[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 59 (Wednesday, May 4, 2011)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2682-S2683]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS

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                    60TH ANNIVERSARY OF BUENO FOODS

 Mr. BINGAMAN. Mr. President, ``red or green?'' That is the 
question. As anyone who has ever dined in my State well knows, this 
inquiry refers to whether one prefers the zesty green chile or the 
piquant red chile when ordering New Mexico's unique native cuisine. In 
fact, in my State of New Mexico ``red or green'' is our official State 
question, and as I understand it, New Mexico is the only State that has 
designated a State question.
  For hundreds of years, chile has been central to the culture of New 
Mexico. Early Spanish settlers brought the chile plant to New Mexico 
from the Valley of Mexico. Today, growing and processing chile peppers 
is New Mexico's signature industry providing about 5,000 jobs and a 
total value of about $400 million per year. The chile pepper and the 
frijole--or pinto bean--are also the State's official vegetables.
  Today I honor the Baca family of Albuquerque and the 60th anniversary 
of Bueno Foods. Just as chile peppers are integral to New Mexican 
cuisine, for generations Bueno Foods has been integral to the 
preparation of delicious products made from chile. The Baca family is a 
pillar of New Mexico business and of the Barelas neighborhood in the 
South Valley of Albuquerque.
  Three brothers, Joe, Ray, and August Baca, members of a long-
established New Mexican family, returned to New Mexico in 1946 from 
serving in World War II. They opened a local grocery, the Ace Food 
Store in Barelas. Soon they started offering their mother's legendary 
cooking, adding a carry-out component to the store. At first, from the 
kitchen of their childhood home,

[[Page S2683]]

they made corn and flour tortillas, tamales and posole.
  The homemade traditional New Mexican dishes were an immediate hit. 
Then, the Baca brothers had an idea. They talked about it around the 
supper table with their mother and father. They talked about it day and 
night. It was the early 1950s and every household was getting a 
freezer. Commercial frozen vegetables were becoming the rage. The 
brothers asked themselves two questions: Why couldn't they take a piece 
of their heritage, New Mexico's fresh-roasted green chile, and preserve 
it? Why couldn't they start with an autumn tradition and use freezers 
to make it last until the following year's harvest?
  Thus, the Baca brothers were the first to flame roast green chile and 
freeze it on a commercial scale. No equipment existed, so they had to 
build it. No process existed, so they had to invent it. And on May 18, 
1951, Bueno Foods was born.
  Bueno Foods has grown steadily from that small neighborhood grocery 
store into a producer of 150 unique New Mexican and Mexican food 
products, spreading ``el sabor de Nuevo Mexico'' across the State and 
the Nation. Now owned and operated by the second generation of the Baca 
family in the same South Valley neighborhood, Bueno Foods employs about 
220 people year-round and up to 350 during peak chile-roasting season. 
The Baca family is also active in the New Mexico Chile Association, a 
nonprofit organization composed of growers and producers fighting to 
ensure the chile industry remains and prospers in New Mexico.
  The Baca family has always believed in giving back to its community. 
To help mark the 60th anniversary celebration, Bueno Foods is focusing 
on four elements that are important to the family and their company: 
improving the environment by planting 60 cottonwood trees to replace 
those destroyed in last year's bosque fire in Barelas; preserving their 
culture by giving away special Autumn Roast Chile grown in Hatch, NM; 
supporting literacy and education by providing 600 copies of the 
children's book ``Tia Tamales'' to low-income schools in New Mexico; 
and contributing to 60 community charities that focus on the basic 
needs of education, hunger, and stronger communities.
  It is an honor to congratulate Jackie, Gene, Catherine, and Ana Baca 
and the Baca family on their 60 years of success with Bueno Foods, to 
thank them for all their good work in the South Valley and throughout 
New Mexico, and to remember those far-sighted brothers who started it 
all with a good idea and a chile roaster.

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