INTERESTED ON MORE background information about Little Mexico, a place that was once a Dallas barrio just north of downtown? Here’s one source that will for sure fit some of those needs. It’s a book titled Dallas’s Little Mexico. It was written by Sol Villasana and published in 2011. Based on what I’ve found in that precious tome, that source is a fountainhead of historical information about that barrio and some of its people.
And if perusing old photos is your thing, Dallas’s Little Mexico has plenty of them.
The book is part of a series called Images of America from Arcadia Publishing, an effort that according to that company, “celebrates the history of neighborhoods, towns, and cities across the country.” Just in case you’re interested, the historical tome is available for sale at the Arcadia Publishing company’s website, at Amazon and at other online book retailers, and, possibly, at some local bookstores.
RIGHT: Cover of the book Dallas’s Little Mexico, by Sol Villasana
Besides providing plenty bits of historical information about that now gone barrio, where Mr. Villasana and others grew up, the book is filled with around two hundred black and white photos that truly help tell the story of Little Mexico and some of its people. There are images of many of the founding families that helped shape the stature and the growth of that neighborhood, as well as photos of men and women who grew up there and eventually became prominent civic or business leaders, or both, in the DFW Metroplex.
To my surprise, I found an image of a professional acquaintance on page 93, of the late Mercedes Olivera, a once Dallas Morning News columnist. She’s posing with a Miss Cinco de Mayo sash across her chest. It’s an image from the sixties. Mercedes had deep roots in Little Mexico, a place where her grandmother opened a Mexican restaurant called La Original. Ms. Olivera, incidentally, launched her newspaper column in 1975; it was called Los Tiempos at first. It focused on the successes and the lives of Latinos from the Metroplex. Her writings were published in that Dallas daily for decades. Unfortunately, Ms. Olivera’s life was cut short by cancer at the young age of 69, in 2018.
To continue to describe Mr. Villasana’s book, I’d like to add that the content not only provides valuable written and graphic insights about Little Mexico, but also about other varied bits of information that detail the beginning of that barrio and its place in history. It also tells of its end, about its tragic end, caused mainly by greedy land grab and eventual gentrification.
But more than anything else, the book reminds the reader with old photos about the many men and women that lived and succeeded there. Of pioneers who had dreams about themselves and about their cherished neighborhood and about those who eventually fulfilled those dreams.
One of those pioneers included in the tome is Joaquín José “J.J.” Rodríguez, an entrepreneur who launched the Azteca Movie House in the early 1940s, and the Teatro Pan Americano in the 1950s. He did it to fill the Spanish language movie watching needs of Little Mexico residents and of others. Images of J.J. and one of his buildings are featured on page 84.
There are plenty other photos published in Mr. Villasana’s book about Little Mexico, the place where many Mexican immigrants and their families settled during the second decade of the twentieth century. The images provide a glimpse into that barrio and its people. It would take a while to describe them all to you. The best bet? Purchase the book and check them out yourself.
You won’t be disappointed. Dallas’s Little Mexico, the book, is a keeper. Buy it, read it, look at the photos, and share it with others. Especially if you have roots that lead to some of the people that helped forge that barrio. A place where Mexicans, as well as others, once lived and enjoyed life. And a place of ours, too, where we showcased our culture.