A Guide to Christmas Shopping in Acuña

December 19, 2006
By Bill Sontag
Feature Writer

Cesar Peña, owner/manager of Casa Uxmal, 125 Hidalgo Street, Ciudad Acuña, proudly displays his largest Talavera platter, a sample of merchandise displayed in his always-attractive show windows. (LIVE! photo/Bill Sontag) (click image to enlarge)

An enterprising chicle (chewing gum) vendor takes stock of successful shoppers leaving Casa Uxmal, just before Thanksgiving. (LIVE! photo/Bill Sontag) (click image to enlarge)

Jan Starks, bargains with Casa Uxmal owner Cesar Peña for a “best price” on a Talavera plate. Starks and her husband, Ken, manage Bayou Outdoors, a fishing lure firm in Natchitoches, La. She is a repeat customer at Casa Uxmal, working in a visit to the store twice a year while Ken bowhunts on a deer lease near Bracketville, each Thanksgiving weekend and the week after Christmas. (LIVE! photo/Bill Sontag) (click image to enlarge)

Talavera plates have been popular since their origins in the 16th century near Puebla, Mexico. Designs often reflect Arabic, Chinese, Italian, Mestizo and Spanish influences over the 500 years of artisan production of the tin-glazed ceramics. The majolica tradition in Spain gave rise to the now-popular Mexican Talavera, still manufactured with the same techniques. (LIVE! photo/Bill Sontag) (click image to enlarge)

Casa Uxmal owner/manager Cesar Peña advises shoppers from Katy, Texas about furniture purchases, flanked by his shelves of pewter and silver mirrors, vessels and art frames. (LIVE! photo/Bill Sontag) (click image to enlarge)

Late afternoon sunlight illuminates El Patio’s namesake feature, showing off pottery, furniture and metalwork – all handmade by owner Roberto Garza Crosby – leading shoppers to a cozy, indoor shop filled with colorful antiques, art and décor. (LIVE! photo/Bill Sontag) (click image to enlarge)

There are a few risks in promoting the idea that quality merchandise can be found across the river in our sister city of Ciudad Acuña, Coahuila, Mexico.

First, the uninitiated may equate Mexican shop inventories with gaudy blankets, stiff leather chaps and holsters, sloppy pottery, and inexpensive pharmaceuticals. Though such things are hawked along Hidalgo Street – to the delight of many tourists – the notion that quality merchandise is scarce is Myth Number One.

Another risk is that reputable merchants may feel left out of this sampling of wares. LIVE! explores here a mere handful of businesses that exemplify the caliber of selections affordable at many other shops along Hidalgo and Madero Streets and on the side streets that connect the two thoroughfares.

Myth Number Three is that getting there and back is a hassle, this from people who think nothing of putting six hours on the road for a roundtrip excursion to San Antonio. It’s neither difficult nor dangerous to visit Acuña’s bustling shopping district within a block of the international bridge.

Of greatest importance to serious shoppers, however, is the hospitality with which Americans are greeted when they frequent specialty shops owned and managed by entrepreneurs who go to great lengths to keep a fresh inventory of quality goods.

With almost legendary reputation for customer service, Cesar Peña, owner manager of Casa Uxmal, 125 Hidalgo Street, greets shoppers with a dizzying array of famed Talavera ceramicware from Puebla, Mexico, pewter from Mexico City, and rustic Mexican furniture from Saltillo. Casa Uxmal also features onyx carvings, mirrors, silver vessels and more handcrafted items. Casa Uxmal and Peña were featured in Southern Living magazine in 2002.

Peña is a member of a local charro associación, and his daughter, Yuritzi, 25, is an accomplished escaramuza (side saddle equestrienne) who is captain of her group. Posters and photographs in the shop attest to this rich family tradition of charrería, inadequately translated to “Mexican-style rodeo.”

The eye-dazzling centerpieces of Peña’s Casa Uxmal inventory are a long wall and tiers of shelves of traditional Mexican pottery rendered in the Talavera style. “No two pieces are alike, except for the sets,” Peña boasts, despite receiving three shipments a year, each bearing more than 75 new plates, cups, bowls, tureens, and place settings. The intricate designs appear as frozen patterns from a sophisticated kaleidoscope, in color combinations to please any taste for eclecticism and riotous color.

Casa Uxmal is open 10 a.m.-6 p.m., Mon.-Fri., 10 a.m.-8 p.m., Sat. and closed Sunday, Christmas Day and New Years Day.

Down two blocks and around a corner, at 118 Matamoros Street, Roberto Garza Crosby and his wife, Cristina, own and manage El Patio, a garden of handmade iron and steel furniture and outdoor furnishings, all designed and built by Roberto at his metalwork shop on Acuña’s outskirts. A densely decorated shop opens onto the patio garden, rife with objects of art and craft and household décor, ranging from ceramic sinks to sculptures and paintings.

Roberto is a 1974 civil engineering graduate of Texas A&M University, but found his passion in creating new designs of comfortable and provocative metal sculptures for socializing and hospitality. Most of El Patio’s business comes from commissions and special orders, mostly from U.S. customers. Corporate clients have included The Bank & Trust, Falcon Bank and the San Felipe Country Club.

Garza opened the shop ten years ago, and is proud of the diversity of his handiwork that’s found favor from both new and repeat customers. “I’ve done everything from cribs to tombstones,” Garza chuckled, recalling the range of intriguing orders over the past decade.

El Patio’s hours are 10:30 a.m.-6 p.m., Mon-Fri., Sat. 10 a.m.-8 p.m., 1-4 p.m., Sundays, closed Christmas Day and New Year’s Day

La Galería, owned and managed by Diana Ramon since 2001, offers a wide range of gift items and art, including colorful Mexican-style furniture, tinware, paintings and mirrors. Ramon says one of the benefits of her enterprise is traveling to Mexico’s interior – particularly San Miguel de Allende in the state of Guanajuato – for new or interesting inventory items.

She sums up her shopping regimen, “I like to specialize in art and items that other shops here don’t carry.” Ramon says she freshens her inventory at least annually with vendors who understand her taste and artisans she meets during her travels in Mexico.

Her corner shop, 110 Hidalgo Street, at the intersection of Guerrero and Hidalgo, includes a second floor of more furniture and larger décor items. And the upper room opens to a wraparound veranda that overlooks the street scenes below. La Galería’s hours are 11 a.m.-6 p.m., Mon.-Sat, closed Sundays, Christmas Day and New Year’s Day.

Dee Money is an avid Del Rio shopper in Mexico who occasionally gives workshops to winter visitors and Del Rioans who want to overcome their fears and learn her skills. Money advises shoppers to also drop in and browse the merchandise in Acuña Curios, Lando’s Gifts, and Arte de Mexico, all shops on Hidaldo Street.

In addition, Money cautions buyers to ask if the shop tacks on surcharges for using an American credit card. Some will, and many do not. She also urges cash-carrying shoppers to take their currency in small bills. Though rare, Money has been refused purchases with denominations larger than five or ten dollars.

Finally, she urges that currency not be displayed while price is being settled. “If you’re looking at a $20 item, and are showing them a twenty-dollar bill,” then that’s going to be your price … period,” Money said. But she does not discourage bargaining with sellers.

“Most of the shop owners want you to offer what you think is a fairer price,” Money said, Thursday (Nov. 30). “But, on the other hand, don’t insult them with a really low offer. If the marked price is $25, and you offer them $3, then you’ll never get them off that $25 price. But, if the price is $25, and you offer $20, then both of you know you’ll settle for $22 or $23,” Money said.

Free maps of Acuña are available at the Del Rio Chamber of Commerce, in the Del Rio Civic Center, 1915 Veterans Blvd. The knowledgeable staff there can assist shoppers who want to target prime shopping areas.