Back More
Salem Press

Table of Contents

See Also

Ralph Alvarez

Frank Lorenzo

Arte Moreno

Great Lives from History: Latinos

Joseph A. Unanue

by Dennis W. Cheek

American entrepreneur and philanthropist

Unanue grew a regional business into the largest Latino-owned company in the nation, diversifying American table foods, dishes, and desires as a consequence.

Areas of achievement: Business; philanthropy

Early Life

Prudencio Unanue from Spain married Carolina Casal in Puerto Rico and then moved to Brooklyn, New York, where Joseph Andrés Unanue (YOH-sehf AHN-drehz yew-NAHN-yew-ah) was born, the second of four children. He attended St. Joseph’s Grammar School and St. Celia’s High School, learning early the workings of his parents’ Goya Foods distribution business, where he began by bottling olives. After graduating from high school in 1943, Unanue was drafted into the U.S. Army, where after brief stationing at the College of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington, he landed in 1944 in France and joined General George S. Patton’s Third Army in time for the Battle of the Bulge. As a private at nineteen years of age, he saw his sergeant killed during the battle and was immediately named sergeant and platoon leader. He distinguished himself on the field that day and was awarded a Bronze Star and later a Victory Medal.

Returning home in 1946, Unanue entered Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., where he graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering. He married Carmen Ana Casal, with whom he would have six children and sixteen grandchildren. With degree in hand, he returned full-time to Goya Foods and spent the next twenty-five years working in diverse divisions of the company along with his two brothers, Tony and Frank. Unanue put his mechanical engineering knowledge to good use by leading and supervising the design and construction of new and better manufacturing and distribution facilities. As the years went by, Goya Foods provided ever more diverse products from the Caribbean, Latin America, and Spain to small stores and supermarkets, seeking to cater to the growing Latino populations across the United States and building increasing demand among non-Latinos for such products.

Life’s Work

Upon his father’s death in 1976, Unanue became chairman, president, and chief executive officer of the small regional company, with annual sales of about eight million dollars, then based in New Jersey. Frank and Unanue bought out brother Tony’s share at this point. Frank then ran Goya de Puerto Rico, Inc., in Bayamon, Puerto Rico. Unanue, after a series of successful marketing efforts, grew the company until annual sales topped eight hundred million dollars a year, with more than two thousand employees and facilities in fifteen locations worldwide. He saw the wisdom of providing philanthropic backing to a variety of cultural organizations, including the Puerto Rican Traveling Theater, Repertorio Español, El Museo del Barrio, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The company’s sustained patronage created an even more loyal customer base and further spread its name and wares into new non-Hispanic markets. His other two major innovations were recognizing the burgeoning Mexican American food market opportunities across America and convincing nonethnic buyers that Latino foods were healthier alternatives to their regular staples.

Unanue’s sons, Joseph F. and Andy, also worked in the company. Joseph F. Unanue became the executive vice president of operations in 1985, a position he held until his death in 1998 at age forty-one, when his younger brother Andy was named to the role. In 1999, Goya Foods reached position 353 in the Forbes 500 list. A bitter family dispute developed in the early twenty-first century over Joseph A. Unanue’s plans to further diversify and grow the company by selling to national retailers, which father and son reckoned would double the size of the company in three to four years. This strategy found only limited support beyond his son Andy within the family-held company and board. Led by two of his nephews, Robert and Francisco, the family board voted to remove Unanue as president and chief executive officer in February, 2004, at which point Unanue and Andy filed a legal challenge. The Delaware Chancery Court in a widely watched decision ruled in November of that year that the ouster was legal.

The Unanues’ philanthropic efforts have included numerous programs in the arts at major museums and galleries; support for Unanue’s alma mater, on whose Board of Trustees he served for many years and where a campus house is named in his honor; Carmen’s service on the Board of Trustees of WNET in New York City for many years; her prominent role in papal committees, and work for the American Bible Society. In 2005, they jointly established through their C and J Foundation the Joseph A. Unanue Latino Institute at Seton Hall University, which provides academic programs, internships, and study-abroad experiences. Unanue received honorary doctorates from Mercy College, Long Island University, and Felician College and numerous civic awards, including twice being named Man of the Year by the National Conference of Christians and Jews and winning the National Minority Suppliers’ Leadership Award, the 1994 Ellis Island Medal of Honor, the Knighthood of the Sovereign Order of Knights of Malta, and the National Hispanic Achievement Award in 1991 by Hispanic Magazine.

Significance

By further diversifying into a product line of more than one thousand different items, developing strategic marketing and community-welcomed philanthropy, and reaching out beyond the Latino community, Goya Foods has grown to be the largest Latino food products company in the United States, with operations in several countries. Unanue also helped diversify the American palate and changed the culinary fare served in diverse households across the nation.

Further Reading

1 

De Lollis, Barbara. “At Goya, It’s All in la Familia.” USA Today, March 24, 2008. Profile of Bob Unanue gives a penetrating look at the development of Goya Foods and the family struggle that resulted in the ouster of Joseph A. Unanue.

2 

Denker, Joel. The World on a Plate: A Tour Through the History of America’s Ethnic Cuisine. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2003. A scholarly look at the ways in which ethnic foods, including those deriving from Latino cultures, have changed plates and palates in America. The frequent appearance of Latino foods on American tables is largely because of the influence of Goya Foods for past several decades and a lasting tribute to the business acumen of Unanue.

3 

Deutsch, Claudia. “Goya Braces for a Challenge from the Food Giants.” The New York Times, February 24, 1991. Unanue reveals his marketing strategies.

4 

Dumaine, Brian, et al. “Does Race Still Matter? Ten Great Minority Entrepreneurs Weigh in on Affirmative Action, the Old Boys’ Network, and Whether to Sell Out.” Fortune, December 1, 2003. Comments from Unanue on embracing other ethnicities.

Citation Types

Type
Format
MLA 9th
Cheek, Dennis W. "Joseph A. Unanue." Great Lives from History: Latinos, edited by Carmen Tafolla & Martha P. Cotera, Salem Press, 2012. Salem Online, online.salempress.com/articleDetails.do?articleName=GLL_10013240061801001.
APA 7th
Cheek, D. W. (2012). Joseph A. Unanue. In C. Tafolla & M. P. Cotera (Eds.), Great Lives from History: Latinos. Salem Press. online.salempress.com.
CMOS 17th
Cheek, Dennis W. "Joseph A. Unanue." Edited by Carmen Tafolla & Martha P. Cotera. Great Lives from History: Latinos. Hackensack: Salem Press, 2012. Accessed October 22, 2025. online.salempress.com.