Books vs. Movies
In this podcast we set out to answer the age old question: is the book really always better than the movie?
Books vs. Movies
Ep. 23 Flamin' Hot: La increíble historia real del ascenso de un hombre, de conserje a ejecutivo by Richard Montañez vs. Flamin' Hot (2023)
Ever wondered who really created Flaming Hot Cheetos? Get ready to uncover the fascinating story of Richard Montañez, the man who claims to have taken the spicy snack from a janitor's experiment to a global sensation. Join me, Lluvia, as I navigate Richard's rise to corporate fame in "Flamin' Hot: La increíble historia real del ascenso de un hombre, de conserje a ejecutivo," and dissect its 2023 film adaptation directed by Eva Longoria. I’ll share my own journey reading the book in Spanish, the challenges of dealing with nonfiction vocabulary, and the rich tapestry of Spanglish that peppers Montañez's tale. Plus, we'll unpack the controversy surrounding who truly deserves credit for Flamin' Hot Cheetos—Montañez or Frito-Lay's Lynne Greenfield.
This episode promises a deep dive into the key differences between Montañez's written memoir and its Hollywood dramatization. We'll analyze how the book serves as both a personal account and a business guide, offering practical lessons on workplace resilience and innovation, while the film zeroes in on a more dramatized version of his breakthrough moment at Frito-Lay. Expect an unbiased comparison, noting discrepancies like timelines, family details, and even the ages of Montañez's children. Whether you're a fan of inspirational business stories, or you're just here for the drama, this discussion offers a comprehensive view of Montañez's incredible journey from the factory floor to the executive suite.
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Bienvenidos a Libros Contra Películas, the podcast where I set out to answer the age-old question is the book really always better than the movie? Mi nombre es Lluvia. I'm an actress and book lover based out of New York City, y hoy we will be talking about Flaming Hot, la Increíble Historia Real del Ascenso de un Hombre de Conserje a Ejecutivo por Richard Montañez, and it's 2023 adaptation, flamin' Hot, directed by Eva Longoria and starring Jesse Garcia and Annie Gonzalez. All right, so yes, I did read Flamin' Hot in Spanish.
Speaker 1:I was a little bit worried about that because I'm completely, 100% fluent in Spanish. I can read it, I can write it, I can speak it. But, that being said, my vocabulary in Spanish is not O sea, lo puedo hablar y todo. But, like you know, as books get more for adults versus as for kids, the vocabulary does get a little bit more advanced. Y nomás hay algunas cosas que no entiendo. There's just some things that I don't understand. Vocabulary wise, it doesn't take away from my experience in reading books in Spanish. I always have, like a Spanish English dictionary, in case there's a word that I come across and I'm like I have no idea what this means, pero like I can read it and speak it and understand it. But I was a little bit nervous because it is a nonfiction book in Spanish and obviously, like nonfiction, those are usually more difficult to understand overall. So, especially if you're using, like, advanced vocabulary, I was just like I don't know how I'm going to do this. But this was surprisingly a very easy book to understand. I didn't need to use my Google Translate once to find out what, like, a business term meant. But otherwise, lo hice.
Speaker 1:And yeah, because I read the book in Spanish, siento como que debo de hablar en español, but I know that not everyone that listens to this speaks Spanish. So I was like, well, maybe I'll let the Spanglish come out and I will. And can I just say that Spanglish is its own. It's like it's its own real thing in that it drives me crazy, and I know that it drives like a lot of my friends that can speak Spanish and English crazy. Okay, so, for example, there is this secret, commercial secret, like the antiperspirant, I think it's secret that comes on my pot of Spotify, that comes on my Spotify ads all the time, and they're speaking Spanglish, but like they just say one word in Spanish and the rest of it is English. So they're like y estarás fresh all day. It's like that is not Spanglish, like there's nuances to spanglish and so, yeah, I feel it's just very irritating to me that people think like, oh, si pongo una palabra en español aquí, it's spanglish and it's like, no, there's more to it than that. So, yeah, just had to get that out there. Like spanglish is, it's not. We can tell, I don't know, spanglish is just, it's a thing, and it's a very annoying thing when you try to make spanish a one-word translation. But anyway, that is not the point of this vid, this podcast. The podcast is talking about flaming hot and we will get into it now. So one more thing before we get started Hay una controversia con esta historia?
Speaker 1:And the controversy is that apparently allegedly, this is not a true story, as in Richard Montañez has taken credit for creating Flaming Hot Cheetos, and this is not true. According to Frito-Lay, the company itself and interviews with several former Frito-Lay employees, Richard Montaigne has had nothing to do with the creation of Flaming Hot Cheetos. That credit, according to the company, goes to Lynn Greenfield, and Lynn Greenfield worked out of the Frito-Lay headquarters in Plano, texas. She and the company say that she's the one with creating Flaming Hot Cheetos and Richard Montañez did great things for the company marketing-wise and really allowed their company to grow and came up with all sorts of new flaming hot flavors outside of chips for the company. But they say that allegedly Richard Montañez is not the one that came up with the idea.
Speaker 1:Richard Montañez sticks by his story. He has stated that he's upset with the company for trying to take this credit away from him. So it is a kind of tricky situation. There are those that obviously believe Richard Montañez and agree with him. So he says that because of all the success he's received, the company is just trying to bring him down a notch, even after all these years, but that he knows the truth and his family knows the truth and that's all that really matters and he's going to continue to share that truth with the world. Frito-lay and Lynn Greenfield has stated that she's very upset that Richard Montanez has taken credit away from her, since this is her creation. Frito-lay is standing by Lynn Greenfield, but they do acknowledge that everything Richard Montanez has done for the company.
Speaker 1:So I do feel like it is important to address that, since a lot of people were against the creation or the making of this film because of that reason. Now, eva Longoria was allegedly informed of Lynn Greenfield and the fact that she was the one that created Hot Cheetos, supposedly. But Eva said I believe Richard she essentially like ignored these claims and went ahead with the story. So I just felt like I needed to put that out there, because it is something I'm not here to say that he did or he didn't. I am just here to talk about the adaptation and its source material as it is presented to us, the audience members. But I did want to make people aware of that controversy and acknowledge that I've heard of it, that I am much aware of this story may be a lie, it may be the truth, we don't know. But yes, I just want to say I acknowledge it, I'm aware of it, but I am focusing just on the adaptation and the source material. Okay, so with that very long disclaimer out of the way, let's get started.
Speaker 1:So, flaming Hot La Increíble Historia Real del Ascenso de un Hombre de Conserje a Ejecutivo, by Richard Montañez, was first published in 2021. Published in 2021. And it is the unforgettable true story of how a janitor work at the Frito-Lay factory ended up being the inventor of flaming hot Cheetos. He would take leftover like the chips that were deemed non-sellable, that were going to get thrown away. He took those home, he experimented with different spices until he came up with the perfect recipe and pitched it to Frito-Lay until it became a part of their inventory.
Speaker 1:Flaming Hot is its 2023 adaptation, directed by Eva Longoria and starring Jesse Garcia and Annie Gonzalez, and it follows the inspiring story of Richard Montanez, who, as a Frito-Lay janty, her, helped create flaming hot Cheetos and giving Frito-Lay so much more recognition and good things that came its. So it sounds like a pretty faithful adaptation, right? Well, it is kind of, but it's not. So I was kind of surprised when I read the book. I was expecting a memoir. Like the description, the way it's marketed, I was expecting a memoir. Y luego, I started to read it and one chapter is the memoir. I guess the rest of the chapters are still technically a memoir. First and foremost, this is a business book. It is not a memoir, it is a book on business advice, essentially. So this is not what I was expecting. I was expecting a memoir and then to read a lot of like business tips and like he ties in the business tips to hardships he faced while he was climbing the corporate ladder. So yeah, not necessarily a bad thing, but they definitely focus.
Speaker 1:They made the whole film out of essentially the first chapter of the book and then the rest of it is not existent in the film, so let's delve a little bit more into that. So, as I said, the first chapter is kind of what encompasses the film. There are like a few things that are left out or changed or whatever out of this chapter. There are a few things that are in the later chapters that are included in the adaptation, but most of the entire film comes from the first chapter of the book. And then I'm sure, like the other details that they added were creative liberties that they took for the sake of film drama and were in consultation with Richard Montañez. I mean, I'm not sure if he served as a consultant on the film, but I'm pretty sure he did.
Speaker 1:Most of the time if someone is still alive and they give consent to tell their story, they're a consultant in some shape, way or form. Doesn't always happen, but I'm just making assumptions here, but anyway. So in the film Richard Montañez and his wife only have two children. In reality they have three. I'm not sure why they didn't add a third kid, but he should have had three kids instead of two.
Speaker 1:And I will say that the one thing that really bugged me about the film is that he worked as a janitor for a total of nine years before getting started on experimenting with the creation of Hot Cheetos and all that. So a total of nine years before getting started on experimenting with the creation of Hot Cheetos and all that. So a lot of the things that happen in the film happen towards the end of those nine years. Like he starts off working at the factory and then we jumped forward the nine years and that's when he starts working on the Hot Cheetos idea. Obviously this is expedited for the film. A lot of the experiments and things that he was kind of trying out happened between that time period. So they didn't all just like kind of happen towards the end of his time working as a janitor. They all like there was a mixture of things that happened in between there that were kind of just put at the end of the film and the reason for that is more for dramatic tension. So when he gets the idea for Hot Cheetos in the film it's because his factory so he works at the Rancho Cucamonga plant of Frito-Lay and they're at risk of shutting down. There's been a lot of layoffs that was Voldemort, if you hear hacking, so there was a lot of layoffs and the factory was at risk of being shut down and so in order to stop the factory from shutting down, he creates Hot Cheetos. So obviously all the events that took more time in the book to happen, they were all lumped together for the sake of dramatic tension in the film.
Speaker 1:But one thing that really really, really bugged me watching the film is that so he starts yeah, he has his first kid in the film, and then he mentions briefly like oh, and then I started working at Frito-Lay and we had our second kid, and then we jumped forward to nine years later and so, in reality, empieza a trabajar en Frito-Lay. When he starts working there, his older kid looks like he's maybe four years old. No, he's a little bit younger, he looks like he's about two or three. And then his younger one that he briefly mentions like by the time I started working there, I had my other kid, or whatever. And then it time jumps nine years later.
Speaker 1:What really bugged me is that when you do a time jump of nine years and the kid, the older brother looked like he aged the nine years, like they went from having a three year old actor to a kid that looked maybe like he was 13 or 14 years old. So that looked just fine. But the younger kid looked like he was five. So it's like if he was a baby when you started working there. He should be about nine years old. Why does this kid look like he's five or six?
Speaker 1:So that just really really bugged me and I was like, well, I mean, mind you, maybe this little boy which I recognized him he was one of the Inky boys on TikTok. If you know who they are, sadly, the second half of the Inky boys. So it was the little boy and his father that made up the Inky boys. Unfortunately, the Inky Boys' father passed away of colon cancer, so that's really unfortunate. But I did recognize the little boy as being one half of the Inky Boys.
Speaker 1:So I was like, well, maybe this kid is like nine, but he just looks like he's six. But no, I looked up his age and he was about five or six when he filmed this movie. He's very cute, he's very adorable. But my brain was just like you're supposed to be nine years old. Why do you look like you're six, like your older brother, clearly aged. Why didn't you?
Speaker 1:So that was just like a casting thing. That really bugged me. Like I said, this little boy, bryce Gonzalez, he's very cute, very adorable, but just timeline wise, that really irritated me because I was like it's supposed to be nine years later. You're not nine years old and like even if he had been, like maybe he just looked that young, it's like well, why would you cast a little boy that looks that young? Like I'm gonna get off on a tangent so I'm just gonna stop myself right there. But because I'm just saying because Jacob Tremblay he was Brie Larson's counterpart in the movie room.
Speaker 1:I think he was about eight when he got cast as her five-year-old son and he looked like he was five, like I believed it. But like this kid, because I was like, even if you're he's like the appropriate age, if he doesn't look it like, shouldn't you be casting a kid that looks nine? Yeah, that was just one of those things. It has nothing to do with his acting ability and, like I said, he's very cute, but that was just like I got over it kind of. But like every single time I would see him, I'd be like you're supposed to be nine. He was having a blast, like very clearly he had blast filming this and I loved his performance, but just then I would remember what age he's supposed to be and it just my brain could not process the fact that his brother aged but he didn't, or his brother aged appropriately but he didn't age. He got stuck at five years old for like four years. Okay, but anyway, that's my rant. That was just something that really really bugged me.
Speaker 1:But yeah, in the book, by the time Richard Montanez gets hired at Frito-Lay, he has his three kids already. So, yeah, so, otherwise there aren't too many changes from that first chapter. As I said, most of the changes come from later chapters, and that's more because the later chapters are definitely more business advice. But there was one thing that I was just like ¿Qué está pasando en este mundo? Que? Like? This is grounds for firing. So like he gets the job at Frito-Lay as a janitor, and his dad was always like you're a Montañez, do whatever you do with pride, which is a very like Mexican mindset. Be proud of your work, showcase it with pride, great. So he does. But he still almost gets fired after two weeks because he lacked initiative.
Speaker 1:According to his supervisor, how did he lack initiative? He would finish cleaning everything that he needed to clean two hours early, and what would he do for the remainder two hours of his shift? Just start cleaning everything from the top. That's what was lacking initiative, like his boss was like you lack initiative, we're going to fire you for that. You are a hardworking employee, you're doing your job, but you finish work two hours early and instead of saying, gee, what can I do for remaining two hours, you just start cleaning everything over again. We can't have that, and I'm just like that's why you were going to fire him.
Speaker 1:Well, this ended up being a good thing, because Richard Montanez ended up getting the initiative to start looking into how he can improve the company and its sales, and that's what led him to creating Flaming Hot Cheetos. So if that guy had just I don't know, let him just clean for those remaining two hours not said anything, we wouldn't have Flaming Hot Cheetos. So thank you, guy, for threatening to fire him for lack of initiative. I'm just like I know there's someone out there that's like, well, yeah, he has a point, but I'm just like this guy is doing his job Like do you know how many people I know that, if they finished their job two hours early, would just sit around and do nothing and get paid to do nothing for those remaining two hours that they're on the clock. The fact that this man is still doing his job is he starting over making things doubly clean? Sure, and it's not even like find other things you can clean, like is there a coworker you can help clean? Is one of your coworkers absent? Can you clean his area? Like something like that would have made more sense to me.
Speaker 1:Like I said, this lack of initiative speech is what caused him to start looking into how the machinery worked, and from there that led into what is missing in the market. And from the market he was like I think I can do something with these hot Cheetos that'll improve sales. I mean, with these Cheetos that'll improve sales and that led him to start experimenting at home. I read that passage in the book and I was just like bruh, like this, wow, like continuing to do your job shows a lack of initiative. Maybe I just don't get it because I'm learning to set my work boundaries. I'm very proud of myself for that and that doesn't mean that like I slack off or anything like that. But the fact that this whatever I'm not even going to try to understand Like I read that and I was just like mind blown because I was like he's showing lack of initiative for working from the time he clocks in to the time he clocks out Again, do you know how many people would not do that? Okay, whatever.
Speaker 1:And then the film focuses just on Roger Enrico, who I can see why they didn't include any of the other CEOs. I think he's the CEO. There's so many like I think he's the CEO. I don't know much about business y'all, so I know that Roger Enrico was like very like. He was like one of the top people in the company. So I'm going to say he was CEO. But yes, before Roger Enrico, richard Montañez worked under two different leaders and then Roger Enrico came into power. I can see why the film just focused on Roger Enrico, because Roger Enrico is the one that he pitched Flaming Hot Cheetos to, that gave the approval for Flaming Hot Cheetos, made it happen all of that. So, yeah, we didn't really need the other two people that were mentioned, but I just thought I would mention that. All right, so there were.
Speaker 1:Like I said, the rest of the book was mainly like business advice and how he incorporated like how he came up with that advice, essentially so like don't let anyone dull your sparkle. Obviously that's not an actual business advice he gave in the book, but he's like don't dull your sparkle. And then he's like don't let anyone dull your sparkle, here's how I didn't let someone dull my sparkle and here's how it helped me move up the corporate ladder. So it's kind of like that. So there are something like the book. Something like the book. I mean the adaptation stops once he's created hot cheetos and he receives the promotion and then the epilogue of the film you know, shows pictures and it gives like richard montanez, continue to work every delay, blah, blah, blah.
Speaker 1:In the book we see more of his ascension, how he moved from janitor to one position of power to the next position of power, the next position of power, different business anecdotes to how to handle people trying to sabotage you, how you can make this attempted sabotage work in your favor and how to make the people that are trying to sabotage you not look good but not look bad necessarily. So like that way you're not throwing them under the bus. So he's essentially like telling you not to throw anyone under the bus, because that just makes you look like the better person and people will respect you more for that. So yeah, it's just a bunch of like business advice. Essentially, that's the main bulk of this book. So, yeah, it's not bad necessarily. It's just not my cup of tea.
Speaker 1:So I read business books before and I am not. I don't have anything against them and I think they can be like and by business books I mean like business advice books. Obviously there's a difference between a business book that's like here's how to start your business, or like books on business, I mean like textbooks, like that kind of obviously like there's difference. But I've read a lot of like business advice books and I like my brother. He loves reading those kinds of books, so I feel like he would really enjoy this book. I did not so much. I think my brother is definitely like one of those like change your mindset, change your mentality and good things will come out of that, and I think there's some truth to that for sure. But I'm definitely a lot more cynical. So, a lot of business advice books I'm like, okay, well, there's like a million other people that have followed your advice and don't have the success that you do. Like, just because it worked for you doesn't mean it's going to work for me, it doesn't mean it's going to work for anyone else. Like, I'm just a lot more cynical about self-help books, business advice books, just in general.
Speaker 1:So there are like other stories. So, for example, in the film there's only one person that has his side and it is Dennis Haysbert's character. He plays Clarence Baker. So Clarence is like one of the machine operators but he's like a manager machine operator person. So Clarence is like Richard's advice person and he gives him a lot of advice and helps him out a lot in making Hot Cheetos a success and he really believes in Richard. So he does have that person in the book as well. But the adaptation really makes it seem like Roger and Rico is the only person in power at Frito-Lay who believed in Richard and his idea and everyone else was out to sabotage him. There was one more person I don't remember the official title, but he was like also one of, like, the top executives at Frito-Lay who believed in him. Obviously he's under Roger Enrico, but he was pretty high up there, so he had two people on his side in the book with pretty substantial positions of power. Obviously, clarence had it more so just at the Frito-Lay plant and then the other guy had it within the company itself, so he did have a little bit more backup. But otherwise the rest of the book has nothing to do with the film itself and yeah, so I think you can guess which one I prefer. But let's make it official the film is the winner in my opinion.
Speaker 1:I rated the book three stars and I rated the film 3.5 stars. I really enjoyed the acting. I thought everyone did great acting-wise. I'm a really big fan of Annie Gonzalez. She plays Judy, his wife. Another big difference was that Richard and Judy in the film meet when they're like little little kids, like they meet while they're in elementary school and it was like love at first sight that lasted until they got married. In reality they met when they were in high school, so still like high school sweethearts ended up getting married to each other and to this day they're still married. But just wanted to throw that out there. But yes, I did rate the film 3.5 stars. I really enjoyed the.
Speaker 1:You know it's a feel good story and again there were creative liberties taken like, for example, there's a lot more tension with his father that in the film that isn't really mentioned. In the book, like his father, he doesn't have a good relationship with his father. In the film His father is kind of just like judgmental about like his life choices and things like that, but in the book it seems like his father was a lot more supportive of him and that there wasn't that familial tension. So, yeah, I, like I said, there's nothing wrong with the book per se. It is just not a genre that I read. It's not a genre that I enjoy. Like I said, this is something more in the wheel. Well, for, like my brother and people that aren't as cynical as me, I'm definitely a lot more cynical and yeah, so this is just not something. I was really excited to read it and then I was a little disappointed to find out it was more business advice than memoir. So it's both. It's combined, but it's definitely a lot more business advice. So, yeah, there's, like I said, there's nothing wrong with the book necessarily. It's just not something that I gravitate towards, it's not something that I necessarily enjoy reading. But if this is your kind of thing, maybe you'll enjoy it. But yeah, that is it for this episode Next time.
Speaker 1:I'm really excited because I have two guests with me to discuss Erasure by Percival Everett and its 2023 adaptation American Fiction so excited to have you virtually audio-ly meet them. And yes, if you enjoy books versus movies, please leave a rating and review. Tell all your friends about it. This is a 100% independent podcast. I do everything involved with the podcast and it's something that I really enjoy doing, but I would love it if you would help me spread the word by leaving a rating, a review and telling your friends all about it. See you next time.