Felix Tijerina (1905–1965) was a Mexican-American restaurateur, activist, and philanthropist in

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

. He served as the 25th president of the

League of United Latin American Citizens The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) is the largest and oldest Hispanic and Latin-American civil rights organization in the United States. It was established on February 17, 1929, in Corpus Christi, Texas, largely by Hispanics r ...

History

Tijerina was born in

General Escobedo General Escobedo, or simply Escobedo, is a city and municipality in Nuevo León, Mexico that is part of the Monterrey Metropolitan area. As of the census of 2005, the population was 295,131 in the city and 299,364 in the municipality. The municipa ...

Nuevo León Nuevo León () is a state in the northeast region of Mexico. The state was named after the New Kingdom of León, an administrative territory from the Viceroyalty of New Spain, itself was named after the historic Spanish Kingdom of León. With a ...

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

; He had claimed to have been born in

Sugar Land, Texas Sugar Land is the largest city in Fort Bend County, Texas, United States, located in the southwestern part of the metropolitan area. Located about southwest of downtown Houston, Sugar Land is a populous suburban municipality centered around th ...

. In 1918 he became a busboy at the Original Mexican Restaurant, the first

Tex-Mex Tex-Mex cuisine (from the words ''Texan'' and ''Mexican'') is an American cuisine, American cuisine that derives from the culinary creations of the Tejanos, ''Tejano'' people of Texas. It has spread from border states such as Texas and others i ...

restaurant in

. Tijerina taught himself English and became a friend and associate of the owner of the restaurant. Tijerina became the manager of the restaurant, located in what is now

downtown Houston Downtown is the largest central business district in the city of Houston and the largest in the state of Texas, located near the geographic center of the metropolitan area at the confluence of Interstate 10 in Texas, Interstate 10, Interstate 45, ...

. Walsh, Robb. "Combination Plates." ''

Houston Press The ''Houston Press'' is an online newspaper published in Houston, Texas, United States. It is headquartered in the Midtown area. It was also a weekly print newspaper until November 2017. The publication is supported entirely by advertising ...

''
1
Retrieved on November 16, 2009. Tijerina opened his own restaurant in 1929. In a fashion similar to his mentors, Tijerina described his restaurant's food as authentic, but catered the food to the tastes of

white Americans White Americans are Americans who identify as and are perceived to be white people. This group constitutes the majority of the people in the United States. As of the 2020 Census, 61.6%, or 204,277,273 people, were white alone. This represented ...

. The

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

forced the closure of his first restaurant. Walsh, Robb. "Combination Plates." ''

''
2
Retrieved on November 16, 2009. Tijerina became a beer truck driver. His wife, Janie, gambled on a horse and won, allowing the family to start the restaurant a second time. Tijerina started another restaurant in 1937 in what is now the Neartown area of Houston. Tijerina opened other restaurants in other locations. In addition Tijerina became prominent in Houston politics. He became friends with many politicians, including Lewis Wesley Cutrer,

Roy Hofheinz Roy Mark Hofheinz (April 10, 1912 – November 22, 1982), popularly known as Judge Hofheinz or "The Judge", was a Texas state representative from 1934 to 1936, county judge of Harris County, Texas from 1936 to 1944, and mayor of the city ...

, and R.E. "Bob" Smith, and was the first

Mexican American Mexican Americans ( es, mexicano-estadounidenses, , or ) are Americans of full or partial Mexican heritage. In 2019, Mexican Americans comprised 11.3% of the US population and 61.5% of all Hispanic and Latino Americans. In 2019, 71% of Mexica ...

to serve on the board of the Houston Housing Authority. In 1956 Tijerina became the national president of the

(LULAC) and served four consecutive annual terms. He started LULAC's Little School of the 400 program, intended to teach English to non-English speaking children before they entered school.

Robb Walsh Robb Walsh is an American food writer, cookbook author, and restaurant owner who divides his time between Galway Bay, Ireland, and Galveston, Texas. He is a former commentator on National Public Radio's Weekend Edition, Sunday; former restaurant ...

of the ''

'' said that "Tijerina's story is a study in assimilation. His mission was to help Mexican-Americans merge into the American mainstream as successfully as he had" and that "Early Mexican restaurants like Felix's were among the first institutions where urban Anglos and Hispanics rubbed elbows. Tijerina's Americanized version of Mexican cooking was what brought the races together. And it was a triumph of diplomacy." Walsh added that Tijerina's style of cooking "was not about bringing authentic Mexican flavors to Texas; it was about putting Anglos at ease with things Mexican." Walsh stated that "His floury chili gravy and fluffy chili con queso were not far from brown gravy and cheese dip, and the spicing of his sauces was nonconfrontational to the delicate Anglo palate." Flickr etee 3648986444--Felix-style chile con queso

Flickr etee 3648986444--Felix-style chile con queso

Tijerina died in 1965. Janie took over the operations of the restaurant chain, Felix Mexican Restaurants. In 1971 the chain had six restaurants in Houston and one in

Beaumont Beaumont may refer to: Places Canada * Beaumont, Alberta * Beaumont, Quebec England * Beaumont, Cumbria * Beaumont, Essex ** Beaumont Cut, a canal closed in the 1930s * Beaumont Street, Oxford France (communes) * Beaumont, Ardèche * ...

. The last Felix's restaurant, located in Montrose, closed in 2008. After the closure, Scott Sullivan, an owner of the El Patio Mexican Restaurant chain, reached an agreement with Felix Tijerina Jr. to license Felix's name and recipes, which led to Felix's chile con queso becoming a permanent addition to El Patio's menu. Walsh compared Felix's food to "scratchy recordings of the

Delta Delta commonly refers to: * Delta (letter) (Δ or δ), a letter of the Greek alphabet * River delta, at a river mouth * D ( NATO phonetic alphabet: "Delta") * Delta Air Lines, US * Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 that causes COVID-19 Delta may also ...

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...

", as in it was an illustration of the history of an evolving cuisine.

Legacy

Felix Tijerina Elementary School, a

Houston Independent School District The Houston Independent School District (HISD) is the largest public school system in Texas, and the eighth-largest in the United States. Houston ISD serves as a community school district for most of the city of Houston and several nearby and ...

campus which opened in 1979 to serve the

Central Park Central Park is an urban park in New York City located between the Upper West Side, Upper West and Upper East Sides of Manhattan. It is the List of New York City parks, fifth-largest park in the city, covering . It is the most visited urban par ...

community, was named after Tijerina.About Tijerina
." Felix Tijerina Elementary School. Retrieved on November 16, 2009.

Notes

References

* Kreneck, Thomas H. '' Mexican American Odyssey: Felix Tijerina, Entrepreneur and Civic Leader, 1905-1965''.

Texas A&M University Press Texas A&M University Press (also known informally as TAMU Press) is a scholarly publishing house associated with Texas A&M University. It was founded in 1974 and is located in College Station, Texas, in the United States. Overview The Texas A&M ...

, 2001. ,
Link at

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External links

* Gonzales, J. R.
Felix Mexican Restaurant
" ''

Houston Chronicle The ''Houston Chronicle'' is the largest daily newspaper in Houston, Texas, United States. , it is the third-largest newspaper by Sunday circulation in the United States, behind only ''The New York Times'' and the ''Los Angeles Times''. With it ...

''. April 9, 2010. {{DEFAULTSORT:Tijerina, Felix Businesspeople from Houston American restaurateurs American activists 1905 births 1965 deaths Mexican emigrants to the United States People from Escobedo, Nuevo León 20th-century American businesspeople League of United Latin American Citizens activists

History

Legacy

See also

Notes

References

Further reading

External links