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t's amazing–scratch that. It's disturbing as hell how ill-informed the mainstream media is and how damn lazy they are, especially when it involves Mexican food. Latest example: much of the MSM yesterday and today trumpeted the fact that one Roberto Gonzalez Barrera just passed away. Most are calling him the “King of Tortillas,” a moniker he gave to himself because he was the head of GRUMA, makers of MASECA corn flour, the octopus behind brands such as Mission and Guerrero tortillas, and the world's largest tortilla maker. He just died Sunday night, so expect glowing tributes to appear on NPR, blogs, and other media outlets.
Of course, none of them will report the truth: González Barrera was a pendejo who couldn't die fast enough.
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As I pointed out in an article earlier this year, GRUMA is one of the most evil companies on Earth, single-handedly destroying tortilla culture by forcing their inferior products on the world. And this isn't the ramblings of a crazy anti-capitalist: the authoritative piece on Gonzalez Barrera came out in a 1996 New York Times article, with this telling graph:
“In 1990, the Commerce Department signed an accord with Mr. Gonzalez
in which the rules of the market were fundamentally changed. The
agreement froze the amount of corn that would be given to traditional
tortilla makers and declared that all growth in the market be filled by
corn flour. At the time the only producers of corn flour were the
Government itself, and Maseca.”
Because of this, many traditional tortilla makers went out of business, forcing their migration (whether legally or not) to the United States. Here's another line from the story:
Maseca, meanwhile, was successfully converting much of the industry
from fresh corn dough to corn flour. It offered new machines and greater
supplies to entice the owners of thousands of small tortilla-making
shops to switch over to Maseca flour. Those who refused were punished by
the Government, which sent them the worst corn and strictly limited the
amount of grain the shops received. Hundreds of shops have gone out of
business.
That's not business; that's tortilla genocide. Gonzalez Barrera wasn't the King of Tortillas; he was Galactus
Gonzalez Barrera was also a darling of the PRI, that corrupt bola de pendejos that kept Mexico down for so long. Tellingly, Mexico's new president, Enrique Peña Nieto, tweeted out that Gonzalez Barrera was an “extraordinary Mexican businessman.” Quick guide for gabachos: anything the PRI is for, you should be against with every inch of your body.
Will the mainstream media tell the truth about Gonzalez Barrera's legacy? Are Guerrero tortillas good? May Gonzalez Barrera spend eternity being forced to eat his tortillas by Satan…
