Omaha Exploration

The story of what may be Omaha’s favorite tortilla brand starts in 1919 after Josephine Martinez moved from Mexico to western Nebraska with her parents. The Martinez family including parents Julien and Helena began working in the sugar beet fields before making their way to South Omaha. As Josephine grew older, she found work in the meatpacking plants where she and her husband, Michael Ramirez saved enough money to buy a house and start a family of their own.

The matriarch of a family of six, Josephine sold food to help build Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church. Despite barely earning enough for themselves, the Ramirez family, and Josephine in particular, always looked for ways to help the less fortunate. This included carrying bags full of tacos, enchiladas, and other food to give away at the packinghouse where she worked.

Daughter Marcella and her husband, Bob Hedlund, used her mother’s recipe to create one of Omaha’s favorite tortillas in 1983. Originally located at 24th and F Streets, the company began by producing fewer than 200 tortillas per day. They sold tortillas to friends and family members in the restaurant and grocery businesses. As the company expanded, they moved to a larger building at 23rd and N Streets.

By the time of that move, the family had opened a grocery store that became Nena’s Mexican Products & Groceries. From that store, Josephine set up a hot plate in the back and handed out free food to the hungry. The store was later renamed Nena’s Zamora Market and moved to 4901 S. 24th Street. Nena also became a partner in the tortilla business before leaving to focus on running the grocery store. The generosity of their mother inspired both of her daughters, Marcella and Mary, to follow her lead by donating not only food but also time, money, and job leads to new immigrants.

Omaha’s participation in the Community Development Block Grant program allowed the company to expand even further after receiving $250,000 in federal funds. Mi Mama’s used the money to relocate to its current home at 828 S. 17th Street, which had previously been the Central Transfer and Distributing Company. As part of the move, they renovated the former truck terminal and turned it into a tortilla factory that also handled shipping, receiving, and storage.

The grant money also allowed Mi Mama’s to triple its workforce and expand sales of both hard and soft tortillas to other states, including Iowa, Minnesota, Illinois, Kansas, Colorado, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Missouri, and Texas. The company also produced tortillas for ConAgra Foods, which later started its own tortilla business in 1992.

Despite increased competition from ConAgra and others, Mi Mama’s remained confident that it produced some of the best tortillas in the country and continued to focus on quality, even as larger companies produced tortillas more quickly and spent more on advertising.

In 1992, the company’s founders, Marcella and Bob Hedlund, were recognized as the Small Business Administration’s Minority Small Business of the Year and were featured on Good Morning America. In 1993, when the family sold the business for $4.6 million, it was producing more than 12,000 tortillas per day.

Josephine, the woman whose recipe became profitable beyond her wildest dreams, passed away in 2001. Prior to suffering a stroke in 1990, she could often be found helping at both the Mi Mama’s factory and the grocery store. Marcella passed away one year later in 2002, followed by her husband Bob in 2014.

Dan Gardner and his daughter, Leslie Bebee, of Wakefield, Nebraska, purchased the company while Josephine’s son, Richard Ramirez, continued working for Mi Mama’s. The company expanded again in 1995 when the new owners purchased a competing Texas company that was also named Mi Mama’s. By 1998, production had reached 350,000 tortillas per day. In 2002, the company was purchased by Arthur and Joan Velasquez of Azteca Foods. The Chicago-based company also owns the La Fronteriza and Mariachi brands. In 2010, Azteca invested $4.5 million to expand its Omaha plant.

More than 40 years after starting as a small business in South Omaha producing fewer than 200 tortillas per day, Mi Mama’s was producing as many as 900,000 tortillas daily by 2010. It has withstood competition from ConAgra and others and continues to distribute to 10 states nationwide. It has also been recognized multiple times as one of Omaha’s favorite brands, and Omaha Public Schools began using its tortillas in 2024.

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