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In the national consciousness, Latinos’ impact on food is often limited to our essential role in the agricultural fields or the kitchens of big city restaurants. In my home state of New York, our apple and dairy farms are almost often powered by Mexican and Puerto Rican migrants, while Manhattan’s restaurants bring together people from across Latin America and the Caribbean.
Among US agricultural workers, 78 percent self-identify as Hispanic (National Center for Farmworker Health, 2022), as do 48 percent of animal-slaughtering laborers, 43 percent of restaurant laborers, and 26 percent of all food-service workers (National Restaurant Association, 2020). Plus, the nearly 30 percent of domestic workers who identify as Hispanic (Economic Policy Institute, 2020), a role that includes many food handling and preparation duties.
There is little argument that Latinos are the backbone of the industries feeding the nation—and the world, since US farmers export more than 20 percent of what they produce (US Trades Representative, 2019)—but do not be mistaken, we are also increasingly the brains behind the operation.
Hispanic Executive’s last issue of 2023, the Food Issue, highlights the top Latino executives in the agriculture, food and beverage, and consumer packaged goods (CPG) industries, as well as the adjacent industries of health and wellness, retail, and technology.
Michele Cantos Garcia
“While this issue is meant to inspire and celebrate the food industry’s leading Latinos, it’s also a call to pay close attention to what is happening to the most essential of our nation’s systems and Latinos’ key role.”
Our team did what it does best and identified a growing multitude of Latino leaders who are driven by food’s local impact and global reach, as well as whose visionary leadership in these industries is, in large part, inspired by their Latino heritage. Their stories expand and add nuance to limited narratives about Latino impact and inspire us to take a closer look at the companies, brands, and tech aiding our daily nutrition.
On the cover, we feature BODYARMOR Sports Nutrition CEO Federico Muyshondt, whose early life in El Salvador during the civil war gave him an immense appreciation for US grocery stores and their wide aisles, bright lighting, and massive refrigeration units. I had the pleasure of meeting Muyshondt in New York during his photoshoot with our photographer Cass Davis and his interview with writer Billy Yost.
I was struck by Muyshondt’s optimism and excitement about the CPG industry, and his belief that although it “may not be as sexy as tech” it is still a place where one can make a big impact as a multicultural leader. As for his own career, he seemed grateful for finding this path and working with CPG companies that, as he puts it, “stand for superior food, superior credentials, and using that platform to make lives better.”
Additional food issue features include Monterey Mushrooms’ Juana Gomez who, as a child, picked produce in the fields before working her way up and into the farm’s offices. Today, she relies on those experiences to support the Latino farming labor force. Attorneys Carlos Rivas and Mary Beth Martinez tackle the legal challenges and opportunities of their respective employers, Instacart and Insomnia Cookies, and remind us how technology has changed the retail sale and delivery of food. Meanwhile, Carl Loredo at the Wendy’s Company teaches us how to listen to the consumer, instead of just marketing to them.
“As much as these systems and our labor can be politicized, food itself transcends politics and reminds us of our common humanity.”
Michele Cantos Garcia
While this issue is meant to inspire and celebrate the food industry’s leading Latinos, it’s also a call to pay close attention to what is happening to the most essential of our nation’s systems and Latinos’ key role.
As I write this letter in May, the politics of immigration are once again playing out on the fields and at our dinner tables. National news outlets are covering the empty fields and rotting produce in Florida’s farms after legislation targeting undocumented workers caused a mass exodus of the state’s (mostly Latino) laborers. It is a stark reminder of how much the fate of America is tied to the fate of Latinos. For better or worse.
Our food systems, like all other societal systems, are dependent on people, technology, and legislation. It brings me so much hope to see a growing cohort of Latino executives leading the way here and doing so with empathy, determination, and pride. I suspect that part of what they like about the subject of their work is that it is tangible and real. As much as these systems and our labor can be politicized, food itself transcends politics and reminds us of our common humanity.
