A quintessential American dream story from a Mexican entrepreneur who shares the tale of
building a multi-million-dollar business from scratch complete with both success and failure
and always a vision of hope Leal came to the U.S. penniless as a teenager speaking almost no
English he literally slept in the boiler room of a Wisconsin cheese factory for months before
he was caught. Through hard work grit and ingenuity Leal would go on to launch his own
business. He is widely credited with introducing Mexican cheeses to the U.S. market and grew
his company to a multibillion-dollar success story. Yet like many successful entrepreneurs
Leal's great successes were matched by personal failures: the end of a marriage trouble with
law enforcement and the deeply felt sense that there must be something more to life than great
wealth. Leal's memoir THE HOUSE THAT CHEESE BUILT is both a beautiful illustration of the
immigrant experience--isolation fear and ambition for a better life and assimilation--as well
as a thoughtful personal account of entrepreneurship and all its benefits and costs.
