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Cuban-American Owned Tire Shop Celebrates 60 Years in Business
It's all in the family at Balado National Tires. The Cuban-American family owned company is celebrating 60 years in business.
In 1962, Manuel Balado was forced to leave behind his successful business in Cuba he had started 13 years before. Instead of putting the breaks on his career, he started all over again - shifting into the future in Miami.
“He lost everything. He had to start all over in ‘62. Came with a suitcase and his wife," said his grandson, Orlando Hidalgo Jr. “He had nothing. No money. Just a lot of handshake agreements at that time.”
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Hidalgo Jr. is now the Vice President of the company. Six months after his 'abuelo' arrived in Miami, the family patriarch re-opened the business on Northwest 7th Avenue and 11th Street.
“My earliest memories are of me moving tires around or doing something with tires," Orlando said. "It’s just something that we’re good at and we’re passionate about.”
Manuel's oldest daughter, Alicia, was his first employee when she was 17.
“Helping him with the English and answering the phone. Writing the invoices," she said. “He already had a following, a lot of clients in Cuba. Most of them came here and then he helped everybody. He never turned anyone away.”
For the last six decades, the Cuban-American pillar in the South Florida community has served generations of loyal customers and employed four generations of family.
“Tires are our lives. I grew up here running around as a kid, playing hide and seek, but it means a lot to us," said Manuel's great-granddaughter, sales manager Alyssa Hidalgo. "It’s everybody’s first job. Everybody’s thing to lean on. They come by for coffee. It’s like our meeting place for our family.”
The family has three locations carrying on the legacy of Manuel, who died in 2016. Alyssa hopes to expand even more and keep it around for another 60 years.
“To be a genius twice is crazy. To be able to put something together and have it all taken away and then come to Miami and put it back together again, that’s what’s the crazy thing," she said. "So he was able to build that up and then my grandparents joined it, then my dad joined it and now I joined it.”
The family submitted a plan to name a road in Miami after Manuel Balado. It passed in the city agenda and now heads to the Miami-Dade County Commission for approval.
Written on Thursday, April 4, 2024 by Permalink |
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