Viva Tia Maria was founded by Adam Gonzalez, a member of a family with decades of experience in the food industry. His mother, Rebecca Gonzalez, worked in restaurants before starting her own food brokerage company, eventually becoming a manufacturer representative for Chiquita Brands and Coca-Cola. Her sons are all involved in food service, starting with Adam, with Albert and Fernando also working in the industry.

Adam Gonzalez began his career as a foodservice broker, eventually following in his mother’s footsteps by starting his own brokerage company before managing V&V Food Products in Chicago, IL, a manufacturer of cheese, sour cream, and chorizo. After five years with V&V, Adam restarted his foodservice brokerage company, where his mother and brothers worked alongside him. Together, they created one of the top brokerages in Indiana. In 2002, Adam and his mother founded Viva Tia Maria, a Hispanic foods company originally supplying tortillas, queso dip, and salsas to the foodservice industry. During the global COVID-19 pandemic, Adam developed a business plan to take Viva Tia Maria’s high-quality foods directly to consumers through a retail strategy.

The company started small, selling in local shops, butchers, liquor stores, and boutiques. An agreement with Market District brought the brand to groceries, leading to distribution at Kroger, Meijer, Fresh Thyme, and Needlers, among others. Viva Tia Maria is excited to bring its dips, salsas, chips, and tamales to the public, and is proud that their queso dip is the top-selling queso dip at every grocery at which it is sold.