Border Bargains
Turn your house into a hacienda with Talavera tile and terra-cotta pots, hand-blown glassware and hand-carved furniture: a guide to thirty shops just across the Rio Grande where the quality is high and the prices aren't.
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The few pieces of unfinished wood furniture that were in stock were more refined than much of the work we saw elsewhere on the border. A well-crafted pine armoire with paneled doors and a true arch top would make a great entertainment cabinet (sale price $696). A pine credenza five feet long and thirty inches tall was notable for its simple, clean lines and its drawers and doors that fit and worked smoothly, not always typical (sale price $280).
Muebles Rusticos Raramuri de la Sierra, Avenida 16 de Septiembre 2759 (the street crosses Avenida Lincoln), 16-13-56-88. The salesmen in this store, which opened last January in an unassuming second-story location in a strip mall, assured me that their furniture wasn’t made in a big factory but by little “chaps” in Juárez. It took me much too long to figure out we were talking about little “shops.” Equally confusing were discussions of “ladder” and “leather,” but when it came to prices, we agreed they were cheap. Even though I don’t have kids, I was tempted to buy the child-size equipal table and three chairs ($110). Unfinished rustic pine armoires large enough to hold a television and stereo ran from $275 to $300, and this place’s standard line of pine furniture includes three-drawer nightstands ($60), four-drawer dressers ($120), and six-foot-long credenzas ($200). As is almost always the case, Raramuri is happy to build custom pieces.
Matamoros
MATAMOROS’ MAIN TREE-LINED BOULEVARD, Avenida Alvaro Obregón, practically beckons your automobile across the Gateway International Bridge. The town’s major stores are on Avenida Obregón (which becomes Avenida Hidalgo about eight blocks from the bridge) or clustered around the old market area on Calle 9 between calles Matamoros and Bravo. Maps are available at the Brownsville Convention and Visitors Bureau (U.S. 77 and 83 at FM 802; 800-626-2639) and at García’s, your first destination. Whatever you do, don’t stop at the tour-guide booths, at least not the one across from the Gran Hotel Residencial, because guides will hop into your car faster than you can say “Pero no…,” bark orders at you like a cranky mother-in-law, then demand an exorbitant fee when you finally dislodge them from the passenger seat.
García’s, Avenida Obregón 82, just over the bridge, 88-12-39-29. While my husband gawked at the best tequila selection on the border, I discovered that onyx art, my heart’s desire when I was young, is still alive and well here (onyx poodles go for $2.49 each). More to my current taste were the Talavera wall sconces painted with pairs of rather angry-looking birds ($22.95) and the carvedwood cherubs, including oddly apathetic flying angels ($9.95) and their mutant cousins, the two-headed horn blowers ($51.95). A Talavera urn that was decorated with a Picasso-esque portrait and had handles shaped like ribbon candy also caught my fancy ($85). A small selection of unfinished furniture ranged from tiny folding tables, a light lunch for a termite ($2.99), to a bench with horses’ heads carved in the back ($269). García’s also has a great collection of “unleaded pewter” candle holders, picture frames, and kitchenware ($9 to $30) that is “oven-proof and needs no polish.”
Johnny’s Place, on Calle 8 between Bravo and Bustamante, under a sign reading “Johnny’s Place,” 88-12-41-10. A more congenial proprietor can’t be found on either side of the border. What Johnny Garza lacks in inventory he makes up for in enthusiasm. When we stopped by, he was gleefully unpacking some of his new merchandise and seemed especially smitten with a decorative pottery fruit bowl complete with pottery fruit with metallic leaves and stems. I was more interested in his collection of old metal hardware, like the aged mail slot ($15) and punched-metal drawer pulls and knobs that looked like open umbrellas ($3 each). You can get a small metal table and four chairs for $90. The set wouldn’t win any design awards, but for that price, who cares? Birdcages up to five feet tall cost $120 to $160. Old blown-glass-and-metal light fixtures (like some I recently dug out of my parents’ attic, relics from a buying trip back in the seventies) were $40 to $60, and wagon-wheel chandeliers that would do the boys on Bonanza proud go for $120. Johnny also has a cache of curios, some of which—like the miniature chair fashioned from a tin can—sent me spiraling into a nostalgic time warp.
Mueblería José Gutiérrez, on Calle Herrera between calles 8 and 9; no phone, no sign. To illustrate the sturdiness of the wood furniture his family’s shop turns out, Alfredo Gutiérrez jumped on top of a dining room table and did the fandango for us. When he told me the price of an unfinished pine table with four carved high-back chairs ($95), I did the fandango. A pine vanity with four drawers and a chair was $110, and a china hutch was around $200. Alfredo was kind enough to drive us to a showroom of sorts where the finished furniture—dark and heavily varnished—is sold. (I think a creative shopper would buy the unfinished furniture and decorate it with bright, multicolored stains, add a hefty coat of urethane, and call it patio furniture.)
Fabricaciones Metálicas Rios, Calle Michoacán 1512, at Calle 6 Sur, 88-17-46-44; personal checks accepted, no credit cards. This ironworks, a couple of miles from the bridge, is off the beaten path but well worth searching for. The craftsmanship here was the best we saw. For eleven years the Rios brothers have been turning out some of the most elegant gates and architectural ironwork in Matamoros. Luis showed us photo albums filled with their work: playscapes, barbecue grills, light fixtures, birdcages, and gates and fences fit for a palace. They can custom make anything you fancy; just take them a picture and give them three to four weeks. Six-foot-high birdcages were $100, and a patio table and four chairs cost $300. And for $3,500 they can fashion a set of entry gates that will make your River Oaks neighbors swoon with envy (less ostentatious gates start at around $500).
Piedras Negras
THIS IS THE PLACE TO SHOP IF YOU DON’T want to feel hurried or overwhelmed by the selection. And the tourist office (on your right just over the bridge) was the most helpful we encountered along the border, handing out various maps of the city. (You can also get a map at the Eagle Pass Chamber of Commerce, 400 Garrison, 210-773-3224.) All four shops listed are located on the main drag, which has three names: Avenida Emilio Carranza, Avenida Lázaro Cárdenas, and Highway 57. When you leave the bridge, you’ll be on Avenida Juárez. Take Juárez to Anahuac, turn left on Anahuac, then right onto the main drag. There are only a few stores here that carry home furnishings, but look on the bright side: Without a dizzying array of choices, ingenuity and imagination blossom. You might decide to cover the walls of your den with cheap, brightly painted birdcages of wood and wire. Or stock up on garish baskets. Or fall in love with a three-quarter-scale plaster Rottweiler guaranteed to scare an intruder at least once.
Escobas y Trapeadores del Norte, on Avenida Carranza across from Motel 57; no phone. While wandering the border towns, I was struck by the beauty of the lowly broom, imagining what a stunning wall hanging half a dozen of them might make. This specialty store, selling nothing but brooms, mops, and dustpans (kind of reminded me of the Scotch-tape store on Saturday Night Live), was doing a brisk business when we stopped by to pick up a handsome oversized broom with a handle of natural wood ($3) and a couple of long-handled tin dustpans, elegant simplicity itself ($1 each).
Mosaicos El Aguila, Avenida Carranza 1003, near Motel 57, 87-82-00-09; personal checks accepted. Not the lowest prices on Talavera tiles on the border (73 cents each), but you can snag a Talavera bathroom sink for less than $25 here and a Talavera switch-plate cover for $6.
Zulema, Avenida Carranza 1300, across the street from Motel California, 87-82-27-10. Don’t let this store’s stylish design fool you: Bargains lurk within—along with kitschy geegaws. The furniture prices were so low I had to ask the sales clerk to write them down to make sure I understood her correctly: an eight-foot, deeply carved, stained and glass-topped pine dining room table with six chairs was $527; a stained pine china hutch was $495; an upholstered equipal-style sofa set was $475; and a six-foot-tall, unfinished carved-pine bookcase was $335. Accent pieces like Talavera sconces, soap dishes, and picture frames ($6 to $9) made it onto my Christmas list.
Alejandro Rodríguez’s Place, Avenida Cárdenas 2208, across the street from the Casa Blanca Inn, 87-83-23-33; no sign. This open-air store has a no-nonsense inventory of garden statuary, pots, and furniture at no-nonsense prices. A cast-aluminum garden table and four chairs, painted a mottled green-black, were $380. A ten-foot cantera pillar can be yours for $300, a three-foot section of cantera balustrade for $85 (two sections would make a novel base for a table).
My Library
