MARTINEZ, MIGUEL (1890-1956). Miguel (Mike) Martinez, restaurateur,
was born in 1890 in Hacienda del Potrero, Nuevo León, Mexico. He spent
his early life in Mexico, where he started working for two cents a day
as a silver-mine mule-train driver when he was seven years old to
assist his widowed mother, who worked as a maid. In 1911, a year after
the Mexican Revolution broke out, Martinez left Mexico for Dallas,
Texas, where he found work as a laborer with the Dallas Railway and
Terminal Company and as a dishwasher at the Oriental Hotel. He often
also held down a third job making ice-cream cones or doing relief work
at a local pool hall. He met Faustina Porras, also a Mexican
immigrant, in Dallas, and they were married in 1915. They reared eight
children. In 1918 they opened the Martinez Cafe, a one-room eatery on
McKinney Street in "Little Mexico," the Mexican barrio. With the
founding of the restaurant, they were among the first Texas Mexican
entrepreneurs in the city. Initially, the cafe served only American
dishes, but later Martinez, on the advice of friends, began offering
Mexican cuisine; he was possibly the first restaurateur in Dallas to
do so. One account notes that Martinez initiated the restaurant's
specialization in Mexican food with an enchilada recipe from Mexico
and a chili recipe from Texas, thus becoming the original pioneer of
Tex-Mex food in Dallas. In 1922 he enlarged the cafe, renamed it El
Fenix, and changed its menu to an exclusively Mexican one. He also
painted the restaurant bright red, green, and yellow-El Fenix's
trademark colors. The Martinez children worked in the restaurant as
soon as they were tall enough to "stand up at the sink." Some sources
assert that Martinez pioneered the "Mexican combination plate," with
beans, a tamale, an enchilada, and rice. His daughter Irene suggested
it was a move to save on dishwashing. El Fenix continued to prosper
through the decades, although in 1942 it was closed one day a week due
to food shortages caused by wartime rationing. In 1946 Martinez turned
El Fenix over to his children. By 1953 they had three restaurants in
the city.

Martinez became a benefactor of his hometown in Mexico. In the last
years of his life he rebuilt and improved the village. Several months
a year he resided in Hacienda del Potrero, personally supervising
various municipal or construction activities. Over a two-year period
he helped the village build its first electricity plant, oversaw a
major roadway connecting it to the nearest railroad, and organized the
drilling of water wells. He was on one of his missions to the village
when he died of a heart attack at his home there on February 22, 1956.
His family returned his body to Dallas, where he was buried.

El Fenix has remained a family-owned and operated business and has
grown to approximately 750 employees. By 1992 Martinez's descendants
had expanded the chain to sixteen restaurants in Texas and one in
Oklahoma. They also began selling El Fenix hot sauce in supermarkets
throughout the state.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Betty Burtis Babione, Men of Achievement, 1958, Texas
ed. (Dallas: Biographical Arts, 1958). Dallas Morning News, June 1,
1955, August 26, 1973. Pam Lange and Mindie Lazarus-Black, Family
Business in Dallas: A Matter of Values (Dallas Public Library, 1982).

Teresa Palomo Acosta

"The Galloping Gourmand" > wrote in message
ups.com...
MARTINEZ, MIGUEL (1890-1956). Miguel (Mike) Martinez, restaurateur,
was born in 1890 in Hacienda del Potrero, Nuevo León, Mexico. He spent
his early life in Mexico, where he started working for two cents a day
as a silver-mine mule-train driver when he was seven years old to
assist his widowed mother, who worked as a maid. In 1911, a year after
the Mexican Revolution broke out, Martinez left Mexico for Dallas,
Texas, where he found work as a laborer with the Dallas Railway and
Terminal Company and as a dishwasher at the Oriental Hotel. He often
also held down a third job making ice-cream cones or doing relief work
at a local pool hall. He met Faustina Porras, also a Mexican
immigrant, in Dallas, and they were married in 1915. They reared eight
children. In 1918 they opened the Martinez Cafe, a one-room eatery on
McKinney Street in "Little Mexico," the Mexican barrio. With the
founding of the restaurant, they were among the first Texas Mexican
entrepreneurs in the city. Initially, the cafe served only American
dishes, but later Martinez, on the advice of friends, began offering
Mexican cuisine; he was possibly the first restaurateur in Dallas to
do so. One account notes that Martinez initiated the restaurant's
specialization in Mexican food with an enchilada recipe from Mexico
and a chili recipe from Texas, thus becoming the original pioneer of
Tex-Mex food in Dallas. In 1922 he enlarged the cafe, renamed it El
Fenix, and changed its menu to an exclusively Mexican one. He also
painted the restaurant bright red, green, and yellow-El Fenix's
trademark colors. The Martinez children worked in the restaurant as
soon as they were tall enough to "stand up at the sink." Some sources
assert that Martinez pioneered the "Mexican combination plate," with
beans, a tamale, an enchilada, and rice. His daughter Irene suggested
it was a move to save on dishwashing. El Fenix continued to prosper
through the decades, although in 1942 it was closed one day a week due
to food shortages caused by wartime rationing. In 1946 Martinez turned
El Fenix over to his children. By 1953 they had three restaurants in
the city.

Martinez became a benefactor of his hometown in Mexico. In the last
years of his life he rebuilt and improved the village. Several months
a year he resided in Hacienda del Potrero, personally supervising
various municipal or construction activities. Over a two-year period
he helped the village build its first electricity plant, oversaw a
major roadway connecting it to the nearest railroad, and organized the
drilling of water wells. He was on one of his missions to the village
when he died of a heart attack at his home there on February 22, 1956.
His family returned his body to Dallas, where he was buried.

El Fenix has remained a family-owned and operated business and has
grown to approximately 750 employees. By 1992 Martinez's descendants
had expanded the chain to sixteen restaurants in Texas and one in
Oklahoma. They also began selling El Fenix hot sauce in supermarkets
throughout the state.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Betty Burtis Babione, Men of Achievement, 1958, Texas
ed. (Dallas: Biographical Arts, 1958). Dallas Morning News, June 1,
1955, August 26, 1973. Pam Lange and Mindie Lazarus-Black, Family
Business in Dallas: A Matter of Values (Dallas Public Library, 1982).

Teresa Palomo Acosta

--------------------------

This makes sense. It would be great if more of the media in this country
were to find success stories such as this rather than all the blabber
against the eventual merge of the two cultures.

Wayne

Wayne Lundberg wrote:

>
> This makes sense. It would be great if more of the media in this country
> were to find success stories such as this rather than all the blabber
> against the eventual merge of the two cultures.
>
> Wayne
>
>
>

This reply is so wrong... The United States is a country of many
cultures not one. If you support illegal immigration from Mexico then I
suggest you try and migrate to Mexico and see how long you last there
before they put your naked white ass in jail.

I am a citizen of the United States and I believe like many other
citizens that we need to secure our borders and stop the crimes first
and foremost. (drug smugglers and the opportunists that assist the
transportation of this merging culture of yours are armed and
dangerous.)If you are Mexican, European, Asian or Canadian and you want
to live and work in my country then get in line and apply like anyone
else. If I want to migrate to your country I will do the same.

On Feb 18, 9:36?am, "Wayne Lundberg" >
wrote:

> This makes sense. It would be great if more of the media in this country
> were to find success stories such as this rather than all the blabber
> against the eventual merge of the two cultures.

Different readers find alternate meanings to anything that is offered
in evidence.

I had hoped you'd respond with, "Oh, no, the places I ate at when I
was a boy (before the Mexican revolution of 1821) piled everything on
one platter and the whole extended family ate off of it with their
fingers like Aztecs and then made jewelry out of the bones..." ;-)

;-) <----means "Just kidding"...

But seriously, if you read an article from a history book or a chamber
of commerce gazeteer, the material is going to sound so much better
than what you read about day to day crimes perpetrated by illegal
aliens in the big city.

Something like 3% of all humans inspire the other 97% with their
success stories, even if the subject of inspiration was an illegal
alien.

Not that I'm planning to launch into a diatribe about illegal aliens.
Sonoran Dude will do that.

"Sonoran Dude" > wrote in message
. ..
> Wayne Lundberg wrote:
---snip for brevity---

> transportation of this merging culture of yours are armed and
> dangerous.)If you are Mexican, European, Asian or Canadian and you want
> to live and work in my country then get in line and apply like anyone
> else. If I want to migrate to your country I will do the same.

--------------------

You are entitled to your opinion. But I think this newsgroup is mainly
dealing with food, music and culture and not legal aspects of immigration
nor the like. Why not keep your prejudices in the appropriate form, where
somebody might really care.

I don't think a chile needs a passport to get to Mexico or from Mexico to
the US. Let's keep it that way!

Wayne

Wayne Lundberg wrote:
> "Sonoran Dude" > wrote in message
> . ..
>> Wayne Lundberg wrote:
> ---snip for brevity---
>
>> transportation of this merging culture of yours are armed and
>> dangerous.)If you are Mexican, European, Asian or Canadian and you want
>> to live and work in my country then get in line and apply like anyone
>> else. If I want to migrate to your country I will do the same.
>
> --------------------
>
> You are entitled to your opinion. But I think this newsgroup is mainly
> dealing with food, music and culture and not legal aspects of immigration
> nor the like. Why not keep your prejudices in the appropriate form, where
> somebody might really care.
>
> I don't think a chile needs a passport to get to Mexico or from Mexico to
> the US. Let's keep it that way!
>
> Wayne
>
>
I meant no prejudice what so ever. You don't need to be prejudiced to
believe in protecting our borders and obeying the law. You opened this
box with your opinion about the media reporting of a national crisis not
food! I was just calling you on it. Many Native Mexican-Americans feel
the same as me, wake up, we are being sold out by corporate fat cats
that care more about the almighty buck than about the law, the middle
class or the future of our economy.

The Galloping Gourmand wrote:
> On Feb 18, 9:36?am, "Wayne Lundberg" >
> wrote:
>
>> This makes sense. It would be great if more of the media in this country
>> were to find success stories such as this rather than all the blabber
>> against the eventual merge of the two cultures.
>
> Different readers find alternate meanings to anything that is offered
> in evidence.
>
> I had hoped you'd respond with, "Oh, no, the places I ate at when I
> was a boy (before the Mexican revolution of 1821) piled everything on
> one platter and the whole extended family ate off of it with their
> fingers like Aztecs and then made jewelry out of the bones..." ;-)
>
> ;-) <----means "Just kidding"...
>
> But seriously, if you read an article from a history book or a chamber
> of commerce gazeteer, the material is going to sound so much better
> than what you read about day to day crimes perpetrated by illegal
> aliens in the big city.
>
> Something like 3% of all humans inspire the other 97% with their
> success stories, even if the subject of inspiration was an illegal
> alien.
>
> Not that I'm planning to launch into a diatribe about illegal aliens.
> Sonoran Dude will do that.
>
>
You inspire me to go take a dump

On Feb 19, 12:31?pm, Sonoran Dude > wrote:

> You inspire me to go take a dump-

You would still have to take a dump, even if I didn't tell you
inspirational stories an illegal alien inventing the combination
plate...