One day, Javier Yanez went to the dry cleaners. While waiting, he saw a customer throw a pair of pants at a clerk.
"I asked to look at the pants," Yanez said. "The work was terrible. I'm thinking, 'I have experience in sewing. I can make this better.'"
He told the woman to bring the pants to him. She came the next day. And over 18 years, she's brought 40 or 50 more customers to Yanez Alterations on Emma Avenue in Springdale, Yanez said.
Born in Jalisco, Mexico -- "the fourth of December, nineteen forty-nine," he said, struggling a bit with the English -- Yanez learned to sew from his mother, who had been sewing by hand since she was a little girl.
He moved to California when he was 16 years old. "I had nobody. I had no bag," he said. His father had been killed, and he needed to work to help his mom. His first job was as a dishwasher in a restaurant. And he helped his mom with a sewing contract.
"I had too many problems with hot check, big checks," he said. "That's why I made the decision to move here."
But Yanez said his family ended up in Northwest Arkansas because he was tired of driving.
"I was driving on (Interstate) 40. When I hit Fort Smith, I said, 'I stay here. I'm tired of driving.'"
But he turned onto the bridge to U.S. 71, and "when we came over the mountain, Springdale was in the middle," he said of their home.
"It's quiet," he said of Springdale. "It's a nice place for living. When the kids were in school, there were no more problems. That's why I stay here."
When the family first came to Springdale, Yanez worked construction jobs -- for the first time -- to make the money to support his family.
But after Yanez's experience with the pants at the cleaners ... "I think, 'I could make a little shop,'" he said. "I'd never worked in alterations, but I had a machine."
LITTLE SHOP OF STITCHES
Eighteen years later, that little shop is not so little.
Yanez started the business in just half of the building he now owns using 10 sewing machines he brought from California -- although he doesn't know why, he said. Now, he runs 36.
"For alterations, you need a lot of machines," he said, pointing them out in his shop. Each of the 36 has its own task -- from a straight stitch, to an over-lock stitch, to heavy-duty fabrics, to sewing on a button.
A business which started with just one tailor now takes three -- Yanez and the two women he taught to sew. "I tried a lot of different people, and nobody understands," he said. Lorena Rodriguez has worked for him for 14 years and will continue operating the business.
One day, Yanez got a big surprise, he said. A girl drove from Kansas City to have him fix her dress. And a family returned to Springdale from their new home in Memphis, Tenn., for his work. Local customers also report quality work from Yanez's shop.
The Rev. Lowell Grisham, rector of St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Fayetteville, brings his vestments, his cassock and albs -- the robes and accessories he wears during services -- to Yanez for fitting.
"They are really important to me," he said. "I order them from a company that specializes in church vestments, but it seems they never fit right.
"When I'm in there, I get the feeling that this is a family business, focusing on service and doing a good job," Grisham continued. "They take pride in doing good work."
"He has tremendous influence beyond the shop," added Kathryn Burkhead of Springdale, a longtime customer.
Yanez and wife Consuela have five children. Their three youngest daughters came with them to Springdale. Each graduated from Springdale High School and each graduated college. Certificates marking awards his now-adult daughters won in junior high still hang on the wall behind the cash register in the shop.
"He'd never express [his pride] to us, but he would to the whole community," daughter Judith Yanez said with a laugh. "He's your typical macho Mexican man: He worked, and he fed his kids."
Yanez's grin grows wide under his bushy mustache when he talks about his children's accomplishments, especially in light of his own background. "I never went to school one day. I learned to read and write on my own," he said.
"My parents do not have an education beyond elementary school," Judith Yanez said. "But they taught us a work ethic, character and morals."
Judith said the family was very poor, working for $3 or $5 an hour in California. They were poor when they came to Springdale.
"But they always taught us to help others," Judith Yanez continued. "All his customers come to him because of his character. And we noticed what he did by example in the community."
HANGING UP HIS NEEDLE
With a customer wearing the item to be altered, Yanez quickly marks the work do be done with safety pins -- not a tape measure. He knows instinctively what is required.
Yanez said he has enjoyed every part of his alterations business -- although he does admit to preferring women's clothes to men's, which take more work. He likes it because he is not stuck in one chair. He greets customers, works on different machines and helps his employees make the sewing just right.
But Yanez is hanging up his needle. So many years of diminutive, repetitive stitching for hems has left his hands stiff and sore. He still owns the business, though, and shows up for work every Saturday. The two employees currently working there will continue his legacy.
Yanez said his retirement plans are open. He might go to Mexico for six months. He likes to salt water fish for halibut.
And he still wants to teach. "I see lots of problems with sewing here," he said.
"I still want to work," Yanez continued. "I do not want to sleep."
And Judith Yanez will continue to pass her father's character traits on to the high school students she teaches. "A lot of my students are first-generation Mexican-Americans. I want them to feel comfortable and know that they can become something," she said. She also said she tries to break her students of that "macho man" attitude.
"She's a very motivating individual, who wants what's best for the city," said Irvin Camacho of Judith Yanez. Camacho is a leader in the Latino community and a declared candidate for the office of state representative for Springdale.
"(Yanez has) pretty much pursued the American dream," Camacho said of Judith's dad. "He's pretty much worked hard and put his children through college.
"He started a business at a time when there were not many Latinos in Springdale, and people were constantly trying to bring him down."
"It's not easy," Yanez admitted of building his business. He reported broken windows and items stolen from the shop.
"It's stuck in my heart that this guy did this with nothing," Camacho continued. "And if he can do that, anything is possible."
NAN Our Town on 08/04/2016