Jose Valdez, founder of Idaho’s former leading supplier of tortillas, dies at 78
Jose Valdez, who was known throughout the northwest for his Casa Valdez tortillas, has died at 78.
Valdez died of cancer Monday, May 9, at St. Luke’s Meridian Medical Center.
“He was a great man, he always cared about his family,” Valdez’s son, Jose Luis Valdez Jr., said by phone.
Jose Valdez was the founder and owner of Casa Valdez, previously Idaho’s leading retail supplier of tortillas. He chose to shut down his factory in Caldwell and retired in 2018.
“He also enjoyed to be out in the community,” said his daughter, Linda Romero. “Ever since we were younger he always used to like to do that with his horses, you know, be out there with the horse and enjoyed being out in the community and talking with people.”
Jose Valdez was born on Nov. 13, 1943, in Reynosa, Mexico. As a child, he followed the migrant trail with his parents from Texas to Idaho and began making tortillas in 1977 as an adult while working in the fields, according to a 2018 Idaho Statesman interview.
After selling his tortillas to Idaho labor camps, he began to sell them to grocery stores. Eventually, his tortillas were carried throughout Idaho, Wyoming, eastern Oregon and Salt Lake City, according to the Statesman.
Valdez was later invited to visit the White House after being named Idaho’s Small Business Person of the Year by the Small Business Administration, as well as earning Casa Valdez a spot in the Tortilla Industry Association’s Hall of Fame.
“The thing he was most proud of was the company that he had, which was Casa Valdez,” Jose Luis Valdez Jr. said. “I think he said, when he’d tell us, (that he did that) with an eighth-grade education. He was still able to accomplish all that.”
Jose Valdez is survived by his wife, Maria Valdez, and his seven children: Christina Salinas, Sonia Maldonado, Jose Valdez Jr., Jaime Valdez, Linda Romero, Jesse Valdez and Jorge Valdez.
Arrangements for Valdez’s funeral are pending.
This story was originally published May 13, 2022 at 4:00 AM.
