‘He’s done so much good’
Las Cruces icon, restaurateur dies
LAS CRUCES — Roberto Estrada, founder of Roberto’s Restaurant and Roberto’s Mexican Food and one-time Guinness world record holder for world’s largest enchilada, has died.
Estrada, who was in his mid80s, was an icon in the Mesilla Valley. His cooking of a large enchilada was the centerpiece of the annual The Whole Enchilada Fiesta, and in some ways put Las Cruces on the map.
Estrada was also well regarded for donating time, food and money to those in need.
“I never understood how he could have given so much,” said Yolanda “Yoli” Diaz, who started a fiesta in recent years to honor the legacy of TWEF, which concluded in 2014. “To me, he always was a man who really stood out for that.”
According to family friend Larry Ramirez, Estrada died Wednesday. He had been suffering from pancreatic cancer.
Estrada was born and raised in the Mesilla Valley and gave back to his community at every opportunity. His restaurant on Amador Avenue is largely run by family now.
“(The family wants) to thank everyone for all the prayers and the well wishes during this last few months when he was really sick,” Ramirez said. “(Roberto) just wants to thank Las Cruces for being so supportive of him and his business and his name. He took a lot of pride in his name.”
Estrada is survived by two sons, one daughter and 10 grandchildren.
The Whole Enchilada
Estrada told the Sun-News in a story about The Whole Enchilada Fiesta’s history that he was approached by the Las Cruces Chamber of Commerce in 1980 to add his cooking skills to an event that was then called Vaquero Days. The event was renamed The Whole Enchilada Fiesta that year, with the centerpiece being the huge enchilada Estrada made to feed the community.
Except for a rain storm in the late 1990s and a hiatus in 2012 to upgrade equipment, Estrada made the giant enchilada every year from 1980 to 2014. At its peak, more than 30,000 people would attend the three-day fiesta, which featured horseshoe and softball tournaments, touring and local bands Friday and Saturday evenings, and the making of the giant enchilada on Sundays.
The 10-and-half-foot-in-diameter enchilada took about an hour and a half and required about 48 people to help.
“It takes 250 pounds of masa (dough made from corn flour) to make one tortilla and we make three of them,” Estrada said in 2014. “We use 175 pounds of cheese and we use 75 gallons of red chile, and then we use about 60 pounds of onions.”
The enchilada held the Guinness World Record for World’s Largest Enchilada from 2000 to 2010, until a city in Mexico claimed that record with a 230foot rolled enchilada. TWEF organizers always claimed to have the world’s largest flat enchilada.
In 2015, Estrada announced he was going to quit making the large enchilada. Three months later, the fiesta’s board of directors said The Whole Enchilada would not continue.
Praise for Estrada
Diaz, president of Cancer Aid Resource and Education Inc., started The Big Event — a fundraiser for the nonprofit — in 2016 as a way to carry on the
traditions of TWEF.
Estrada donated food to the event for the four years it happened. The festival was canceled in 2020 due to COVID-19.
Diaz said she wants to publicly recognize Estrada for his significant impact on the community for so many years.
In 2008, resident Toni Bueno organized a tribute event to recognize the contributions Estrada made to the community.
“He started out just like everybody else,” said Bueno at the time. “He was selling tortillas and masa, way in Picacho. From there he just grew and grew, along with his giving.
“He’s done so much good,” Bueno said. “His whole root is community involvement.”
Mary Jane Garcia, then a state senator, presented Estrada both a memorial from the state Senate and a proclamation from then-Gov. Bill Richardson at the 2008 event.
“I know of no other person who has donated as much food as he has. People eat very well because of Roberto,” she said.
Estrada’s other honors included a New Mexico Distinguished Public Service Award in 2006, and in 2005, the first honorary degree bestowed by Doña Ana Community College. The Southern New Mexico State Fair in the past has also dedicated Sundays at the fairgrounds as “Roberto’s Day.”