Early Years
Unanue's father, Prudencio Unanue Ortiz, was born in Burgos, Spain. He emigrated to Puerto Rico, where he met a young Spanish girl by the name of Carolina Casal, whose parents also had immigrated to Puerto Rico. They were married in the island in 1921 and soon after moved to New York and settled in Brooklyn where Joseph Unanue was born.
Prudencio Unanue worked as a broker for Spanish companies doing business in the U.S. He soon realized that there was a need for Hispanic products in New York City, and in 1936 he founded Goya Foods, a food distributing company, in Manhattan.
Prudencio Unanue was very serious about his children's education and enrolled them in Catholic schools. Joseph attended St. Joseph's Grammar School and later St. Cecilia's High School. Since childhood and when not in school, Unanue and his brothers had to work in the family business. His special job was bottling olives. In 1943, he graduated from high school but, since World War II was in full swing, he was drafted into the United States Army.
Read more about this topic: Joseph A. Unanue
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