LA Times Flamin’ Hot Cheetos Exposé Hits a Nerve with Latinos

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KQED

News, News Commentary, Politics

4.2 • 727 Ratings

🗓️ 20 May 2021

⏱️ 21 minutes

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Summary

The Los Angeles Times published an article titled “The man who didn’t invent Flamin’ Hot Cheetos” on Sunday that ignited backlash from fans of both the snack and self-proclaimed inventor, Richard Montañez. Some consider the article an unjustified attack on Montañez, who created a brand of his own with his story of rising from factory floor worker to executive at snack maker Frito-Lay. The exposé asserts that the spicy chips were developed by a separate division at Frito-Lay and that a central part of Montañez’s claim to fame simply isn’t true. The story comes on the heels of Montañez releasing his second memoir in June and the production of a biopic on him directed by Eva Longoria. We talk about the fallout from the article and the broader question of how Latinos are portrayed and represented in the media and corporate world. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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0:32.2	From KQED. Welcome back to Forum. I'm Mina Kim. The LA Times expose that finds the California man who
0:41.1	claim for years he invented Flamen Hot Cheetos didn't actually do it has ignited backlash. For some,
0:49.4	not at the man who may have stretched the truth, but at the LA Times for taking him down.
0:57.2	In this segment, we look at why, because it brings up issues of erasure and identity.
1:03.8	And joining me first is Rodrigo Nunez.
1:06.7	Rodrigo Nunez, thanks so much for being with us.
1:09.6	Thank you for having me. And I want you to begin by just catching us up on what happened.
1:14.6	First, can you tell us who this man is, Richard Montaignees?
1:18.6	And what happened last Sunday?
1:20.6	Yeah, so Richard Montaignees is kind of like a local hero in a lot of Latino Latinx circles. So he is a former janitor,
1:29.3	grade school dropout, took a job as a janitor in the Rancho Cucamonga, a Fritole facility,
1:34.2	and from there worked his way up to executive VP of Fritole. And one of his big, like, achievements
1:40.6	while in that climb was he invented hot Cheetos, or he told us, he told everyone he invented hot Cheetos.
	...

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