“Costa Rica was his second homeland, where he did not just business, but also made great friendships”.

• "Costa Rica was his second homeland, where he did not just business, but also made great friendships; he was always committed to this country which he loved and from which it received so much": Roberto Gonzalez Alcala, CEO of Gruma Mexico and Latin America.
   
• Demasa is the business school where valuable executives have come from to head GRUMA, and where other projects and products for the internationalization of GRUMA have been developed.
   
• I particularly remember the unforgettable dinner with Mario Moreno Cantinflas, who  raised his glass in every toast saying “There's plenty of reasons": Oscar Arias, former President of Costa Rica and Nobel Peace Prize.
   

San Jose, Costa Rica, October 9, 2012. "It was in 1971 when Don Roberto first came to this beautiful country, full of dreams, illusions and great projects," said today the CEO of Gruma Mexico and Latin America, Mr. Roberto Gonzalez Alcala, during the memorial to Mexican businessman, founder and president of GRUMA, Roberto Gonzalez Barrera.

Before the former President of Costa Rica and Nobel Peace Prize 1987, Oscar Arias Sanchez, Mexican entrepreneur's family members, GRUMA employees and special guests, the manager of the company said that "Costa Rica was to Don Roberto his lab market where he developed a lot of new projects and products that served to leverage GRUMA's internationalization”.

Costa Rica has been for GRUMA a major business school, where valuable executives have come to form the top management of GRUMA. "That was because every meeting with Don Roberto became a business lecture for those who had the opportunity to be present," he added.

In Costa Rica, GRUMA is market leader in corn flour, tortillas, flat breads, rice, snacks, and has a large distribution force that reaches almost every corner of the country. Nowadays, the Central Division of GRUMA has a strong presence in Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and, more recently, Panama. It has 11 working plants where more than two thousand employees work. Its sales amount to more than $ 3,000 million pesos.

Oscar Arias said "Don Roberto was a man ahead of his time, he understood that social structures have changed, women began to enter the labor market, people started to buy more and more manufactured products instead of developing them themselves. Like any visionary man, he knew how to satisfy a demand that was just beginning", stressed his friend and Nobel Peace Prize winner.