[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 5]
[Senate]
[Pages 6521-6522]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    65TH ANNIVERSARY OF BUENO FOODS

 Mr. HEINRICH. Mr. President, today I wish to recognize the 
65th anniversary of Bueno Foods, a New Mexico family-owned business and 
one of the Southwest's premier producers of New Mexican foods, 
including our State's iconic chile from Hatch, NM, and the surrounding 
Rio Grande Valley.
  In 1946, when several brothers from the Baca family returned home 
from serving in World War II, they scraped together enough money to 
start a small grocery business. Although the business started off 
successfully, the Bacas soon learned how difficult it was for a small 
community market to compete with larger grocery store chains, so they 
decided to specialize, manufacturing corn and flour tortillas and 
traditional holiday favorites like tamales and posole. The Baca 
brothers also noticed that more households owned freezers, and they 
asked themselves around the family dinner table: Why don't we take our 
heritage and preserve it?
  With this idea, Bueno Foods was born in 1951. Today Bueno Foods 
manufactures a full line of more than 150 authentic New Mexican and 
Mexican food

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products and currently employs more than 250 employees.
  I commend Buenos Foods for taking an active role in the community and 
contributing to organizations that serve some of our most vulnerable 
New Mexicans, including impoverished children, the homeless, and the 
hungry.
  Bueno Foods is a strong partner with New Mexico's renowned chile 
pepper farmers. The chile industry in New Mexico, including both 
growers and processors, is an integral part of our agricultural and 
cultural heritage and New Mexico-grown chile peppers remain the most 
sought after. New Mexico is a leading producer of American-grown chile 
peppers, and I am pleased that our State's chile farmers and Bueno 
Foods have come together to protect authentic New Mexico-grown chile.
  I congratulate Bueno Foods on 65 years of success as they work to 
keep our State's chile industry strong and produce the quality foods 
that can only be from New Mexico.

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