![]() Still, how did a front-line worker, who wasn’t even a manager, get the CEO’s attention? “I just thought, if I could get a job at Frito-Lay that would change my legacy,” he said. ![]() With the help of his wife, Judy, who could read and write in English, Montañez told her what to say on the application form. Then a friend told him they were hiring at Frito-Lay in Rancho Cucamonga. He candidly shared that he was always worried at that time about his future because he had no education. It’s not something he’s proud of, but his only option was to go to work.īy the time he was 18 years old, he had done everything from pick grapes, clean cars at a car wash, work at poultry factory and as a gardener. Montañez ended up dropping out before earning a high school diploma. We’re all created to stand out,” he said. “That’s when I realized, that as much as I wanted to fit in, it was impossible because none of us were created to fit in. By that Friday, he was selling burritos at school for 25 cents each. The following day she made him two burritos, one for him and one to share with a classmate. Instead, his mother told him to embrace who he was. Ashamed, he put it back in his bag and later told his mother to make a bologna sandwich, like all the kids bring, the next day. “That’s all we spoke.”īut he recalls one day, classmates staring him down for bringing a burrito for lunch. Going to school proved difficult because he only knew how to read and write in Spanish. “You were poor, but it was a fun kind of poor - where it didn’t matter what you were wearing where, if you were hungry, there was always a peach tree or orange tree that you could pick from,” he said prior to the graduation ceremony. The family later moved to Ontario, he said. He is one of 11 children, the eldest male. He comes from a modest upbringing his father and grandfather worked in the vineyards of what was then known as Guasti, near Ontario International Airport. Montañez is no stranger to facing adversity. There is no such thing as just a janitor “when you believe in your heart you’re going to be the best janitor in the history of Frito-Lay,” the Ontario native said. The same goes for those who are waiters, drivers or janitors.
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