The family of his father had built a small fortune in the 19th century as entrepreneurs during the industrialization of their home city. His paternal great-grandfather, Gregorio Zambrano Guajardo, co-founded in 1854 the first textile mill in the region, "Fábrica de Hilados y Tejidos de Algodón "La Fama"". Likewise, his paternal grandfather, Lorenzo Hormisdas Zambrano Gutiérrez, founded "Cementos Portland Monterrey" (1920), a small Portland cement producer that profited from Monterrey’s reconstruction after the 1910 Revolution.