SIERRA VISTA — Open a Dichos cookie and you will find a slip of paper with a message.
It's not a fortune like you would expect from a cookie in a Chinese restaurant. Rather, it's a Mexican folk saying like, "A cat that sleeps will catch no mice."
Raul Montano, 44, and his wife, Marina, 42, started baking the cookies at the beginning of this year in Douglas. So far, they have made more than 375,000 cookies, each containing one of a variety of 100 "dichos," or "sayings."
"Our town is rich with tradition and 'dichos' are heard in everyday conversation among the citizens of Douglas and our neighbors across the border," states the company's Web site.
Marina Montano said she and her husband thought of the idea for Dichos while eating fortune cookies at a Chinese restaurant in Tucson during a birthday celebration in March 2007.
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They decided the cookie should be in the shape of a taco and contain a Mexican saying that is written in Spanish on one side of the paper and in English on the other.
"He came up with the cookie and I came up with the name and the sayings," she said.
Dichos are made with flour, sugar, eggs, cornstarch, artificial vanilla, cinnamon and water. The mixed ingredients are pumped into a machine that bakes the cookies, bends them and inserts the slips of paper.
The cookies are packaged on a separate machine.
People can order Dichos on the company's Web site. Each case, which contains 250 cookies, costs $12.50. The company also will custom-print personalized labels and insert them with cookies in clear wrapping for $25 for 100.
Dichos are sold to US Foods and Sysco. The Montanos are starting an agreement with a broker in California.
Some of the local businesses that give away Dichos include Chatita's Mexican Restaurant in Douglas, Yogi's Cafe in Douglas, Mexico Lindo Family Restaurant in Bisbee, Santiago's Mexican Restaurant in Bisbee, and even a Chinese restaurant in Agua Prieta, Sonora, Raul Montano said.
"We try to take them out to every table at the end of the meal," said Glynnis Reed, front-of-the-house manager at Santiago's. "There is one woman who comes in particular. She won't order dessert, but she won't leave without her Dicho — her little Mexican taco. If you give her two, it's like you just made her day."
Some examples of the sayings are: "The shrimp that falls asleep is carried away by the current," "Tell me who your friends are and I will tell you who you are," "Get a man drunk if you want to know him" and "There is no bad thing that doesn't bring something good."
"They are kind of different than a fortune cookie because in a fortune cookie you get your lucky numbers and you get a fortune like, 'Today you will meet somebody prosperous,' " Reed said. "This is more like a saying. We have our favorite one taped up over by the bar. It says, 'The drunkenness will pass, but the ugliness will not.' "
Dichos are baked only in the factory in Douglas on an as-needed basis right now. But Raul Montano envisions producing thousands of cookies per hour all day long and adding to the work force of four part-timers.
The Montanos have invested a significant amount of money in equipment. The economy is tough now, but they are hopeful that business will pick up soon.
"I would just be happy to get out of our debt and send our kids to college," Marina Montano said, referring to their children, Mia, 16; Ruly, 11; and Tino, 6. "That would be awesome."
