How I Built Businesses On Both Sides Of The Border—and Why We Shouldn't Have It Any Other Way

Ricardo Mora is an El Paso, Texas–based telecom entrepreneur, restaurateur, tech investor, and startup evangelist. His various ventures straddle the U.S. and Mexican markets, and give him a uniquely informed perspective on border politics. Business is better for everyone, he’s found over the years, when companies— and people—on both sides of the border work together.

I was born in El Paso and grew up in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. My dad worked in the maquiladora industry—the large factories just south of the border—in Juárez, and my mom had a salsa bottling company in El Paso. Every day, I would cross the border to go to school in El Paso. Today, I live in El Paso, work mostly in Juárez, and have businesses on both sides of the border.

I got into the mobile-phone business 27 years ago, when I was going to college in El Paso. We were introducing cellphones to people we knew in Mexico—it was a good time to get into the business. Two years later, I dropped out of college and opened a cellphone store in Juárez. We grew that business to 32 stores in Mexico and six in the U.S., and I ended up selling the U.S. business. Eventually, I got involved in restaurants and opened a couple of U.S. franchises of El Taco Tote, a chain that started in Juárez.