La Madrileña
Introduction
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Known for its unique architecture, La Madrileña was built in 1892 by Spanish native Adrian Ortiz. The store remained a fixture for the community for several decades.
Backstory and Context
Text-to-speech Audio
Adrian Ortiz was born in 1860 and, apparently, immigrated to the U.S. before he was 18 in order to avoid being drafted into the Spanish army. He chose to settle in Brownsville, presumably, to join a relative, Juan Fernandez, who was already living here and owned a general store. Brownsville also had an established Spanish community. Ortiz worked for Fernandez and got married within a few years of arriving. After gaining enough experience to start his own general store, he built La Madrileña in 1892. He sold clothing, food, groceries, hardware, and other goods including wine and dried codfish. The majority of his customers were local farmers and he forged business relationships within the Spanish community to supply his store. La Madrileña also became an important gathering place for the community.
Ortiz passed away in 1957. The store closed soon after and the building was eventually abandoned and fell into disrepair. In 1987, a lawyer (not the same one who appears to own it now) bought and rehabilitated it. The old building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1988 for its architecture and association with Ortiz.
Sources
Cantu, Ethel & Jones, Dwayne. "La Madrileña." National Park Service - National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form. November 17, 1988. https://catalog.archives.gov/OpaAPI/media/40971448/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_TX/88002384.pdf.
"La Madrileña." The Historical Marker Database. Accessed September 30, 2020. https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=117995.
Wikimedia Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:La_Madrilena_Brownsville_Texas.jpg