BY CHRISTINA PROCTER
| PHOTOGRAPHS BY KATE RUSSELL
BOOM TOWN A new complex in the Siler Road neighborhood will provide rentals and a maker space for creatives
When Hector Garcia left Juárez, Mexico, at age 13, he was making three dollars a week, one of which he’d spend on an English class. He crossed the border alone with high hopes and reached Santa Fe, where he lived at the Boys and Girls Club and soon got citizenship—but he never dreamed that someday he’d run Aztec Upholstery and become the city’s main supplier to high-end interior designers. w Garcia’s shop is located next to Java Joe’s off Siler Road, and his is just one of the industrial area’s many success stories. Garcia and his apprentices make the pieces that end up in Parade of Homes and ShowHouse Santa Fe each year, but this is nothing unusual in a neighborhood of makers. Next door, brothers Jorge and Rodrigo of Rodriguez Woodworks have made custom cabinetry for hotels and homes for 20 years. w “I love this neighborhood,” says Garcia, who built his career by plying the skills he learned making furniture and leather working with his father and grandfather. “At the body shop that used to be across the street from me, that guy gave me my first opportunity.” 90
TREND Summer 2017