Romana Acosta Bañuelos

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Romana Acosta Bañuelos

Romana Acosta Bañuelos (born March 20, 1925 in Miami , Arizona - † January 15, 2018 in Redondo Beach , California ) was an American businesswoman, banker and government official.

Career

Romana Acosta, the daughter of poor Mexican immigrants, was born in the mining industrial city of Miami, Gila County , in 1925 . During the Great Depression , in 1933, her family was deported by the US government, like thousands of other Mexican Americans, although many of the deportees, such as Acosta, were born in the United States. The Acostas believed officials said they could return soon after the country's economy recovered. Therefore, they accepted the officials' offer to pay for their moving expenses and left their home peacefully. They moved to live with their relatives, who owned a small ranch in the Mexican state of Sonora . Together with her parents, Acosta began looking after the crops that her father and other male relatives had planted at an early age. She helped her mother in the kitchen, made empanadas , which her mother sold in bakeries and restaurants to make extra money. During that time, her mother was also raising chickens for their eggs. Acosta later made the following statement about her mother:

"She was the type of woman who taught us how to live in any place and work with what we have."

Acosta called her mother a resourceful businesswoman who was a strong role model for her for a woman who could do a lot with little in economic terms. At the age of 16 she married Martin Torres in Mexico. It was not an unusual age in this culture at that time. At the age of 18 she already had two sons, Carlos and Martin. In 1943, her husband abandoned the family. The marriage ended in divorce. She then moved to the United States with her children. According to some reports, she worked for some time in a laundromat in El Paso ( Texas ), while for others their aunt in Los Angeles ( California followed). According to most reports, she arrived in Los Angeles with her children, unable to speak English and with only seven dollars in her pocket. Acosta quickly found jobs as a dishwasher during the day and a tortilla maker from midnight to 6 a.m. She soon made enough money to be able to save up. At the age of 21 she married a man named Alejandro Bañuelos and had saved over $ 500. Acosta opened its own tortilla plant in downtown Los Angeles. She acquired a tortilla machine, blower, and corn mill. Her aunt helped her. Acosta made $ 36 on its first day of business in 1949. Ambitious, young and committed, Acosta was constantly looking for ways to sell its tortillas to local companies. As sales grew, she started a company called Ramona's Mexican Food Products, Inc. There are some discrepancies in how the company got the name: some say the sign painter made a mistake pronouncing Romana ; others, however, insist that Ramona was an early California folk hero and still others believe that it was a foreign product called Romana . Ramona's Mexican Food Products, Inc. flourished in the mid-1960s . Acosta had a daughter, which she named Ramona after her business.

Looking for ways to help the Latinos in their neighborhood, Acosta and other businesspeople founded the Pan-American National Bank in East Los Angeles, California in 1963 . The men first approached Alejandro with this suggestion, but he was engaged in political work. So he suggested that the men speak to Acosta. The main purpose of the bank was to fund Latinos who wanted to start their own businesses. Acosta also believed that Hispanics could expand their financial base and thereby gain more political influence and be able to improve their standard of living. In 1969 she was named chairman of the bank's board of directors and received the city's Outstanding Business Woman of the Year award . Mayor Sam Yorty presented her with a Commendation from the County Board of Supervisors later that year . Acosta established a college scholarship fund, the Ramona Mexican Food Products Scholarship, for poor Mexican American students.

With millions of dollars in banking assets and deposits growing rapidly, the great success of the Pan-American National Bank caught the attention of the Richard Nixon administration . The president at the time was looking for a way to reward the support of the Republican National Hispanic Assembly , which had played an important role in his election. Acosta agreed that her name could be considered for the post of Treasurer of the United States when she was approached in 1970. She didn't think she had any chance of being nominated and confirmed, so she went about her everyday life. She was stunned when President Nixon personally selected her as his candidate. During her nomination process, she was even more amazed when the immigration authorities suddenly raided her tortilla factory . Contrary to their usual methods, the agents reportedly carried out a loud, disruptive raid on the facility, which drew a lot of media attention and apparently damaged Acosta's chances of being nominated for the post of US treasurer. President Nixon stood by her and called this raid politically motivated, instigated by the Democratic Party . It was later confirmed after a Senate investigation confirmed the raid was carried out to harm the Nixon administration. Despite the ugly affair, Acosta became the 34th Treasurer of the United States and the first Latina in United States history to hold the post. She took office on December 17, 1971 and became the highest-ranking Mexican in government. Your daughter would say the following about her mother's performance:

"My mother's legacy is that she ran the place as a business, not just as another wing of the government."

Acosta was serving a tenure as treasurer when she resigned in 1974 to allow more time to devote to her business, family, and philanthropic pursuits. She said the following during an interview with Nuestro Magazine in 1979 :

“It was a beautiful experience. I will always be grateful to President Nixon. "

In the same year Acosta was one of the founding members of the Executive Women in Government.

By 1979 Ramona's manufactured and sold 22 different food products. More than 400 people worked there and it had a turnover of 12 million dollars per year. The company's success was instrumental in spreading Mexican cuisine in the United States. As the country's Hispanic population grew, so did sales of tortillas, empanadas, and many other traditional dishes. Meanwhile, other ethnic groups began to take an interest in the inexpensive, tasty foods, which increased the company's profits. Ramona's continued to grow throughout the 1980s. It became one of the largest distributors and manufacturers of Mexican foods in California.

Acosta continued to serve as President of Ramona's Mexican Food Products, Inc. and the Pan-American National Bank during the 1980s and 1990s . By 1992 she had served as chairman of the bank's board of directors for three terms. In the late 1990s she allowed her three children to take over day-to-day business at Ramona's. They also played significant roles in banking. Acosta remained CEO of Pan-American National Bank and President of Ramona's Mexican Food Products, Inc. She ran both businesses from her Los Angeles home. The Acosta family owned two thirds of the shares in the listed bank. With the help of the Pan-American National Bank in economically distressed East Los Angeles, a sense of community developed and was a major factor in the economic improvement of the Latino population.

Awards

  • Outstanding Business Woman of the Year, City of Los Angeles, 1969
  • Commendation Award, County of Los Angeles, 1969
  • Woman Achievement Award, The East Los Angeles Community Union (TELACU), 1977
  • Lifetime Achievement Award , Latino Business Chamber of Greater Los Angeles, 2011

literature

Individual proof

  1. ^ Romana Acosta Bañuelos, first Latina US treasurer and Mexican American pioneer, dies at 92

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Bañuelos, Romana Acosta
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American businesswoman, banker, and government official
DATE OF BIRTH March 20, 1925
PLACE OF BIRTH Miami , Arizona
DATE OF DEATH 15th January 2018
Place of death Redondo Beach , California