Hey, barkeep!: Arellano a skilled bartender on both sides of the border
By Natalia Lopera
nlopera@azstarnet.com
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 06.25.2009
It's been a long time since Melchor Arellano had to come out from behind the counter to break up a fight.
That was something he did regularly when he tended bar in Mexico.
"It was different over there because I was the one who made sure people behaved. Over here you have to call the police," Arellano, 65, said in Spanish.
He worked 28 years at El Recreo in Cananea, Sonora, and has tended bar for 23 years at El Dorado Restaurant in South Tucson.
The bar in Mexico was very calm, but only because he intervened when it started getting rowdy, he said with a laugh.
One time a customer got violent and even knocked out the owner, but Arellano put him in his place.
"I grabbed him and crashed him against a wall and then threw him outside," he said. "It's different here. (Plus) I was younger, stronger and more active."
Still, Arellano was pretty popular among customers and was even voted the best barkeep of Cananea in the '80s.
Have you invented any drinks?
"It's really the customers that invent them, and they're the ones that come up with the names, too. And a lot of the time, other people like those drinks and they become popular."
What is your favorite drink?
"I like to drink brandy, Fundador or Don Pedro in the winter. And in the summer I like beer, Bud Light or Tecate Light."
How did you get involved in the bar world?
"It was out of necessity. When I finished school, I couldn't go get my certificate because I had to work. I was only 13. I helped out with the pool tables; that's what I had to do to survive back then."
How much did they pay you?
"Back then 73 pesos; that was like 5 or 6 dollars a week."
Why did you move here?
"My kids wanted to study here. The peso was very devalued, it had three zeros so you couldn't buy dollars. You had to move and work here to sustain your family."
Is El Dorado's clientele similar to El Recreo's?
"It's the same because there were American neighborhoods in Cananea (because many worked at the Cananea Consolidated Copper Company, known as The Four C's)."
Have you ever come across your old clients here?
"Yeah, many people from Cananea live here, from my time."
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