culiacan, sinaloa, mexico — In 1910, 10-year-old Lee Fong’s future in Hong Kong looked very dim. The young boy was not only smart enough to process this, but brave enough to do something about it.

Then, as now, Hong Kong was a gateway to the world. Fong didn’t know where those ships sailed, but he managed to stow away on one.

Once at sea, he made the inevitable acquaintance with the crew and was put to work to earn his keep.

The boy next touched terra firma in Mazatlán, Mexico.

He previously had not heard of Mexico. He had no relatives or friends there, but managed to connect with a Chinese community in Mazatlán. He survived by performing odd jobs and trading things. In the 1930s he changed his name to Juan Ley Fong to sound more Mexican, as the story is told by Diego Ley, the 70-year-old son of Juan Ley, who died in 1969.

When he was around 16 Juan Ley had moved north to Sonora and found work on a ranch belonging to Alvaro Obregon.

Here an interesting story emerges, linking two leading Mexican produce industry families.

Related components of the Obregon history were shared with The Produce News in Nogales, AZ, by Francisco (Pancho) Obregon, a Mexican produce industry leader, shortly before Pancho’s death from cancer in September 2015. According to Pancho Obregon, in 1911, his grandfather, Alvaro, was a very successful and content farmer who was pushed by the times to become a politician. In April 1912, Alvaro Obregon became a leader in the Fourth Irregular Battalion of Sonora. Obregon’s enemy was the Mexican establishment. The Mexican Revolution was under way. One of Obregon’s earliest commands was leading a band of Sonora’s Yaqui Indians, who were armed with bows and arrows, against the Mexican Army. Even with such a dubious start, Obregon was a successful tactician.

Back on the farm, Ley started milking cows but eventually Obregon’s mother invited him to work in the farm home.

Meanwhile, Obregon rose rapidly to be a general in the revolutionary army. Ley then became the general’s valet.

As the war progressed, Ley learned that he himself was an important military target, given how much he knew about Gen. Obregon.

Obregon became Mexico’s president from 1920-24. He was assassinated in July 1928 before he was sworn in to another term as president.

Obregon’s family continued its successful operations in Sonora. Today his great-grandsons operate IPR Fresh in Nogales.

Ley married a Mexican native, Rafaela Lopez, in Mazatlán. The couple moved to Tayoltita, a small mining town in the Mexican state of Durango. The couple had six boys and three girls. Juan Jose Ley noted, “Among the boys are my father, Marcos Ley and Diego Ley Sr.” Juan Jose Ley’s cousin and Diego Ley Sr.’s son, Diego Ley Jr., is the general manager of Del Campo’s Nogales office.

Juan Ley, like his general, managed to survive the revolution. But, Ley’s trials continued for some time thereafter. According to Diego Ley Sr., his father Juan Ley worked in mountainous Tayoltita, in gold mines that were owned by the Hearst empire. Ley’s niche was growing vegetables for the mine workers who were very poor and received extremely low wages. Their payment was in chits to buy food and merchandise from the company store.

Eventually, the workers looked to Ley to help improve their lives. “My father looked at the situation and had friends in Mexico City,” Diego Ley Sr. said. Juan Ley led a strike that, after three months, was successful. Predictably, at the strike’s end, Ley was fired by the gold company.

So, he started a small store to cater to the mine workers. A 1948 theft by a close friend and colleague forced Ley to eventually close his shop and search for a new location, according to Wikipedia.

The Ley family moved to Culiacan. In September 1954 the company Casa Ley was born.

This was the beginning of what became Ley Supermarkets, which is now Mexico’s largest privately held supermarket chain. Wikipedia indicates the chain is 49 percent owned by Albertsons Cos. Inc.

Culiacan is also the headquarters of the Ley family’s Del Campo Supreme Inc., a major vegetable grower, which has a distribution office and warehouse in Nogales. This, of course, is literally just down the road from the Obregon family. The Obregons are, unsurprisingly, leaders in the community of Obregon, Sonora, which was named for the national hero.

Fourth-generation Del Campo family member Juan José (Shannon) Ley said that several years ago some young members of his family coincidentally connected with young Obregons. The young men became very good friends —and then later learned of their remarkable, historic connection.