Before long, there won’t be too many people alive who remember what the Hispanic business district used to look like. Our businesses were located behind what was the Hotel Capitan, now known as the Van Horn State Bank. Directly behind it, on highway 90, Matt Daugherty had a grocery store in which almost the entire Hispanic community bought their groceries - La tienda del Daugherty. My father used to go there and buy three dollars worth of groceries and fill my brother’s wagon completely. I never thought much about this as a little boy, but now that I am grown I am simply amazed at how much three dollars could buy in those days. It would take over seventy dollars to buy an equal amount today. As an added incentive for buying at his store, Mr. Daugherty gave us “pilón”, a large paper sack full of assorted candies and gum, especially when bills were paid.

The next building was an adobe house which belonged to Mr. Juan Aguilar. Era casa particular, a place meant to rear a family. When Mr. Aguilar moved to California, the place was bought by Mr. Miguel Barrandey, and he rented the place to Nino Hernández and Alfaro Gonzales. They converted the house into a little bar. They operated the place for a while, then quit. Nino moved to California, and my tio Faro joined the Air Force. That place later became Nick’s Bar.

Sebastian DeAnda’s theater, the Talkies, occupied the space adjacent to that house. That was the place where we could go see the episodios, Flash Gordon vs. Dr. Zarkov, Ming the merciless, and Later Buck Rogers. The Lone Ranger with his “Hi, Ho Silver, awaaaaaaaaaaaaaay, the silver bullet, and Tonto, his faithful companion, the Green Hornet, Roy Rogers and Trigger. They kept us in suspense from week to week. All the kids would occupy all the front seats and every single one would have his or her opinion as to what would happen next.

Sebastian DeAnda used to own a bar next to the theater. It was to the right of the theater. Never a weekend went by without someone getting into a fight in that place. Too much booze would soon bring out the valorous spirit in imbibers and fights would ensue.

To the right of that bar was a little place which served as a barber shop, and sometimes a shoe repair place. I don’t recall doing business in that place.

Right next to that place was the pool hall. Now that was a place I frequented. So much so, in fact, that Chano Talavera and I became an almost unbeatable team. I say almost because there were some pool sharks who could do us in. Otherwise, we reigned in that place for a time.

Sebastian DeAnda, Sr. owned the grocery store next to that pool hall. He served the community well for a long time. He also had some trucks, so right next to the store he had his garage where he would store his trucks. I remember the railings in front of the store where people could tie their horses.

Adjacent to the Sebastian garage would be the Teatro Eden, owned by Mr. Miguel Barranday. This theater showed silent movies, and during the summer months there would be live plays, and magicians, and live singers. This was the place where I heard the world famous singer Lydia Mendoza playing her twelve string guitar and singings songs. She was largely influential in my taking up playing a twelve string guitar. When the Talkies theater starting bringing in the episodios and good movies, silent movies could not compete, so that put this theater out of business. After it was vacated, the place became a dance hall. It was not long thereafter that Mr. Miguel Barrandey, a mechanic for Toolen’s Garage, decided to go on his own and converted the dance hall into a garage.

The building next to this garage was Mr. Miguel Barrandey’s house. This is where Jesus, Lito, Carlos, Carmen, and Mike Barrandey Jr. grew up. The Barrandey family came to Van Horn from Presidio, Texas. This house no longer exists. Frank Aguilar has bought all the property which includes the pool hall, the store, the garage, the theater and Mike Barrandey’s house and converted all of that into Frank’s Super Market. The space where the Barrandey house used to be is now a parking space for Frank's store.

Some of you who view this might remember it differently. If you do, I would like to hear your views. Write to me at hluna@telstar1.com.