During her lifetime, Romana Acosta Bañuelos rose higher in the federal government than any Latinx person before her. Considering that she had been deported as a child, her achievements become even more remarkable.
She was born in Miami, Arizona on March 20, 1925. Her father, Juan Francisco Acosta, worked for the local Miami Copper Company until the Depression hit in 1929 and subsequent falling copper prices led the firm to stop production.
Like many other families, the Acostas became destitute when the operation shut down. In 1933, Gila County welfare officials and mining company executives enforced a repatriation program begun by President Herbert Hoover to send struggling immigrant workers back to Mexico. Romana’s parents had little choice; they agreed to return to live with relatives in Sonora when she was seven years old.
While in Sonora, she worked on the small ranch owned by her relatives, and learned to cook, including making tortillas, from her mother. She married at age 15 and had two children before divorcing her husband.
At 18, she returned to the U.S. with her sons, Carlos and Martin, and began working at a series of menial jobs during the early 1940s. Her goal always was to save enough money to start a business of her own. She worked in a laundromat, washed dishes, waitressed and worked many late nights making tortillas.
She eventually found work in a Southern California defense plant, and by the time she was 21, she had saved about $500. She met and married Alejandro Bañuelos and they lived in Los Angeles, where she used the money to buy equipment to open her own tortilla shop with her Aunt Helen.
The new business, Casablanca #2 near Temple and Bixel streets in the Echo Park area, made $36 on its first day of business in 1947, and Romana never looked back. She and Alejandro moved to a new location at 13363 S. Western Ave. in Gardena in 1954, calling it at first “Ramona’s Tortilla & Tamale Factory.”
There’s some speculation over the spelling change from “Romana” to “Ramona.” It’s likely that Ramona was felt to be easier to remember than the more unusual Romana. Others theorize that the name honored the early California heroine Ramona of “Ramona Pageant” fame, while some say it was just a mistake made by the sign painters at the new location.
In any case, the family quickly set about manufacturing their own tortillas to sell in their new Ramona’s restaurant, which became very successful. Romana introduced many of the dishes she had learned in Sonora, which were not as commonplace a part of the local cuisine 70 years ago as they have become since.
The popularity of their dishes led to more restaurant locations, and, crucially, a move into the prepackaged food market. Soon, the Ramona’s brand of burritos and other items began appearing in supermarkets, and the formerly small operation became Ramona’s Mexican Food Products Inc.
The success of the family business didn’t escape the attention of area Latino businessmen, who approached her husband about the possibility of forming a bank to help fellow business owners thrive.
Alejandro suggested they talk to Romana instead, and, with her help, the Pan American Business Bank was created, opening its office in East Los Angeles in 1964. Romana became very involved with its operation, becoming chairperson of its board of directors in 1969, the same year she received the Outstanding Business Woman of the Year award from the City of Los Angeles.
When his staff told President Richard Nixon of her story, he sensed an opportunity to curry favor with Latinx voters, who hadn’t supported him as much as he would have liked in the 1968 election.
(Credit: Associated Press)
When the Nixon administration asked Romana if she would consider accepting the post of U.S. Treasurer in 1970, she hesitated. Her husband encouraged her to accept the honor, with neither of them thinking she would actually win the nomination.
The U.S. Treasurer serves under the Secretary of the Treasury to implement many of the practical procedures and operations of the agency. To Romana and Alejandro’s surprise, Nixon picked her as his nominee in 1971.
After a contentious confirmation hearing during which her business was raided for illegal aliens in an attempt to spoil her chances, she was confirmed as U.S. Treasurer on Dec. 17, 1971. Her signature began appearing on U.S. paper currency as she assumed the duties of her new job.
She served as U.S. Treasurer until February 1974, six months before Nixon left office following the Watergate scandal and hearings. She then returned to her food business and banking activities in Southern California.
By 1979, Ramona’s was manufacturing and distributing 22 different food products, employed more than 400, and had annual sales of $12 million.
Over the years, Romana gradually turned the operation over to her children and grandchildren, who continue to run the company now known as Ramonas Food Group. She remained active in the Pan American National Bank for many years, serving as its chairman for a total of three separate terms.
She died at a Redondo Beach nursing home at 92 on Jan. 15, 2018.
Sources:
“Celebrating Romana Acosta Bañuelos, Founder of Ramona’s Mexican Food Products,” by S. Francona, L.A. Taco website, April 29 2015.
Daily Breeze archives.
“Emulating Mrs. B,” by Becky May, Hispanic Executive website, March 1, 2018.
Los Angeles Times archives.
New York Times archives.
Ramonas Food Group Facebook page.
“Romana Acosta Bañuelos,” by Christina Marin, Arizona Memory Project website, 2009.
Wikipedia.
