The Victoria Napolitano Bookstore The Classic Male - Ryder Gordon | Page 10

Paco Fernandez born: Fernando Fernandez
I was born in Tampico Tamaulipas México on October 21, 1953. My mother was a Cuban born and my
father was Mexican. My Mother & father never married
as when they met, they both were going through a
divorce. My father was a 3 star decorated General in
Mexico and after he retired from the military
decided to go into politics. During his political career, he was the
Ambassador of Mexico
in Japan, China & Cuba
and finally became the
governor of his native
state Zacatecas. After
retiring from the military my father decided to start his political
career in Zacatecas. He
moved from Tampico
and my mother never told him she was
pregnant.  I was born
and grow up without
my father knowing I
existed so I only have
my mother’s name.  I
met my father for the
1st time a day after Father’s Day in 1996 and we had a very extraordinary relationship afterwards until he passed away.
I arrived in Chicago for the 1st time December 24,
1967. We went back to Mexico in 1968 and lived in
Guadalajara Jalisco for the next 2 1/2 years. I started
my executive Entrepreneurial knowledge in the Mercado San Juan de Dios in Guadalajara Jalisco Mexico
while my mother had a 3 table eating area at the Mercado. She would send me to go get the meal of the
day as everything got cooked daily so I would negotiate with all the vendors and asked if I would keep any
change and my mother would say “Mijo you be lucky
if you had enough to get all I need.”

During 1970, my mother decided to come back to Chicago.  After going to school for only 2 years in Mexico
and 1 1/2 years in the USA on the south side of Chicago, I did 1 year of junior high and 1/2 year of high
school. Due to my lack of understanding of English and
the teachers I decided to drop out and started to work
full time. I worked at a clothing store called Marshall
Kapson’s. One day,
I was washing
windows and the
owner asked if I
would help out on
a sidewalk sale for
the weekend. I was
very nervous and I
said no thanks as
I am not a salesmen. He then said
that this was not
a sales position
all I needed to do
is keep on eye on
the merchandise.
So that sounded
kind of nice so I
said yes.  On Monday morning I was
asked to see the
owner at his office
and definitely was
very nervous as I
thought I was done. To my surprise I was told I wasn’t
going to wash windows anymore as I brought more
revenue than all the salespeople together. I than said
not sure what you mean as am not a salesmen all I did
was show people what they need it or looking for as
I learn from each as we talked. To make a long story
short, this was the start of my career in clothing.
In January 27, 1973 I was hired at The Custom Shop as
a temp employee for two weeks. This was my first job
out of the neighborhood and best of all downtown
Chicago.

fineclothing.net