Surrounded by the mountains of Jalisco, Mexico, the entrance to the 20-acre manufacturing headquarters of chili spice maker Industrias Tajín features a half-mile-long driveway lined with Montezuma bald Cypress trees. Halfway there, it wraps around a massive molcajete, a mortar and pestle weighing 70,000 pounds, made from a single piece of volcanic rock. Three giant flags, 26 feet long by 13 feet tall, fly over the glass headquarters. One has the Tajín logo with its signature chili pepper substituting for the i. In the center is the Mexican flag. And to the left is the Stars and Stripes.

To see such a huge symbol of America a thousand miles south of Houston is somewhat disorienting. Unless you know the backstory.

“The American Dream motivated me,” explains Horacio Fernández, the 66-year-old founder and CEO of Tajín. “You build a business with your work, with your mind, with your innovation. In Mexico, it’s difficult.”

Fernández created the seasoning blend 40 years ago in his kitchen, taking cues from what his grandmother used, with the goal of selling genuine Mexican flavors in the U.S. market. It was an audacious plan in an era when some American supermarkets didn’t even stock jalapeños—and Chi-Chi’s, founded in Minneapolis, was among the country’s most popular “Mexican” restaurants. He succeeded by creating a Mexican product aimed squarely at Americans while simultaneously helping preserve (through commercialization) a heritage pepper key to Mexico’s national identity: chile de árbol de Jalisco, featured in Tajín’s logo. Some 40 million pounds of Tajín are now sold in America annually, much of it at Walmart, according to the cowboy hat-wearing Fernández, who rarely gives interviews. The U.S. is the engine behind the brand’s cultlike following, making up 60% of its business.