For decades, conjunto legends sought out this small store in Robstown

On a typical day, downtown Robstown can feel a little quiet.

Many businesses are closed – their aged facades perhaps reminding visitors of a time when the buildings were new and the streets were lined with shoppers. 

But one small shop – standing out with its coat of blue paint – has not only seen those heydays. It can also take visitors back to them just by walking through the door.

That shop is Ray’s Footwear, and owner Ramon “Ray” Alejandro has been running it for over 50 years.

“When I opened the store here, you could not find a parking space,” Alejandro said. “And people were walking in the middle of the street – that many people in Robstown, especially during when they were harvesting stuff … And I’m still here. I’m 81 years old. I was 29 when I opened this door.”

As the name implies, Ray’s Footwear specializes in shoes, but not just any kind of shoes.

“I think I’m the only one that has the Stacy Adams around here,” Alejandro said.

Stacy Adams men’s dress shoes have been Alejandro’s chief product for decades – the shop’s window display showing several classic styles in different leather colorways. And it’s those classic styles, along with the wood-panel walls and prominent collection of leather belts and pachuco hats, that gives the shop the feel of a space, in some ways, frozen in time.

“I had a customer the other day say ‘man, I hadn’t seen a little store like this in a long time. Don’t change. Don’t modernize. Leave it like that!’” Alejandro said. “And so I said, ‘well, I don’t want to do anything else. I just want to use the rest of what I have, my years, just to see this.’”

Perhaps the other aspect of Ray’s Footwear that gives it a vintage feel are the many framed photographs that line the walls or sit upon shelves – a mix of portraits and group photos ranging from black and white to color photos with aged hues. 

You’ll see the family and vacation photos, yes, but some of the individuals in other pictures are figures who add to the old shop’s lore.

“We have a lot of conjunto people that come by after the Stacy Adams,” Alejandro said.

Alejandro said his small shop in Robstown had long been one of the only in the region that sold the Stacy Adams shoes – a style that became popular among musicians and within Chicano culture more broadly. And because of this, many trailblazing conjunto artists from throughout South Texas have made a stop at Ray’s Footwear over the years.

The photos that make up the makeshift gallery at Ray’s Footwear include such music luminaries as guitarist Trini Lopez and trailblazing broadcaster Domingo Peña, seen in the photo on the far left. Raul Alonzo / Texas Standard

Alejandro’s clientele has boasted such luminaries of the genre like Tony De La Rosa, Conjunto Bernal, Ruben Naranjo and Los Dos Gilbertos.

And it’s not just conjunto, either. Acclaimed rock n’ roll guitarist Trini Lopez is seen in one photograph, as well as groundbreaking radio and television personality Domingo Peña. 

Many of the photographs were brought to Alejandro by the folks pictured after they saw the store’s makeshift gallery.

“They come to the store and they say, ‘hey, can I bring you a picture of myself so you can display it?’” Alejandro said. 

» RELATED: San Benito’s conjunto museum traces the genre’s past as a new generation takes root

Alejandro’s store has thus garnered a reputation that extends even to areas he didn’t expect.

“Matter of fact, the other day I had a customer and he says, ‘hey, man, you know, you’re very popular in prison.’ And I said, ‘what?’ ‘You’re very popular in prison,’” Alejandro said. 

“I said, ‘I’ve never been to prison.’ 

‘Yeah, but everybody knows about your Stacy Adams!’ 

And so I started to laugh. I said, ‘Well, that’s nice to hear.’”

Ray’s Footwear is, in some ways, an institution of Robstown’s past – weathering the storm of modernization and serving as a link to the city’s heyday, when bars and dancehalls made the streets rumble and ascendant Chicano politics pushed a deeper cultural consciousness within the rural community.

It’s an era Alejandro remembers fondly. He recalls seeing such burgeoning legends like Johnny Canales play in one of the city’s dancehalls when he was still a teen. 

But being in business as long as he has, he’s also watched those bustling days slowly fade away.

“One of the biggest changes that I saw here was when Walmart came in. They closed all the stores here, and then they closed and left,” Alejandro said.

And while Alejandro says his business was spared from Walmart’s move because of the exclusivity of his product, recent years still have posed challenges.

“It’s gotten a lot harder now because when the COVID came in, a lot of the plants that I used to buy from, they closed down,” Alejandro said, pointing to some of his shelves. “I used to have that full of hats, full of shoes, belts, everything. But some, you can’t get a hold of them anymore.”

Still, Alejandro says he and his wife – who runs a salon that has been in business just as long as his shop – continue on with their work while scaling back the hours to make time to relax and travel.

If the day ever comes that he closes up shop, Alejandro says he would likely have a big sale. But when that time comes is still up in the air.

For now, he continues to run the small, blue shop that has seen the community around it change so much over the decades – all while keeping its style and legacy on solid footing.

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