A Family Wrapped Up In Work

Sinaloa Hawaiian Tortillas is finding a niche in the Islands — freshly made tortillas — and the whole Macias family is involved. Where else but Hawaii could they come up with a recipe for Sinaloa Teriyaki Tortilla Maki?

Susan Sunderland
Wednesday - January 04, 2006
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Family patriarch Ysidro Macias: Some things are meant to be
Family patriarch Ysidro Macias: Some things are
meant to be

Sinaloa is (multiple choice): (a) a state in Northern Mexico. (b) a Mexican restaurant on Kauai (c) Hawaiian tortillas. (d) It’s a wrap, folks e) All of the above

If you answered “all of the above,” you’re right.

Reward yourself with a super-size taco while we tell you the story of a family that’s very wrapped up in its work.

Sinaloa Hawaiian Tortillas is the thriving enterprise of Ysidro Macias, his wife, Veronica, and their children. There are four sons involved in the business: Cuauhtemoc, 33; Quetzalcoatl, 32; Xicotencatl, 30; and Tonatiuh, 26. The boys have native American names. Daughter Isis is named after an Egyptian goddess.


Macias, 61, is a lawyer from California who moved to Kauai 16 years ago, attracted by the isle’s beauty and resemblance to Salinas Valley, where he grew up. For a while, Macias practiced law in Koloa, and his wife, an expert in Chinese medicine, was an acupuncturist.

The Macias ohana: Ysidro Macias and wife Veronica with sons (from left) Cuauhtemoc, Tonatiuh, Xicotencatl and Quetzalcoatl, and daughter Isis
The Macias ohana: Ysidro Macias
and wife Veronica with sons (from
left) Cuauhtemoc, Tonatiuh,
Xicotencatl and Quetzalcoatl, and
daughter Isis

Noting the absence of Mexican eateries - “we both love to eat” - Macias and his wife went into the restaurant business. The affable Macias says that led him to an “honorable” profession.

“I no longer feed off of people - now I feed people,” he jests.

Sinaloa Restaurant in Hanapepe was known for outstanding Mexican food and home-made tortillas. The demand for Sinaloa tortillas, freshly-made in the restaurant’s back kitchen, grew phenomenally. Soon Macias was supplying retail outlets, including major grocery stores. SafewayKapaa was the first to carry Sinaloa tortillas.

The restaurant closed in 1995 when the family moved to Honolulu to concentrate on locally made tortillas. The move was also spurred by the weak economy of post-Iniki Kauai. Operating under those conditions, Macias felt if he could make it there, he’d make it anywhere.

Adding to Macias’s unbridled confidence is that he is admittedly “fatalistic.”


“I have no doubt that things happen because they are meant to be,” he says.

Esperanza Ascuncio (foreground) and Marcosa Valleramos prepare corn tortillas for packing
Esperanza Ascuncio (foreground) and Marcosa
Valleramos prepare corn tortillas for packing

From his early days as a human rights advocate for Chicano farm laborers, to his “instant attraction” to Hawaii in 1989, Macias simply goes with the flow of life. Changing gears from restaurateur to tortilla titan happened without a hitch.

Sounds easy, but observers think having a superior product that “knocks the socks off the competition” has something to do with Sinaloa’s success. Unlike the tortillas brought in frozen or chilled from the Mainland, Sinaloa tortillas are baked fresh locally, resulting in a flavorful product.

Son and sales executive Quetzalcoatl, who simpy goes by Q, invites consumers to “taste the difference.” He claims the superior-quality flour and Canola oil among the ingredients used in the dough make a vast difference. Grandma’s 45-year-old tortilla formula adds to the magic.

When Sinaloa deliveries are made to grocery shelves, they arrive on a rack like fresh-baked bread and not in cardboard boxes.

“Our niche is fresh-baked tortillas,” Macias states simply.

In a 15,000-square-foot plant at the airport industrial area,

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