One of downtown Gilroy’s latest additions will help you relive California’s vaquero—or cowboy—past with high quality furniture and home décor from Mexico.
Pueblo Viejo Imports, at 7419 Monterey St, features handcrafted furniture and folk art imported from multiple regions in Mexico, all carefully chosen by proprietor Jose Guzman.
“We go to different parts in Mexico—Jalisco, Michoacán, Guerrero, Guanajuato, Puebla, Mexico City, to find unique selections,” said Guzman, who makes the round trip about every six weeks.
Furniture collections with names like Hacienda and Rancho feature heavy-duty materials and real wood.
“Our furniture is all handmade, in the rustic Spanish style,” said Guzman. “There’s a lot of forged iron, a lot of copper, marble. We have really unique pieces, and some are hand-painted. It’s definitely not your cookie-cutter furniture and that’s what people appreciate. This is solid wood, not particle board. And it all comes assembled the way you see here—we don’t send you an Allen wrench.”
Prices vary, depending on the collection and item selected. A dining set ranges from $300 to $10,000.
Guzman was not born into the import business or given a million bucks and an empty shipping container and told to make things happen. No, he was just a guy looking for some cool pieces to buy.
“I was looking for this type of product for my own house back in 1998 and I could not find it anywhere. There weren’t any stores in this area selling these types of products. So I saved a little money, took a trip out to Mexico, did some research and within a year we were started.”
Guzman has operated about ten Mexican import shops over the years. The first opened in Morgan Hill in 1998.
He said working with small vendors, who provide much of the folk art, has been a particularly enjoyable component of his job.
“Most of the time I’m going into people’s houses and actually picking up products that members of an entire family are making in their home.”
Guzman also operates locations in San Juan Bautista and San Jose, and does a lot of online trade, where shoppers can view his entire inventory.
“Many of our customers are throughout the state,” he said.
The narrow and spacious shop front on Monterey Street was initially going to be used for storage, but inquisitive passersby and local customers were soon peeking in and browsing the rows of folk art, oil paintings, sculpture, housewares and handcrafted furniture.
“It was originally going to be a warehouse but we started to get foot traffic in, so we made it retail. Gilroy has been good for us,” said Guzman.
Pueblo Viejo Imports is open Wednesday through Sunday 11a.m. to 5 p.m.
