El Popular Inc. is on a roll. Last year the U.S. Small Business Administration recognized the East Chicago manufacturer as the SBA Great Lakes Exporter of the Year. This year Gov. Mike Braun honored the company as a 2026 Century Award honoree.

Braun honored 34 businesses Aug. 17 at the Governor’s Century and Half Century Business Awards in Indianapolis.

“These 34 businesses have been powering Indiana's economy for decades and are true examples of the Hoosier spirit and work ethic, demonstrating a remarkable commitment to their crafts, their customers and their communities,” Braun said in a press release.

El Popular, a fourth-generation family-owned business, is the manufacturer and wholesale distributor primarily of a Mexican-style sausage called chorizo.

“The business was started by my grandfather, Vicente F. Garza, who migrated from Mexico to the United States in 1925,” said owner Edward Garza in a 2024 Northwest Indiana Business Magazine story. “He had a storefront in (East Chicago’s) Indiana Harbor where he would make the sausage himself and then he would fill up his Model T with it and drive to corners in Chicago to sell it.”

Four of his sons followed in the business.

“After my grandfather passed, my uncles slowly sold their shares to my father, Richard Garza, who became sole owner in 1981,” he said.

Edward Garza gook over the business in 2002, built a USDA plant in Valparaiso, and grew it to sellers nationwide and in Canada.

The company’s line of products included molé sauce, queso, spices and seasoning mixes, Mexican hot chocolate mix, and chorizo in various blends of picante chili and red pepper and other seasonings.

Four other organizations in the Region earned Half Century Awards:

• Jasper County Community Services: Founded in 1974; Jasper County
• Newton County Community Services Inc.: Founded in 1974; Newton County
• Pulaski County Abstract Company Inc.: Founded in 1973; Pulaski County
• Pulaski County Human Services: Founded in 1975; Pulaski County

“This year’s Century and Half Century Award winners include anchors of Indiana Main Streets, growing innovators and nationally recognized corporations, demonstrating the success and longevity of Hoosier businesses and their impact on the state,” said Indiana Secretary of Commerce Chuck Goodrich.

The awards have been given out for 34 years to more than 1,300 Indiana companies and organizations. Learn more about the awards here.