In 1960, Salvador DeLaTorre bought a storefront retail bakery named La Popular, offering tamales, cookies and some tortillas, in the Denver neighborhood now known as RiNo. By the 1970s, he had acquired an additional location a few blocks away to dedicate to tortilla and tortilla chip production—a facility that was larger than what was currently needed, but with an eye on growing the business.
His sons Richard (“Rich”) Schneider and Raul DeLaTorre worked at the bakery, and in 1981, they asked their father for a $25 a week raise. His response? “He said, ‘If you want more money, you can earn it,’” says Rich. And then Don Salvador tossed his sons the keys to the bakery.