El Chico: A Family Affair

 

Frank Cuellar, Sr. started on a career in restaurants, as a young man, when he helped his mother make tamales for her booth at the Kaufman County Fair.  Her success (she could make almost as much from the fair as her husband made in a year as a tenant farmer) inspired her children to see a prosperous future beyond the farm.

Frank and his brothers started restaurants in several Texas and Louisiana cities.  They experienced both success and failure with these early efforts.  The restaurant that pulled the brothers together to form a powerful corporation was the 1940s development of El Chico.  The new restaurant grew quickly and in the 1950s the company expanded to include a canning operation and later a frozen food division.  Frank Cuellar, Sr. worked as the Chairman of the Board of the El Chico Corporation.

The exhibit will be on display October 4, 2007 - May 31, 2008.