Business Lessons Fueled by Hispanic Heritage | Blacktinidad

As we celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month, we often discover the various ways our heritage leaves legacies such as in business. This comes in the form of unparalleled resiliency and work ethic sometimes referred to as the “immigrant mindset,” a trait found in many successful Latino entrepreneurs. One such example of this effort paying off is the story of Agua Bonita aguas frescas founder Kayla Castañeda.

“Aren’t all Latino families entrepreneurial? I feel like there are a lot of entrepreneurs in my family. They just maybe didn’t have a business the way that I have a business.” -Kayla Castañeda

Castañeda’s Agua Bonita is the first ever Latina-owned beverage start-up to raise over $1 million. The refreshing drinks inspired by her family’s recipes she grew up enjoying is expanding to major retailers all over the country. As a guest on LATV’s Blacktinidad, Castañeda shares how learning from her grandpa, a migrant farmer, inspired the winning formula for her aguas frescas business.

“We live in Central California, so it’s where you grow a lot of the nation’s produce. About sixty percent of the nation’s produce. Because we grow so much fruit, we would see that at the end of harvest there’d be a lot of fruit that was going to waste and he just couldn’t stand that.” -KC

Her grandfather would then bring the leftover fruit and make aguas frescas for the whole family. After gaining experience in the food & beverage industry, Kayla Castañeda realized that it was possible to make these aguas frescas in large quantities while also retaining the sustainable harvesting practices demonstrated by her father. It’s a process that she admits isn’t easy to implement, but she never let the degree of difficulty stop her from running her business the way she knew was right.

Earlier in the episode, hosts Nadia, Eliana, and Kyo were discussing how to best support Afro-Latino businesses. These mom-and-pop shops are not only bastions of our communities, but are also the ones most in need of our support. A common form of this support comes as increasing the business’s online exposure on platforms such as TikTok, instagram, or yelp.

Through in Castañeda won over numerous financial backers that increased the reach and production of Agua Bonita. After carving out a market demand for widely available aguas frescas, this once start-up eventually got the attention of several big beverage corporations, but in Castañeda’s experience these partnerships proved difficult to come by. When she was at a pitch competition fundraising for her company, one corporation present at the time later released a campaign that mirrored Castañeda’s products.

“I can’t say it wasn’t a blow to think that this large company who we could’ve partnered with and could’ve really propelled our business is doing what we’ve already been doing.” -KC

Despite the rejection from established giants in the field, Agua Bonita continued to break industry barriers thanks to Castañeda’s business acumen and a story that resonates with its customers. Companies like Agua Bonita continue the legacies passed down by generations of Latinos that will no doubt make future business leaders.

To see Kayla Castañeda’s full interview and more Blacktinidad, download the LATV + app now available on most platforms.