Senior and Junior Side by Side: The Story of Quintanilla Jewelers, Inc.
Humberto Quintanilla Jr. remembers counting diamonds in his dad’s jewelry business at the age of twelve. He didn’t want to be there, but at twelve didn’t have much say in the matter. Although lunch could be fun. “At the time my dad had about 40 employees. Eating together felt like one big family. My dad acted more like a friend than a boss. Fridays were always stressful because they met quotas. Everyone was on edge and avoided my dad. At the end of the day though he’d treat them to beer. My dad worked 16 to 18 hour shifts. Work never ended.” But when it did, some poor jeweler could lose his shirt in a poker game. Junior enrolled in summer school to get out of jewelry work. The jewelry business wasn’t for him. He was going to college.
“You haven’t visited in a while.” Humberto Quintanilla Sr. hollered at me from his pickup truck. I was on a walk. Later, I did visit with jewelry needing repair, and while there saw something that intrigued me. A prominent Houston jeweler who had a high-overhead upscale River Oaks area retail establishment that specialized in Rolexes and glitzy diamond settings carried in his store’s jewelry work. I watched him stroll past Quintanilla’s jewelry counter to the rear where Uncle Sergio Quintanilla was at his jewelry bench. Perhaps it was then that I first entertained the notion of learning the story behind Senior and Junior and their jewelry business, Quintanilla Jewelers, Inc.
Recently, over the course of several visits I did learn their story. It turns out the company didn’t always do jewelry work for retail jewelers and the public. Senior began his business working for wholesale distributors who sold to retailers. Stuckey Diamonds was an example. Senior repeatedly hit them up for work, until they slammed him with a 2,000 piece order and an impossibly fast turnaround. “Dad had charisma. He charmed his guys into working all weekend. After several years of giving him jobs, Stuckey Diamonds handed over all their work to my dad.” Senior moved his operations into their space, then ultimately brought their employees into his company.
Art Berg spoke no Spanish and Senior spoke no English when they met at Berg’s jewelry manufacturing company Berg & Co. in 1970. Senior was sixteen. A fourth generation jeweler from Poland, Berg hired Senior and taught him everything he knew about jewelry. With large retail accounts, the two worked side by side late into the night. A deep bond formed. Berg was a father figure. “My dad stayed with Mr. Berg until 1982. Berg said there was nothing more he could teach him. It was time for dad to go on his own and spread his wings.” After that Senior became shop foreman at Gold Imports. While there he worked after hours for the distributor Gemline. Gemline offered Senior use of their shop for his own jobs if he handled all of their jewelry work. Just as he had at Stuckey Diamonds, Senior brought some Gemline employees into his business. “Back then things were booming. Quintanilla Jewelers was growing fast. My uncle came to help.”
Junior remembers “big time” commissions. “One company farmed out championship rings to my dad and uncle. They made Dallas Cowboys rings in 1995. In 1994 and 1995 they made Houston Rockets rings. They also made Stanley Cup rings.”
Humberto Quintanilla, Sr. was born in Monterrey Mexico in 1954. When he was two, his father left the family and went to America. Senior dropped out of school in the first grade to help his mother. At eight years old he sold bubble gum and polished shoes. By ten, he raked in enough money to help his mother pay bills and feed his younger siblings. In her estimation, her son was out of control. He hung out with older boys and drank beer. So she packed him off to his father in Houston. Once here, he discovered his father had another family. Senior was put to work in his father’s body shop, wet-sanding cars and cleaning up. Not fun. Expenses were deducted from his pay. One advantage of working in the body shop however was the availability of cars. Senior liked to dance and drink. One needed wheels to raise hell in Houston. Fed up with painting cars, Senior got a tree cutting gig. “Easy and fun.” Then he met jeweler Art Berg.
Ever been so afraid that you bargained with God? Junior had stuck to his plan. At 18 years old he was into his first week of college. Then Senior got knocked flat with pancreatitis and couldn’t work. Junior quit school. “The company came first. My uncle and I ran the shop. It took a year for my dad to recover and return to the business. I stuck around until I was 21.” After a “huge fallout” with his uncle, Junior returned to school. Two weeks after classes began Senior had a heart attack. “Back to square one. I looked up and said please don’t take him from me and I’ll never leave his side. This time I pledged to stick with my dad and the jewelry store 110%. Life is funny. Looking back, I wouldn’t change anything. I’ve been blessed with the chance to work alongside two great men, who are my best friends. Both taught me this business. Dad taught me bench work, customer service, paperwork, polishing, more. My uncle taught me technical and chemical processes like casting, plating, molds and enameling. Also enduring and overcoming obstacles.”
By 1989 wholesale jewelry distributors were taking it on the chin because of changes in the industry and a tanking economy. Many moved overseas. In 1991, Senior returned to Berg’s shop to handle Berg’s work and his own accounts. He kept some of Berg’s best jewelers. “My dad welcomed the chance to hang out with Mr. Berg the last two years of his life. Mr. Berg passed away in 1993. By 2000, the distributors we worked for had gone overseas, forcing us to look elsewhere for new accounts. So we began working for retail jewelry stores and jewelry designers and opened to the public.” As I listened to Junior’s story, it struck me I would never have known Quintanilla Jewelry if they hadn’t shifted their focus from wholesale distributors to retail stores, jewelry designers and the public. And they probably wouldn’t have made the gold bezel for the ancient Greek coin Donnie bought me.
Shift in direction landed them in new territory with a bunch of things to figure out. “We opened to the public, but didn’t have any clientele and truthfully didn’t know how to service them.” Junior made significant updates to the shop. He invested in a 3-D printer, laser engraver, laser welder, and a new platinum casting machine. He added employees, and created a website that lists services and describes steps in their custom design process, one being a three dimensional model for approval before the finished product. They steered through “rough patches.” Today the shop at 2111 Richmond Avenue is a full service jewelry business that specializes in custom jewelry.
Junior credits technology with enhancing their already excellent custom jewelry work. “We’ve always done good work, but with the new technology our custom pieces are more refined, in fact, on another level. Three years ago my dad completed treatment for stage three lung cancer that made him extremely weak and unable to spend much time in the shop, but now he works everyday. My uncle recently retired. Sort of. He spends one week every month helping us. Bottom line, a kid from Mexico with a first grade education, no English, and very little reading skills accomplished all this. Just as important, he taught us parenting. My dad has six kids. I have three kids. My dad Humberto G. Quintanilla is my hero. Thank you for wanting to know his story.