn chips and nineteen
(19:08):
retail accounts. So this is right after the Great Depression.
Doolan had sampled these chips at Algain's store and he
really really liked them, and he bought this little business
venture for one hundred dollars. He borrowed the money from
his mother, Daisy, who had sold her wedding ring in
order to get it. And Olgin he called them fritos,
(19:30):
little fried things, and he said there were just the
beech food of Mexico. And so Doolan started experimenting with
this recipe in the mother's kitchen. And they ran a bakery,
and they wanted to add a little smalty snack to
their line of products, just to make a little bit
more money. So they started going to the local dor
(19:53):
the area and buying massa and experimenting with the Massa
and then he started using corn instead, which is not
nick stimalized, and so he founded the Freedo Company in
nineteen thirty two. In nineteen thirty three he had applied
for a patent and Fredos became the original American corn
(20:15):
chip brand. This Mahigano sold this for one hundred dollars.
So at this, I know it makes me crazy. At
the same time, we know that Herman Ley was selling
potato chips from the trunk of his car. He ended
up finding founding the Hwla and Company, and then the
(20:37):
two of them were growing in parallel in between the
thirties and the fifties, one with potatoes chips, one with
corn chips. And then by the time Duelan died in
nineteen fifty nine, the sales of his fritos exceeded fifty
one million dollars. This is like twenty five years after
(20:59):
he bought them. And so they merged in the early
in nineteen sixty one, Lays and Frido they merged to
create the Freedo Lay Company and which was then purchased
by Pepsi Co. In nineteen sixty five, creating this snack
empire that covered potato and by the way, it man.
Speaker 1 (21:16):
By the way, PepsiCo that owns Freedo Lay, which owns Lays,
also makes Flaming Hot. They own the Flaming Hot brand.
And so here's the crazy thing, because I feel like
the dorrito is in between the fritto and the to Topo.
Am I right?
Speaker 3 (21:34):
Or Am I wrong? Kind of? I mean they yeah,
they are, And.
Speaker 1 (21:40):
To Too had a baby and you covered it in cheese,
it would be the dorito. It would be the dorrita.
Speaker 4 (21:47):
But the funny thing is, I don't know if funny
is the right word. Fascinating All of this I find
just mind blowing. But Dorritos were born in the nineteen
sixties Esque at Casa de Fritos, which was a Disneyland
restaurant run by the Friedo company. So instead of throwing
out the leftover torti yaz, the employees cut friday and
seasoned them and people loved them.
Speaker 3 (22:08):
Basically this toos. But so this Fredo let.
Speaker 4 (22:13):
Executive saw the potential in Narch launched doritos and the
first one didn't really.
Speaker 3 (22:19):
Sell well because they were just too plain.
Speaker 4 (22:21):
And then he added one faco flavored Doritos that came
out in nineteen sixty seven, and then they took off
eventually in the early seventies they did the Natcho cheese,
which is really an American classic. I love a good
dorito is live.
Speaker 1 (22:39):
Cho cheese dorito, everything with line, by the way, everything
with way. Here in Mexico we have papas preparallas, and
so I just had it literally an hour ago, and
you put Worcester Sauce, Maggie Valentina, Pulemon, and that's papas preparas,
and so like it's it's potato chips with all this
(23:00):
stuff on top of it.
Speaker 3 (23:01):
It's lovest all my savory snack in the.
Speaker 5 (23:04):
World, but the sun delicious.
Speaker 1 (23:17):
I love a good dorito. My son loves doritos. And
you know, in Europe the doritos different. It's called the
text Mex flavor. In Spain they don't have. It's not
called nacho cheese. It's called the text Mex flavor. So
it is kind of a cross between a taco flavor
and a nacho cheese flavor because it is it doesn't
taste like American dorito.
Speaker 3 (23:38):
Interesting.
Speaker 1 (23:38):
And then when did they create tostitos, Because Frido le
also invented tostitos.
Speaker 4 (23:44):
Yeah, nineteen seventy eight as the quote unquote authentic Mexican
style snack for the American market. When I was in
high school, I think every day I had a bag
of the ritas concina for lunch.
Speaker 1 (23:56):
Totally every day I had a bag of Every day
I had a Friedo pie. And for those of you
who don't know, a Freedo pie in Texas As you
take a little Freedo bag, you cut it sideways with scissors,
and you pour chili like meat chili inside of the
bag and top it with cheese and you just eat
it out of the bag. We would have them at
baseball games for lunch. I had a Freedom Pie for
(24:19):
lunch every day, fifty cents fifty cents every day. That
was my lunch Freedom Pie.
Speaker 3 (24:26):
It's so Texas.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
I remember there was a controversy with the Freedo Bandido,
which was this little cringy cartoon kind of mascot that
Freedom made to promote the Freedo corn chips. Like I
don't know. It was like in the sixties, late sixties.
Speaker 4 (24:41):
Yeah, Mel Blanc, who voiced Bugs Bunny, he was the
Freedo Bandido and he was and he would say, I'm.
Speaker 3 (24:49):
Going to steal your fritos. It's so wrong. It's like
the speedy, the speedy.
Speaker 4 (24:56):
Gonzalez of advertising.
Speaker 3 (25:00):
So wrong. It was horrible. It was like, this is racist,
you know, stereotype.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
Well, because it was a Mexican bandit with a bandit
with a big sombrero, with a droopy mustache and a
gold tooth and pistols like and he's like, I'm in
Asterellio Friedo.
Speaker 3 (25:15):
So yeah, it was like.
Speaker 1 (25:16):
The depiction of it with the voice, with the slogan,
and so this obviously ruffled a lot of feathers, like
the National Mexican American Anti Defamation Committee and Image, which
was the involvement of Mexican Americans and Gainful Endeavors. They
were formed in nineteen sixty eight to come back negative
(25:36):
stereotypes of Mexican Americans in advertising. And so these groups
argued that the Freedo Bandito promoted negative stereotypes of Mexicans
and they promoted promoted us as untrustworthy and you know,
a cartoonish slant on our community. And so they did
retire the character under pressure. That's so good, right, nineteen
(26:00):
seventy one, Yeah, because yeah, you know why because because
the controversy. I remember I had I learned about this
in Chicago studies. But it was such a big win
in this moment in nineteen seventy one because the Freedom
Bandito scandal kind of is often cited as like this
key moment in history of advertising, and this was a
huge win that said activism can spark change in how
(26:25):
you know, we're portrayed or depicted in marketing to people.
And so I remember it being you know, like a
landmark moment for our community. I love it.
Speaker 3 (26:37):
I love it.
Speaker 4 (26:37):
We just need to speak out. Yes, So speaking of
Freedo l A and Pepsi Co. Didn't PepsiCo buy see
it the foods see that the foods knows they're worth.
Speaker 1 (26:48):
Let me tell you something, because there was almost I
remember there's some people from our community who were like, booh,
you sold out. But the idea of you know, creating
wealth for all of these employees and all of these people,
and for a brand like from our community to be
worthy of bigger distribution, getting it, you know, into other markets,
(27:14):
you need a company, a bigger company to do that.
Because see at the foods is family founded, family run
since twenty fourteen. They're based in Austin and it was
founded by Verdonica Varsa and her siblings and they're from Laredo.
Speaker 4 (27:28):
They're from Laredo, my hometown, A proud Laredo Pra Laredo prow.
Speaker 1 (27:33):
But you know, I was introduced to them through Claudia,
our friend Claudia, who was like, oh my god, you
got to try these almond flower tortillas. And I was like,
almond flower and I read the story on the back
of the on the back of every package to this
day has their family story because siet This started because
Veronica had dietary needs. She couldn't really eat what her
(27:55):
family was eating, and so she wanted to enjoy Mexican food,
but she, you know, had a dietary complication. So she
started making these tortillas with almond flour and everybody loved them.
And then she started selling them locally a co op
and then people liked them. Yeah, and more people liked it.
And that I mean literally it was this is there,
(28:18):
like the jewel in their crown is the almond flower tortilla.
But now they have cassava tortillas. They they use avocado
oil for frying. They all of their totapos are grain free.
You know, it's just they they're really like the healthier
alternative to Mexican snacks. And now they have list like
(28:40):
this broad line of really our heritage inspired products. They
have their own version of the Heen. They have all
the to topos. They have a scooping to topo, their
triangle to topo, their lime totapos. They have all these
different tortillas, you know. So a bit of trivia, a
bit of trivia because when I invested in see It,
I had to go meet but they don't. And I'd
(29:00):
known her through through Cloudy a little bit. But when
we finally sat down to have a meeting, she was like,
You'll never believe this.
Speaker 3 (29:09):
You are my cheerleading coach in Laredo.
Speaker 1 (29:12):
What I was Banonica's cheerleading coach when she was in
high school. I went to Laredo and because I worked
for NCAA, which is this company, cheerleading company, and I
went taught them a routine I sent. She's like, you
sent us little good luck for the competition bags. I
was like, I did, but it sounds like me I
(29:33):
found that. But the fact that she remembers She's like,
I think that's my cheerleading coach when I came out
on Desperate HOUSEWBS.
Speaker 3 (29:41):
That's hilarious. Oh my god, that's such a good story.
Speaker 1 (29:45):
It's a small world.
Speaker 3 (29:46):
That's why you're never real means bags of chips. Yeah,
you never know who.
Speaker 1 (29:50):
You're going to run into in life, so be nice,
to be kind to everybody.
Speaker 3 (29:54):
Be kind to everybody.
Speaker 4 (29:55):
That is the number one lesson, and eat a bag
of chips.
Speaker 1 (30:02):
Well, I love I loved this episode. I this episode
surprised me and I'm so excited. We did a deep
dive because the dato.
Speaker 3 (30:09):
Chips, corn chips, they're not just snacks.
Speaker 4 (30:11):
They're not their history, their science, their culture, and every
little crunchy bite.
Speaker 3 (30:17):
Leave us a message. We love hearing from you. Thank
you for listening, Thank you for listening.
Speaker 1 (30:25):
Hungry for History is a Hyphenite media production in partnership
with Iheart'smkupura podcast network.
Speaker 4 (30:30):
For more of your favorite shows, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Hosts And Creators
MAITE GOMEZ-REJÓN
Eva Longoria
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