www.montereycountynow.com MARCH 20-26, 2025 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY 5 831 By any measure, Jesús Ruvalcaba was already successful beyond his wildest dreams. He grew up in farmworker housing in the middle of a Castroville artichoke field with a love for drawing, and only through teachers learned that it could be a career path. He studied graphic design at Hartnell College then CSU Monterey Bay before landing in Silicon Valley, working for companies like eBay and Hewlett Packard Enterprise. But still he was dogged by the question of what next? “I was working for these companies with very strict brand guidelines,” he says. “The creativity, the reasons I got into this field, just weren’t there anymore.” So he set out to find what he calls a “passion project.” That passion project became greeting card design. The line of cards, which has since become a successful company called Paper Tacos, is not just a celebration of Ruvalcaba’s passion for illustration, but also his Mexican American heritage. (He is the son of Mexican immigrants.) In 2016, Ruvalcaba, now 46, spent about a year creating 15 designs featuring friendly, cartoonish illustrations and a singular phrase—often in Spanglish—playing up a cultural reference before showing them at an art fair in San Jose. These specific cultural references instantly hit a nerve for customers who for years had been stuck with generic Spanish-language translations from big card companies like Hallmark. One original birthday card shows a frog holding a birthday present and wearing a birthday hat and reads: “Sapo verde to you.” Sapo verde means green frog, and he says many Mexican elders would mumble something that sounds like “sapo verde” in lieu of the words “happy birthday”—something that became a joke shared among a generation of Chicanos in bilingual households. A get-well card features another friendly frog, this one looking downtrodden and with a band-aid on its butt. “Sana sana colita de rana,” the text reads—a reference to a phrase parents offer to children to “rub the butt of a frog,” part of a healing rhyme to help them get over a scraped knee or a bump on the head. A popular birthday card reads “Have a Fabuloso birthday,” the Fabuloso written across an anthropomorphized purple bottle of the cleaning product his peers can relate to. Paige Venable, the floral director for Vallarta Supermarkets, reached out to Ruvalcaba and now the chain carries Paper Tacos in all 60 stores, including the Salinas location that opened in 2023. She wanted stationery that would resonate with shoppers, and found his line to sign perfectly. “It just bridges the gap,” she says. “It speaks to the younger generation. It’s such a perfect, playful take.” As Paper Tacos grew, mostly by expanding its wholesale side, Ruvalcaba took a leap. In 2023, he quit his day job and committed to the company full time, although he had never thought of himself as an entrepreneur; now he’s set to appear on Shark Tank on Friday, April 4. He continues to design and illustrate cards himself (drawing inspiration from the cartoon “The Far Side”), but he’s branched out to work with freelancers and now features cards with artwork by Mexican artist Grecia “Gree” Zamora, and is working with Salvadoran illustrator Eduardo Marticorena on concepts specific to Salvadoran-American culture. “I’m a creative, but now I need to do business,” Ruvalcaba says. He staffs his Salinas headquarters—an office with shelves of cards, and a screen for marketing photo and video shoots—with his niece, sister and 17-year-old son, and is working on expanding direct-to-consumer sales (through his website at papertacos. com) where margins are better than wholesale. He now has over 200 concepts for sale, all following his winning format of a clever phrase and illustration on the front, and blank inside. “I want him to be successful, I want him to rule the world,” Venable says. “He is so innovative, constantly coming up with something new, something cute—and he never loses his actual flavor. He stays true to the vision.” Paper Plane A graphic designer from Salinas finds remarkable success in designing his own line of stationery. By Sara Rubin Jesús Ruvalcaba uses word clusters and mood boards in his brainstorming process and says developing ideas is the most time-consuming part of developing card designs. His cards are available at Gifts on the Go, Vallarta and Downtown Book & Sound in Salinas. “I want him to rule the world.” TALES FROM THE AREA CODE DANIEL DREIFUSS Presented By montereychamber.com In CelebrationOf: 2024 Citizen of the Year Jeff Davi The Monterey Peninsula Home Team and A.G. Davi, Ltd 2024 Ruth Vreeland Memorial Public Official of the Year Mary Ann Carbone Mayor City of Sand City 2024 Robert C. Littlefield Award for Lifetime Achievement Shawn Adams Owner, Monterey Signs 2024 Community Impact Award Sandra Button Chairman, Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance Business of the Year Award To Be Announced During the Event GET TICKETS!
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