José Luis Velázquez Gómez

With my brother in tow, I began investigating the shops on the main street, one by one. The first place I entered was a huge souvenir shop, typical of what you will find on the main street. This one was run by José Luis Velázquez Gómez and his wife. Hundreds of items were on display, on racks and shelves, hanging off the walls, and from the ceiling. Hundreds of guitars in plastic bags also hung from the ceiling. We looked at everything, but figured this was not the place to sample serious guitars. Just as we were leaving, José walked in. He invited me into his special guitar room, played us a couple of tunes, and invited me to try some of his classical guitars. The room had about 25 guitars, all resting in their own hard case. There were two chairs for people to sit and play. On the walls were several posters of artists and entertainers that owned José Luis Velázquez Gómez instruments. He was obviously very proud of his craft. After playing and talking, my brother and I bought some wood souvenirs, and went on our way.

We continued our walk up the main street, and discussed what we had learned about where the quality guitars might be in Paracho. The rest of the shops on the way back to the town square were souvenir types. I kept thinking that I would eventually return to José's place. I don't know why I thought that, because, as I already said, I only wanted to try some nice guitars; not buy one.