Roberto González Barrera

Roberto González Barrera (September 1, 1930[1] – 25 August 2012[2]) was a Mexican businessman. He was the chairman of Gruma, the largest producer of tortillas and corn flour in the world, and of Banorte, the largest Mexican-owned private bank in Mexico. Because of his prominent role in the expansion of Gruma, he was often nicknamed "El Maseco"[3][4] or "Don Maseco" (a reference to one of Gruma's subsidiaries, Grupo Industrial Maseca), as well as the "King of Tortillas".

Personal life

Barrera was born in Cerralvo, Nuevo León. At the age of five, before starting school, he was selling eggs, bread, vegetables and other foodstuff in his native town of Cerralvo. "I was very happy," wrote Gonzalez Barrera in an institutional profile. "My childhood was very happy but I did not miss school. When I had free time I went to the streets to make money."

Upon entering primary school he also became a shoe-shine, along with his sale of food on the street. Almost naturally, at age 11 he left school for good and began working in a grocery warehouse his father had opened in Cerralvo where he sold dairy products, and at age 15, he had his own business. "I remember one day my grandfather asked me which of all the things I did, was the most profitable. I replied that selling vegetables," wrote Gonzalez Barrera in his institutional profile. "Then he said, 'Give yourself completely to it and do nothing more." "It seemed like a call to action."

Later Gonzalez Barrera worked in Pemex, as a driver at a plant in Veracruz, where he was in charge of something no one wanted to do, because of the risk: explosive transport. It was during this time that he also partnered in a small coconut plantation. He made good money, but after two years, suffering from malaria, he returned to his hometown, with 200,000.00 pesos of his earnings in the coconut business. In Cerralvo, entered into joint partnership with his father in the family business that had already begun and developed new projects.

At age 18, in the search for further business expansion, he had his first encounter with corn, on seeing his first corn mill. Curious, he asked for explanations about the process for the manufacture of tortillas, and realizing the business potential when he discovered that cotton workers consumed up to 15 tons of corn per month, imagined the future.

Controversy

González Barrera refused to testify in the case against Raúl Salinas de Gortari, brother of former President Carlos Salinas de Gortari. Allegedly, his justification was "I am a friend of Mr. Raúl".[5]