Joe T. Garcia's Mexican Restaurant Interview Part Two

[BEGIN PART 2] [00:00:00] JL1: He [Joe T.] had died in the '50s. You have to remember, two Hispanic women that were running this place. Oh, sorry.

KR: I got you.

JL1: You had two Hispanic, because he died in '53, and he was the lynchpin of this restaurant. He had the political connections. He's the reason we have all the land, he bought all the land back then, that had notes on everything.

KR: Smart.

JL1: But no, we owed in bank in Fort Worth because of all the property he owned, and when he died you had one Hispanic woman that had no education, ninth-grade education, then you had the other one that had high school. Now Paul, their dad, was a college graduate. But they had to work and pay every day the banks and everyone out of their pockets, every day, for what came in. And that's pretty impressive, for it to have become like this now, because no one expected the restaurant to stay open for more than a year after he died.

KR: They underestimated.

JL1: Well, first they started calling in notes, and they said, "Look, we're going to come up there and pay." And Mary or Hope would run up to the bank every day and pay them a little bit on their note. Every day-"We got the money, here's the money, we got the money," you know, and they left them alone. They paid the beer men every day, out of the ban-out of their pockets, you know. Whatever came in, they'd pay it out.

KR: Wow.

JL1: So it's pretty impressive. I mean that's.

LL: She, my grandmother, I mean, the register was her pocket, or it was her apron. I mean, the safe was her apron. No one touched the money but her. It went from, I mean, she stood at the little window out front that looked out to the register, so, I mean, her eye was on that or the enchilada the whole time. It never went anywhere from there. And so when she wasn't rolling enchiladas, she'd walk out front and pull a little money and put it in her apron, and that stayed in her apron. And no one touched-and if you needed a dollar or something, I mean, it would come out slowly. I mean, "There's your dollar, what do you need it for?"

JL1: She had to have it to pay her bills.

LL: Yeah, exactly. So, I mean, she ran things.

JL1: And she could tell you how much she made by counting the tortillas. Ninth-grade education. She could tell you to the penny almost how much you should have in that cash register by counting her tortillas.

KR: That's impressive.

JL1: That's really impressive [Laughs]. Yeah, it was, I mean both women, his mom has worked in this restaurant, it's been her life. And like I said, when she got sick the other day, she was in the office. And just, I mean, her kids and the restaurant has been her life. It's, it's all about that. It's nothing else, that's it.

KR: That's amazing.

JL1: Yeah, it is.

LL: It is amazing for a family to stay, I mean, almost eighty years the same family, and you know as well as I do, brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers-I mean, it's not easy being together seven days a week. And, uh, it's, so, you know, I tip my hat every day, and wonder sometimes, what keeps us together, what actually does-?

JL1: We were talking about that-

LL: We were just talking about that-Is it the money, is it the passion? Is it, I mean, is it, do we, do we actually love each other, I mean, what is this? But-

JL1: I think it's all of the above. I think it is a love for the business and a love for each other. Because, in all reality, the restaurant should be closed [Laughs]. But it's working and it's just, you know, and you don't mind. You don't mind coming to work. You don't, you don't have that, "Eww, I gotta go to work feeling," you know. It's like, "We gotta go to work, we gotta go. Come on, let's go." I mean, That's constantly. "Let's go, let's go, hurry, hurry, hurry." So, it's, you know, it's just, um, it's a different kind of-it's home. It's just home.

LL: [Unintelligble]. I mean that we always talk about, is the succession. I mean, yes the original six are still here, seven so to speak. But, to take over this thing, it's going to need somebody not with experience, but somebody with a passion. Who's going to have that passion? Where's that, you know, because it's something that you just can't instill in somebody-I mean, you either have it or you don't have it.

I mean, but how many people in this generation, this here, actually wants to say, "Well, yeah, I want to work seven days a week, and be there sixteen, eighteen-hour days." Say, "Yeah, that sounds like fun" [Laughs].That's what my son said, "You know what dad, I think I'm going to get my own restaurant" [Laughs].

JL1: It was, it took him away.

LL: And he closed the door. Which, and if that's-

JL1: And we're not happy about it.

LL: Yeah. But of course, we work on a different level, you know? But I mean, so yeah, that's going to be the hard thing. He's going to come up with his passion to keep this going, or-. But, uh, so that's what we talk about a lot lately, you know, the succession of this place, because, it's, it is, to me it's easy. But to a lot of people it's not easy, you know?

JL1: You gotta want to do it.

LL: You gotta want to do it. It's like anything, it you don't want to do it, well then, why bother, you know? But, yeah, exactly. But, uh, so that's what, that's where we're at, succession. So, we still got some time, though, we still got a long time to think about that.

JL1: We're not going anywhere.

LL: We're not going anywhere [Laughs].

JL1: Hope, she's 83, still working in the-oh wait, don't even put that in there. God, geez.

KR: Sorry [Laughs]. JL1: Yeah, that one you don't put in there.

KR: Okay.

JL1: Because she would, oh gosh. She does, I mean, if you saw Hope, you would not believe how old she is, she looks great. And, and she talks like she's twenty, so [Laughs].

KR: She's been in the industry her whole life. JL1: And she thinks she's twenty [Laughs].

LL: Yeah, she is trying to talk like she's twenty. [Laughs].

JL1: But, you know, it's, you gotta want to do this. And, we make fun of my son, but he's in fine dining. He said, "Mom, fine dining does not open seven days a week."

KR: It's a different animal.

JL1: Yeah, it is. A different generation, too.

KR: Hey [Laughs].

JL1: [Laughs]. Oh, excuse me [Laughs].

LL: So where we going this weekend?

KR: Alright, well, is there anything else you'd like to add? For real this time?

JL1: No [Laughs].

KR: Awesome. Cool, thank you, thank you both very much.

[END OF PART 2] [06:12]