Over forty years ago, and it might have even been here in Eagle Pass or our neighboring sister city of Piedras Negras, Coahuila that Rolando Mendez had the thought of being his own boss and taking his chances by purchasing his first 18-wheeler.
Mendez, the son of well-known Pelacio "El Profe" Mendez, a sports writer for Piedras Negras publication El Diario, who came to the United States with his young family bent on living the American Dream.
Well, unbeknownst to them, The Discovery Channel were looking for exactly that, an American family, preferably a Spanish-speaking American family that they could feature on a new reality TV series.
According to Mendez' son Raul who along with brother Rolando and their wives Lorena and Joann (Who is a 1986 graduate of Eagle Pass High School) and their parents Lupita and Raul, Sr. will be featured along with their truck customizing company, Texas Chrome Shop on Discovery Español's next big hit program. 'Texas Trocas will be featured on Discovery Español's 'Lunes de Motores'.
"We feel it's very important for Eagle Pass to know that the show is coming because there's a big truck driving community in Eagle Pass," said Rolando, "We drove for years and Man, you just don't know how many truck drivers are from Eagle Pass that drove with us, that know us personally and there's a big following for us, you know, because they're avid truck drivers. They know their 18-wheelers. It's important for them to know that there's a family from Piedras Negras that also has family from Eagle Pass where we also have ties, that we know them and they know us and we're gonna be on TV demonstrating to the country what we can do as far as customizing 18-wheelers."
As you can probably gather, we caught up with the boys from Texas Trocas, Rolando and Raul through The Discovery Channel who informed The news Gram of the excitement that was generated from having 22 members of a professional camera crew in their home for months and this is how the first part of our two-part series with the Mendez Brothers went down:
I understand that your grandfather was well known in Piedras Negras.
Pelacio Mendez was probably the main sports guy for El Diario basically following soccer, boxing and baseball. The called him El Profe.
Where you all raised?
We were born in Piedras Negras and raised in San Antonio, but we have a lot of family in Eagle Pass. Our grandmother who recently passed away in May, lived on Los Angeles Circle right behind the mall. We would go visit her every Christmas, Easter and Thanksgiving so we would take two or three trips a year to visit my grandma. My aunt is a teacher at Eagle Pass High or Eagle Pass Middle School, my uncle used to work at the Dickie's plant for years, so we have family in Eagle Pass, Man. We were just down there a month ago for a quinceañera for one of my cousins.
Well I can tell you it's going to be an event the next time you guys come down after the first season of the show!
It's real important that the word gets out in Eagle Pass because there's a big truck driving community in Eagle Pass.
It's also a thankless job, Sir. Companies really depend on you guys. You are a very important facet of their success. If it wasn't for the trucking industry, their products wouldn't get to consumers all across the country.
Exactly.
When did you all start your company?
Our dad started his company forty years ago. He was working in the fields <con las manzanas> (picking apples). <Y luego vino pa' San Antonio> Then he came to San Antonio) then he moved to Chicago. He tried working there, but it didn't work out. He came back to San Antonio in 1972 and that's when he bought his first truck and he drove for thirty something years. That's when Raul and I came in when we were 18 years old. We rode with my dad for about 7 1/2 years and back in 2001 we started a company, Triple R Diesel. We would buy and sell trucks. That's how it started. We started customizing trucks in '02, '03, '04. It got to a level where we became recognized across the country. In '09 we entered a competition against some really good companies at the time and we ended up beating them for 1st place honors. That's when people across the country started knowing about us.
The truck that's in the promo picture, is that the winning truck? Is that a belly dumper?
It's a belly dump combo.
It looks like a low rider!
That's the idea Man!
So how long is the season? How many episodes did you all record are you all done yet?
Yeah, this is Raul, the season's done and in the first episode you're going to see a truck from Charcoal Transport, the owner is Juan Regalado. It's the first truck that he started with. He wanted to do something special for his first truck. We did a bunch of stuff besides the paint and stretch. The cool thing is that it involves the family, our wives you see our parents how they interact, you know what duties they have, what Roland does and what I do. You'll see the mechanics, you know the customer our wives and their input. It's like peaks and valleys, the frustration, the timeline where the customer's giving us six weeks to basically fix the truck where we're under the gun. You'll see a lot of that.
Well we are so proud of you guys and our community will definitely be following your accomplishments closely. Thanks for taking the name of the Eagle Pass trucking industry to new heights and thank you for motivating our drivers across the country for all that you do. We'll be here when you all come back and we wish you the best. Keep your feet on the ground and get ready for every major music act to come calling, younever know Metallica might want a couple of metaled out trucks for their next tour!
Awesome, Man, thanks. And saludos a todos en el Aguila and Piedras Negras!