Strong work ethic pays off for small business owner
Isidro Garcia has been the owner of Baytown Auto Upholstery for about 20 years. He and his wife, Guadalupe, live right next door to the shop.
“I came to Baytown from Guanajuato, Mexico, when I was 18. I’m the oldest of 10 children, and I was the only one who came at the time. I didn’t speak English and I didn’t know anybody. But I was looking for a better life, a better future. When I first came, my idea was to get rich and go back home. Then over time as you work, you start spending the money you make and start living a fairly comfortable life. By that time, I knew I wasn’t going back. This is a great country to be in. I wanted to be part of society.
“First I got my green card. Then after years, I applied for citizenship. It was a long process, but I finally became an American citizen in 1989. I was 32 years old. When I went back home to visit, my family all saw that I was driving an almost new car. They saw that I was doing well, and they wanted to do the same. So I applied through the immigration department for my mom, my dad and five brothers and sisters. Now all of them are here. There is one in Dallas, two in Iowa, and the rest are here in Baytown. They all followed me.
“I think I’ve been pretty fortunate in life. If you just do the right thing, everything seems to fall in place. This is a great country to live in. It’s a land of opportunity. You’ve just got to go out there and get it. The good life passes by at 6 o’clock in the morning. If you’re not there, it goes somewhere else. So you’ve got to get up in the morning and do things every day. That’s what I’ve done all my life.”
— Isidro Garcia
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