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Indiana and the Midwest’s Oldest Latino-Owned Business Turns 100
September 10, 2025
Latinos have been calling Indiana home for well over a century. While the largest communities have existed in both Lake and Marion Counties, Lake County had long retained high population numbers for about 90 years. As the early population began to grow so did the needs of the community. Those needs presented as an opportunity, especially for a Mexican immigrant with an insatiable entrepreneurial spirit. That man was Vicente Flores Garza, better known as V.F. Garza, and his Indiana, family-owned food business celebrates its centennial anniversary this year.
It all began during World War I, when a bi-national labor agreement between Mexico and the United States increased the allotment of foreign workers in the name of war relief. This was done by a simple departmental order. Relief areas were primarily in the agricultural, railroad, and heavy industry (e.g., mills, factories, packing houses) sectors. While this departmental order could be viewed as a footnote of history, but it was the impetus for midwestern Mexican settlements in states like Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, and Missouri.
In Northwest Indiana, per census records from 1920-1930 the population grew from about 300 Mexican nationals who were mostly single males and a few families to 5,300 people in Indiana Harbor (East Chicago) alone. In Lake County, high-density populations were also in Gary. State national origin numbers accounted for people of foreign birth. Those numbers for the total state population in 1930 were over 9,600, with a little over 9,000 in Lake County alone. That tremendous population growth presented itself as an opportunity to V.F. Garza and the need to feed a fast-growing community.
Who was V.F. Garza, and how did he get his start? He was born in 1890 in Pesqueira (Presently Monterrey) Nuevo Leon, Mexico. Before the start of the Mexican Revolution, he began to live and work in San Antonio, Texas, where he had extended family. His first job was working as a salesclerk for Joske’s Dry Goods store, which is presently known as Dillard’s. While in Texas, he refined his business acumen and was self-employed in the confectionery business. From a 1983 newspaper article featuring his adult children, V.F. with his brother Luzgardo, made their way to the Midwest, settling in Indiana Harbor’s thriving Mexican colony. V.F. tried various business ventures, first as a custom clothing store, which ended after a robbery. Finally, returning to what he knew best as a confectioner, he began to produce and sell Mexican-style chocolate and cheese under the brand name El Popular. This style of chocolate can be consumed as a hot chocolate drink or as a necessary ingredient in mole sauces, most notably mole poblano. His business was named El Popular, and earliest records of this business date back to 1925.
Newspaper advertisement, V.F. Garza thanking its customers for their patronage, El Amigo del Hogar Newspaper, December 27, 1925; Indiana Historical Society Collection
His business storefront was in the same building as the Figueroa Print shop on Deodar Street. The print shop printed the paper that wrapped El Popular’s cheese and chocolate. In 1927, he briefly returned to Mexico to marry Ana Navarro of Chihuahua, Mexico, and immediately returned with his bride to Indiana Harbor. They added to their business by producing chorizo, a Mexican-style sausage. This would become an iconic staple for their brand. As the Garza family grew to include four sons and three daughters, so too did the family business expand. El Popular brand began to produce other Mexican pantry staples that lined the shelves of area Mexican grocery stores, while V.F. also operated as a grocery wholesaler under the name Garza and Sons.
Advertisement for El Popular hot chocolate, featuring an indigenous Mexican holding a cup with cacao pod and cacao plant illustration, El Amigo del Hogar Newspaper, November 18, 1928; Indiana Historical Society Collection
V.F. was more than a businessman; he was an active community member who advocated for Indiana’s Mexican community. In 1929, he is noted in the (Hammond) Times Newspaper, educating the members of the East Chicago’s Women’s Club about the cultural nuances of the Mexican community with a “plea for better understanding and appreciation of his people by North Americans.” He was highly visible in the community by having a float in the annual Fiestas Patrias parade, a tradition that began in 1924.
V.F. Garza (front on the far right) standing in front of his car, advertising his business during the Fiestas Patrias parade in Indiana Harbor, 1928; Indiana Historical Society Collection
And by the 1950s, his presence expanded regionally, where he was a member of the Mexican Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Chicago. He helped sell tickets for their inaugural banquet in 1955. It was held in the Red Lacquer room at the Palmer House Hotel in Chicago, with notable guests such as the Mexican Ambassador to the United States, Manuel Tello, the Lieutenant Governor of Illinois, and Mayor Richard Daley, Sr.
I sat down with V.F.’s son Richard Garza in early March 2020 for an oral history interview. He spoke about what it was like to grow up as a first-generation Mexican American in Northwest Indiana and the passion his father had for the Mexican community. In 1983, Richard and his siblings were interviewed by the Hammond Times. His brother, Vincent, attributed the success of their father’s business by saying “He (V.F.) climbed the ladder of success while my mother held it still”.
This year marks 100 years of this family-run business. They have kept the same food traditions while also keeping up with current times. Their chorizo now comes in vegetarian (soy) and Chicken styles, while remaining true to the El Popular family recipe.
El Popular is the oldest Mexican and family-owned food business in Indiana and the Midwest. You can find their brand on store shelves throughout Northwest Indiana and select Indiana retailers.
