No Greater Sacrifice

AuthorHouse

Contents

Acknowledgements......................................................ixPrologue..............................................................xiChapter 1. Starting On The Path Of Success............................1Chapter 2. Learning Business Skills From The Best.....................25Chapter 3. Shaping My Future..........................................35Chapter 4. Learning Discipline Is Not Easy............................45Chapter 5. Experiencing The Art Of Negotiation........................53Chapter 6. Becoming An Entrepreneur...................................63Chapter 7. Enjoying The Benefit Of Hard Work..........................75Chapter 8. My Hero's Gone But Not Forgotten...........................87

Chapter One

My mother, Dolores Longoria Marroquin Garcia, was born in Monterrey, Mexico, on August 10, 1913. Her mother worked as a housekeeper for a wealthy family there. When my mother was about seven years old, she and her family moved to Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, across the Rio Grande from Laredo, Texas. It was at this early age that my mother learned to face adversity. Arriving in a strange town with no extended family or close friends and having to look for employment, my grandmother had to place my mother in an orphanage. It was here that my mother spent her formative years. Mother would later attend a private high school in Monterrey. It was there where she learned to speak English.

According to my sister Lolly, who is two years older than me, "Mother would also learn shorthand and typing. She loved music and learned about music. She was exposed to a lot of good things, nice things."

It was in the orphanage that my mother met Pablo Garcia, my father. The two became U.S. citizens and married in 1928. She was fifteen, and he was seventeen. He was a tall, slender man who had a natural talent for learning skills and trades. He, too, would come to know about some of the finer things in life: a well-set table, a formal sit-down meal, and ensuring that his wife and children were well-dressed and cared for. That is why he was constantly trying to make things better for us by taking on a number of part-time occupations. As talented as he was, all that my father learned came from observation.

My father was a self-taught master chef. However, he had also learned to be a painter, an interior decorator, upholsterer, and all-around handy man. Mother and my sisters say that there was nothing he couldn't fix or at least try his hand at fixing. He had a sense of wonder of how things worked. His creative restlessness defined a man obsessed with excellence. It might be that these skills were rooted in his early years growing up in an orphanage without a home of his own.

My father was a dreamer with great hopes for the future. He had decided very early in life that, to make it in life, he had to do it himself. He knew the importance of observing, learning, and soaking in all that he could. I believe that he learned new skills for two main reasons; as a way to succeed and as a means of survival. It was a practice that would come to serve him well as he raised his family.

My parents moved to Laredo and set up their family home. My father found work as a chef for the Hamilton Hotel in Laredo. A man of many talents, he also did upholstery and drapery work. He had a high standard of quality in his work, paying very close attention to the tiniest details. Setting up their new home in the style of their ancestors, my father was very proud to be the head of his family. He took his responsibilities very seriously. My mother fully supported his breadwinner role. She knew that her job was staying home and raising their growing family. It was a duty that she accepted without question. She felt very secure under his protection.

The house that I remember as our first home was in the Colonia Guadalupe in Laredo. The colonia was the most recognizable public housing area in Laredo and fairly close to "el centro," the center of town, more commonly described as the downtown area. The main reason why that was important was the fact that there were no malls in those days, So el centro was it for shopping. It was also where most business, financial, and social activities were conducted.

The actual center of town was a whole city block that housed the city public offices and the police station. The city library was located on the second floor. However, the core of the downtown shopping district was a block away, at the corner of Convent Avenue and Hidalgo Street. Convent Avenue was the street that led directly to the International Bridge. The busiest location for both auto and pedestrian traffic was home to three of the biggest department stores of that time. Kress's Department Store was located on one corner, and moving clockwise, Woolworth's and McClelland's occupied two other corners. A local store occupied the fourth corner. JCPenney's was next to Kress's, and Western Auto was further down the street. Two other locally-owned department stores were close by; these were Richter's and Hachar's. They catered mostly to the higher-income people and wealthy shoppers from Mexico. The two most popular shoe stores, Kinney's and Thom McCann's, were down the sidewalk from McClelland's. The only two banks, the Laredo National Bank and the Union Bank, were within walking distance. The two biggest and most luxurious hotels were the Plaza and the Hamilton Hotel. As I mentioned earlier, my father worked at the Hamilton.

The major movie theaters were also located across from the city square. These were the Plaza and the Tivoli. The Royal, which was Spanish language, and the Rialto Theaters were up the street on Hidalgo. In addition, the downtown area had a number of busy drugstores with soda fountains that were very popular with kids, especially after school. The most popular ones were Guajardo's, City, and Central Drug Stores. So, like many other small cities, the compact downtown area was the place to socialize. That is why the colonia, built in 1938, was so conveniently located. It was within walking distance of the center of town.

The colonia consisted of a number of all-brick, one- and two-story buildings that housed two to four families per structure. They were arranged in clusters of homes that were separated by clean sidewalks and well-lit streets. At a time when most of the streets of Laredo were unpaved, all the streets in the colonia were nicely and cleanly paved, with concrete curbs. To compare the difference, all you had to do was walk across the street, and it was like walking into a drab, different world. In short, the colonia was like an oasis in the middle of a desert. We all felt blessed to live there.

Today, public housing tends to have a bad reputation due to its association with gangs, unemployment, and other bad elements. That was not the case when I was growing up. Colonia Guadalupe was a very respectful and dignified state-of-the art housing project. It was designed to give upward-moving families a hand with affordable housing. Colonia Guadalupe was not really designated as long-term housing. It had the look and feeling of permanent housing. However, as soon as their financial conditions improved, tenants were expected to move on and buy their own homes. This approach opened up the units to other families on the waiting...