From Texas Public Radio:
Nowadays it’s hard to find a place where you can get your shoes professionally shined. But a woman in downtown San Antonio is continuing an old-fashioned trade nearly gone extinct.
Just inside a whooshing automatic glass door near a basement lunchroom, shared by the Bexar County Courthouse and Justice Center, you’ll find Cynthia Guerrero and her trusty wooden shoeshine stand.
Just step up on the stand, have a seat, and relax. For eight minutes and eight dollars, you’ll get a shoeshine that will make you more confident in your appearance and maybe even put a spring in your step.
Guerrero’s round tins of black and brown shoe wax open with a clang as she gets to work. The natural carnauba wax ingredients have a sweet or honey-like smell. It’s a soothing smell, like aromatherapy. And her shining cloth makes an occasional pop against the leather to bring out the shine.
She’s been shining shoes at the location for more than two decades. A migrant from Mexico, the single mom raised two children on her shoeshine salary.
“I love my business. You know, I’ve had 20 years with my shoeshine business. I’m the only shoeshine girl in San Antonio. I love, I love it. I’m the only female.”
There are some shoe repair shops that offer a shine. And there are a few men who shine shoes professionally in the city. But Guerrero is the only woman with a stand-alone, stationary stand in San Antonio.
And to show how rare a professional shoeshine has become locally, not even San Antonio International Airport, with all that foot traffic and all those shoes, offers professional shoeshines.
Large scale leather shoe manufacturing led to the rise of professional shoe shiners. But storebought shoe polishers for do-it-yourselfers and synthetic shoe materials have led to their decline.
Her Bexar County complex clients are mostly men, largely lawyers, judges, and juries from the courtrooms in the Justice Center. She said she has a lot of loyal customers that sit in her stand and share their worries. But she said she just listens and offers no advice.
Criminal defense attorney Jose Rocha visits Guerrero’s stand at least once a week and sometimes wears a different pair of shoes just to get them shined while she’s there.
He said appearance is important in a courtroom where a jury and judge weigh all matters.
“Here in the state of Texas, boots and shoes in the courtroom are commonplace, so having your shoes shined, or your boots shined, I think is important.”
But he said what Guerrero does is not all about improving someone’s appearance.
“Sometimes it’s nice to have a good conversation,” he said. “And you need a break from all the chaos of the courtroom, and this gives you that opportunity.”
Guerrero poses next to her shoeshine stand.
Valentina Barrera-Ibarra / Texas Public Radio
Bexar County Clerk Lucy Adame-Clark is a client of Guerrero’s too. She’s also a fan, noting Guerrero “is proud” of the work she does. And the pride shows in the shine.
Adame-Clark looked into her county records and found shoe-shiners and shoeshining are a courthouse tradition that goes back to the early 1900s and likely existed undocumented well before then.
The county clerk said cowboys and the county sheriffs got their boots shined at the courthouse. And as county clerk today, Adame-Clark gets her boots shined by Guererro when it’s time for the San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo.
Guerrero favors Mexican-made wax to make boots and shoes shine.
Brian Kirkpatrick / Texas Public Radio
Guerrero explains how she buffs a nice shine onto boots and shoes.
“I wash it with saddle soap and then I put some wax,” she said. “And I paint the heel and sometimes it’s brown and sometimes it’s black and then I brush it. And then I put in some conditioning, clear conditioning. I brush it and then I make the shine.”
She said if you choose to shine your own shoes, it’s all about the quality of the wax.
“Just like good wax, the best wax there is, yes.”
Guerrero likes Mexican wax. Her shoeshine stand drawer is full of one brand called “El Oso,” or “The Bear” in Spanish.
Guerrero believes as long as there is leather to polish, she’ll keep doing what she loves well into the future.
