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The Flamin' Hot Janitor (Advanced Program) · Spotlight English: Advanced

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Ah, Welcome to Spotlight Advanced. I'm Roger Basset.
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: And I'm Gillian Woodward. Spotlight uses a special English method
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand no
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: matter where in the world they live.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: The room was full of powerful people. They were rich,
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: They had years of experience, They were smart. He was
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: none of these things. He had dropped out of school.
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: He picked fruit for money. He washed cars. Now he
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: cleaned the floors where the executives worked. He was poor.
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: Why was he standing in this room talking to them?
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: What could he have to say that they would find interesting?
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: What idea did he have that would make their company
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: billions of dollars?
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: On today's Spotlight, we look at Richard Montenez. He came
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: from a Mexican American family. Montenez grew up in a
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: small farming town in California. His family was poor. They
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: all worked on a farm picking fruit. Montenez and his
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: ten brothers and sisters slept with their parents in a
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: one room home. Montenes did not speak English well. He
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: struggled in school. One day, his teacher asked the students
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: to choose their dream jobs. These were jobs they hoped
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: to get when they grew up. Some of Montenez's classmates
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: chose jobs like doctor and pilot. Montenes could not think
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: of a dream job. He never thought he could do
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: anything other than what his family was already doing. Montenez said,
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: I understood there was no dream.
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: There was no dream where I came from.
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: Montagnes stopped going to school. He worked all day in
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: the fields with his father and grandfather, picking fruit. Later,
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: he worked at a meat factory. He also washed cars
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: and picked grass out of flower beds. In the late
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: nineteen seventies, a friend told Montaignees about a job opening
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: at a company called Fredo Lay. They made chips. The
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: job was for a janitor. A janitor cleans the buildings.
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: Montagnes's wife had to fill out the job paperwork for
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: him because he could not read or write, but he
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: met the manager and got the job.
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: Montenez worked as hard as he could to clean the floors.
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: He wanted to be the best janitor Frito Lay had
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: ever had. Montenez also tried to learn how the company worked.
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: In between his shifts, he introduced himself to other workers.
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: Montenez watched how they did their jobs. He studied how
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: the company's machines worked. Montenez spent ten years learning while
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: working as a janitor.
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: During the nineteen eighties, Frido Lay's sales dropped. The company struggled.
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: The chief executive officer, Roger and Rico, recorded a video
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: message for his three hundred thousand workers. Enrico encouraged all
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: workers to think of ways to help their company. He
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: said everyone's idea would be considered. He wanted to hear
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: from all areas of the company, Enrico said.
• 3:49
  Speaker 3: Act like an owner.
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: One day, Montenes asked a Frito Lay salesman if he
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: could go with him. He wanted to learn what the
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: sale salesman did. They went to a store in a
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: Latino part of town. The salesman added more Frito Lay
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: chips to the stores display. Montenez noticed Mexican spices sitting
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: next to the chips. Montanez saw that Frito Lay was
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: not selling any spicy or hot chips.
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: A few weeks later, Montagnees ate some elote. Elote is
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: Mexican corn. It is covered in chili powder, salt, lime,
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: and other spicy toppings. Montagnees wondered how a cheeto would
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: taste covered in chili powder and other spices. Cheetos were
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: one of Fridoly's chips.
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: Montenez wanted to help Frito Ley. He wanted to help
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: the company that offered him a job. One night, while
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: working late, Montenez saw a broken machine. It was not
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: covering cheetos with their usual topping. Montenes took some of
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: the cheetah home. He and his wife covered them with
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: chili powder and other Mexican spices. He gave them to
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: his family and friends. They loved them.
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: Montaigne's had an idea. He wanted Friedo Lelay to start
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: covering Cheetos with chili powder and Mexican spices like Enilote.
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: Montagne's believed many Hispanic people would love it. The state
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: of California had more Hispanic people than any other state
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: in the United States. Montagne said.
• 5:35
  Speaker 3: Nobody had given any thought to the Latino market.
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: Montenes found Enrico's phone number in the company's phone book.
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: Even though Montenes was only a janitor, he called the
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: head of the company with his idea. Montenez was thinking
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: like an owner. He told Enrico that he had studied
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: their company's Productsnez had an idea to make Cheetos more
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: appealing to Latinos. Enrico loved the idea. He told Montenez
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: to prepare a presentation to give to the executives at
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: Frito Le.
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: In two weeks, Montagnees and his wife found a book
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: on marketing. They used it to help them prepare his presentation.
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: He filled one hundred plastic bags with Cheetos covered in
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: his special collection of spices. Montagnees took them to the presentation.
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: He was very nervous standing in front of all the rich,
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: educated men. But when Montaignees finished, Enrico stood up and
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: told him.
• 6:43
  Speaker 3: Put the cleaning supplies away, you are coming with us.
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: Montenez helped Frito Le put together a new line of cheetos.
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: They called it flame in Hot Cheetos. They started selling
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: flame in Hot Cheetos to a few stores in Latino
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: parts of California. Montenez knew that if the Cheetos did
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: not sell well, he would probably be back cleaning floors.
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: This was his big chance. He thought that some of
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: the men in charge were jealous of his opportunity. Montenez
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: believed a few of them wanted him to fail. He
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: had an idea that they missed. If it worked, they
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: might get fired. Montenez said.
• 7:31
  Speaker 3: They thought I was lucky. They were paid a lot
• 7:34
  Speaker 3: of money to come up with these ideas. They did
• 7:38
  Speaker 3: not want some janitor to do it.
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: Flaming Ha Cheetos sold well in local stores. In nineteen
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: ninety two, Freedo Lay began selling Flame and Ha Cheetos
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: across the United States. At the time, Frido Lay only
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: had three Cheetos products, but Flame and Hacheetos sold so
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: well that Frido Lay made over twenty more kinds of
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: chips using Montagnez's spices. People could even buy all the
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: different kinds of flaming hot chips in a box called
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: the Freedo Lay Flamin' Hot Mix. These chips made Freedo
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: Lay billions of dollars. Montagnez became a vice president for
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: PepsiCo America, which owns Friedo Lay.
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: Many years later, a newspaper story claimed that Montanez had
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: not thought of the idea for flaming hot Cheetos by himself.
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: The reporter wrote that Montanez did help create flame in
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: Hot Cheetos in California, but not for the rest of
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: the United States. People at Frito Lay said teams of
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: workers came up with the new kind of chip. It
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: was not just one person, but Monteney's lawyer said.
• 8:54
  Speaker 4: The taste that Richard came up with, Fredo Lay did
• 8:58
  Speaker 4: what they had to do to get it to market,
• 9:01
  Speaker 4: but Richard never got to be part of it because
• 9:04
  Speaker 4: his position had nothing to do with it. He was
• 9:07
  Speaker 4: not in marketing, research and development, or sales. He was
• 9:11
  Speaker 4: a general utility machine operator. He was a janitor.
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: Newsweek and Fortune magazines both chose Montaignees as one of
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: the most important Hispanic leaders in the United States. A
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: Hollywood studio made a film about Montagnes's life called Flame
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: and Hot. Montaignees got involved in youth programs that supported education.
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: He gave speeches encouraging young people to stay in school.
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: Montagnees also told kids not to be afraid to have
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: a dream. He said, it will never be easy, but
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: anyone can do anything if they do not give up.
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: Have you tried Flaming Hot, Cheetos and the other chips
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: that Freeto Lay makes. Which is your favorite and why?
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: You can leave a comment on our website at www
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: dot Spotlight English dot com. You can also find us
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: on YouTube, Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, and x You can also
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: get Spotlight episodes delivered directly to your Android or Apple
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: device through our free official Spotlight English app.
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: The writer of this episode was Peter Anderson. The producer
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: was Michyo Osaki. The voices you heard were from the
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: United States and the United Kingdom. All quotes were adapted
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: for this episode and voice by Spotlight. No AI or
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: artificial intelligence was used in this episode. Spotlight episodes are written, voiced,
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: and produced by real people for real people, no matter
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: where in the world they live. This episode is called
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: the Flamin' Hot Janitor.
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: We hope you can join us again for the next
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: Spotlight episode. Good Bye,