BRONCA tells the story of the Portela twin brothers, from the moment they realised how the system fails the most vulnerable among us, to the day they decided to do something about it.
BRONCA was founded in 2018 by twin brothers Jose Ignacio and Juan Pablo Portela. Though born in the Uruguayan capital of Montevideo, at the age of five they moved with their family to a small, rural town.
As of their sixth birthday, the twins started attending school. They would rise at five in the morning, mount their horses, and ride fifteen kilometres to class. Dressed in traditional rural attire, from the alpargatas on their feet to the ponchos on their backs, the Portelas made the journey every weekday for the next four years.
At school, the twins were shocked to learn that most of their classmates survived on just one meal a day. The children, most of whom came from low-income families, relied on the resources of the little school completely.
The experience had a profound impact on the Portela brothers. Thirty years later, the injustice suffered by those children was still playing heavily on their conscious. The anger they felt —the bronca—was still burning within them. It was time to act.
They built BRONCA with one clear mission: to nourish and support underprivileged children around the world.
BRONCA produces rural goods, similar to those the Portelas used and loved when they lived in the Uruguayan countryside, but with a contemporary twist—and fifty percent of profits go to feeding kids who have been dealt an unfair hand from the start.
BRONCA is here to change the system. Our products are inspired by local traditions and honest values, our business model is shaped by empathy and activism, and our brand is for anyone who believes that every being on this planet is worthy of love and respect.
