Omaha Exploration

After operating a small grocery store in Chicago, the Jacobo family saw an opportunity to fulfill a need in Omaha where the Hispanic community was underserved. Ramon, whose parents emigrated from Mexico for work, returned to Mexico during the Great Depression. Ramon remained there until after he married his bride, Cirina, in 1952.

The couple ended up returning to the United States and settling in Chicago’s South Side. Ramon worked more than 20 years for an appliance company while Cirina operated a small grocery store. They made a plan to move to Omaha and open a grocery store to serve the Hispanic community near the stockyards in South Omaha. 

Despite being told there was no market for a Hispanic grocery, they persisted and took over the former Benak’s Grocery store at 6330 S 30th St in 1976. As it turns out, there was a market here and they ended up opening a bakery three years later at 3702 S 24th St. During the early years, Ramon drove round-trip from Omaha to Chicago every week or two to purchase Hispanic foods to keep his store stocked. On those days, he would leave Omaha for Chicago at 4 AM before making the return trip starting at 2 PM. 

Jacobo’s steady growth over the years resulted in the merging of the grocery and the bakery in 1989. That’s when they relocated to their current location at 4621 S 24th St which had been a Payless Shoe Source since the 1960s. By this time, keeping the store stocked required semi trailer loads of fresh and packaged foods. 

When Governor Ben Nelson visited South Omaha and made a stop at Jacobo’s in 1992, the Jacobo’s son Carlos said that “to have a political official visit you, it’s a matter of pride. Being a minority, we have to fight a lot of stereotypes. We hope this shows, and not just to the governor, that there are Hispanics who are progressing. We started from the very bottom.” He went on to say “I won’t tell him what to do, I’ll just show him what I do. And maybe someday, the Hispanic leaders will want an hour of his time and he’ll give it to them because he’ll say, ‘I remember Carlos and his family. They were good people.”

When Jacobo’s first opened, the customer base was 90% Hispanic but over the years the split between Hispanic and non-Hispanic was 50/50. In 2014 Ramon proudly said that his store was like the United Nations due to the different ethnicities that patronized the grocery store. Carlos said that the store helps bridge ethnic gaps by providing those who don’t have relationships with Hispanics the opportunity to hear people speaking both English and Spanish and treating each other with respect. 

After the salsa recipe developed by Cirina was discovered by non-Hispanic customers, its sales quadrupled. By that time they employed two people just to make salsa all day long. For the uninitiated, the salsa is tomatoey, thick with fresh cilantro, garlic and onions. Most customers, of course, buy a bag or two of its homemade tortilla chips to go with the salsa. 

Despite the passing of Ramon in 2020 and Cirina a year later, the grocery store remains just as popular with Carlos running it. Nearly 50 years since it first opened, the grocery continues to specialize in deli foods that are made fresh daily including enchiladas, flautas, beans, rice, carnitas, pork tamales and fresh handmade tortillas made from its traditional family recipe. Of course, you will also find baked goods, breads and pastries made from scratch. Today Jacobo’s remains a fixture in South Omaha and continues to appeal to a wide variety of customers.

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