El Chico Restaurants Collection
name: label: Creator
content: El Chico Restaurants
acqinfo: label: Provenance
content: The collection was donated by Fifi Caballero Benson, John A. Cuellar, and Carmen Summers in 2011 and 2012.
creator: label: Creator
content: El Chico Restaurants
setName: label: See more items in
content: El Chico Restaurants Collection
abstract: label: Summary
content: The materials relate to the creation and operation of El Chico Corporation.
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: Adelina Cuellar was born in Mexico in 1871. She and her husband Macario migrated to Texas in 1892 and were married in Laredo, eventually becoming sharecroppers in Kaufman, Texas. In 1926, Mrs. Cuellar began making tamales to sell at the Kaufman fair, assisted by her twelve children. This venture became so successful that two of her sons opened a café in Kaufman with Mama Cuellar as the cook. The café failed during the Depression, as did several others opened by the Cuellar family in Texas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana.

In 1940, Adelina's sons Macario and Gilbert opened a restaurant, El Charro, in Dallas featuring their mother's recipes. They hired their friend Jose Valdez Caballero to manage the restaurant; he had grown up in his family's restaurant in Temple, Texas. El Charro became profitable, and the family began to expand its operations into Houston and Fort Worth. The restaurant chain became El Chico, and most of the family moved to Dallas to work in the business. 

The Cuellar brothers diversified their business into frozen and canned foods, franchising, and numerous other enterprises that became the El Chico Corporation. Jose Caballero continued to work for the company as an executive until his retirement. He is credited with the development of popular recipes and with the invention of the hard shell taco. Adelina Cuellar lived to the age of 98 and saw her tamale stand grow into a Tex-Mex empire. Today, there are one hundred El Chico restaurants in the United States and world-wide.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 0.75 Cubic feet
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1908 - 1990
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives Center, National Museum of American History
identifier: label: Identifier
content: NMAH.AC.1246
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
arrangement: label: Arrangement
content: The collection is arranged into three series.

Series 1, El Chico Corporation Business Records, 1950-1990; undated

Series 2, Cuellar Family Papers, 1920s-2006

Series 3, Caballero Family Papers, 1908-1989
processinfo: label: Processing Information
content: Processed by Anne Jones, 2012.
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: The collection consists of material related to the El Chico Corporation and to the two families involved in its creation and management. The business materials consist primarily of financial reports and studies, annual reports, articles and clippings and investment information. Advertising, menus, labels and packaging are also included among these materials. In addition, there are photographs and articles relating to the Cuellar and Caballero families.
relatedmaterial: label: Related Materials
content: Materials in the Archives Center

Frito Company Records, circa 1892-2009 (AC1263)

Coon Chicken Inn Collection, circa 1913-1960s (AC1153)

Warshaw Collection of Business Americana, 1724-1965 (AC0060)

Virginia Mericle Menu Collection, 1960-1990 (AC1212)

Byron Fogel Placemat Collection, circa 1930-1981 (AC0419)