Pharr barbershop celebrates 75 years in business
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A big milestone for a local barbershop as they're celebrating 75 years in business.
Cutting hair is more than a hobby for Javier Serda, it's a passion he learned from his father in Serda's Barbershop.
"My dad taught me a lot," Serda said. "He taught me and gave me a lot of pointers on how to do certain haircuts, especially the flat top."
Serda's Barbershop sits on the corner of East Bell and North Athol in Pharr where's it's been since doors first opened August 2, 1948.
"We are celebrating our anniversary, but it is not only ours, it's also the community's," Serda said.
Celebrating 75 years in business. A business Serda's father Gabriel first started.
"He built the barber shop," Serda said.
His father was a World War II veteran who was imprisoned by the Germans.
"He was captured in Africa [on] February 17, 1943," Serda said. "They kept moving him around to different prison camps. He was liberated by the Russians in Luckenwalde, Germany."
Serda says when his dad came back to the United States, he used his GI Bill to go to barber school.
"He decided to go to barber school in San Antonio, Luis Barber College...he graduated in 1946," Serda said.
His father took what he learned and brought it back to Pharr, his hometown, where he originally started cutting hair as a teen.
"It was hard to make a living, so some of his friends would come and get a haircut and some of them would give him a nickel," Serda said.
Serda is keeping his father's legacy and memory alive 75 years later. An opportunity, he says, would not be possible without the community.
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