Rico Brand Brings the Taste of Mexico to Utah Homes

Jorge Fierro, President and CEO of Rico Brand, a Salt Lake City company selling ready-to-eat Mexican food in grocery stores, remembers breaking into the market at Pioneer Park. “In the summer of 1997, I started making de la olla pinto beans. They were fully cooked and ready to eat. I started selling them at the farmer’s market. I remember having a tiny little card table and a cooler with 20 volsitas de frijoles de la olla. And that’s how I started,” Fierro says.

Fierro, who grew up in Delicias, Chihuahua, Mexico, travelled a long road before beginning what would become a career of bringing Mexican food to Utah homes. It was 1984, and Fierro was attending law school in Juárez. He was 24 years old and grappling with an urge to find himself. Much to his parents’ disapproval, Fierro dropped out of school and left Mexico with a friend to the United States. Taking only what he could carry, Fierro crossed from Chihuahua to El Paso, Texas to find himself. 

“I remember having a tiny little card table and a cooler with 20 volsitas de frijoles de la olla. And that’s how I started.”

He dug holes in Texas, then followed a friend to Wyoming. There, he landed a job as a sheepherder. “[Going from] being a law student to herding sheep was like a wakeup call. But, I embraced it so much, because I was so gung-ho about my new life in America that it just didn’t faze me at all.” At the season’s end, Fierro went to the nearby town, Rawlins, Wyoming, for a haircut, new boots and ESL classes. He was told there was no school there, but if he wanted to learn English, he should go to Salt Lake City.

For 40 bucks, Fierro hitched a ride to Salt Lake. Upon his arrival, he was dropped off at Pioneer Park, the very site where 12 years later he would first sell Mexican food in the Utah market. “I had to stay in a rescue mission, in a men’s shelter, because once again, I did not speak English, I did not know anybody … Then, I enrolled myself in an ESL program. And I learned English with Cambodian and Vietnamese people, refugees from the Vietnam War,” Fierro says.

With his new language skills, Fierro found work and started to build a life in Salt Lake City. Though, as time wore on, he found something missing. “I would go to a supermarket trying to find either ingredients or products that were already made with Mexican flavors, and I just couldn’t find anything. And I thought, ‘You know what? That’s a niche. I’m gonna fill that niche,’” Fierro says.

Fast forward to the cooler of bagged frijoles de la olla, meaning “beans from the pot,” at a card table in Pioneer Park. After advertising how his ready-made beans could be used in other recipes, Utah consumers started buying. By the end of the season, Fierro decided he wanted to offer more products the following year, but he needed capital. 

That fall, Fierro applied for and was awarded a $10,000 loan from the Utah Micro Enterprise Loan Fund, which enabled him to invest in his new business, “Rico Brand.” With the loan, he rented a building with a commercial kitchen on the corner of 800 South and 50 East and got to work expanding his products. Fierro’s parents, who had since reconciled with Fierro, visited to help Fierro set up shop. After graffitiing the Rico Brand logo on the side of the building, they received a knock. “I opened the door, and these ladies asked if we make tamales. And my mom said, ‘Yes, yes, tell them that we make tamales.’ And so there we were, making tamales the next day,” Fierro says. When the following farmer’s market season rolled around, Fierro had 11 different Rico Brand products. In addition to the beans, Fierro added tamales, tortillas, salsas, chips and more. 

“I feel like I’m an ambassador of my culture … In Mexico, we are so rich, in so many ways.”

Twenty-eight years later, Rico Brand now sells 70 ready-to-eat Mexican products in different supermarkets through Utah and beyond. Since Pioneer Park, Fierro has kept his Rico Brand recipes additive- and preservative-free. But as Fierro explains, the market has changed.“Now, there is a full section in almost every supermarket of ‘Hispanic Food.’ And I’m not a fucking Hispanic, and I’m not a fucking Latino. I’m Mexican. I’m Mexicano. You know, there is such a thing as a Mexicano. For me to keep my products as clean as how I grew up is respecting my culture … I feel like I’m an ambassador of my culture… In Mexico, we are so rich, in so many ways,” Fierro says. Rico Brand products can be purchased in Smith’s, Whole Foods, Macey’s and other Utah markets. Gather friends and bring the taste of Mexico home with you today.

Read more about the local businesses spreading deliciousness:
El Potrero Market: Planting the Seeds of Community
Caputo’s: It Takes a Village to Create a Salt Lake City Staple

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