Celebrating Hispanic Heritage with Memo Record Shop

Houston – Guillermo “Memo” Villareal was born in Mexico, but moved to Houston in 1957 and has been here ever since with the goal of brining Latin music and history to the city. He’s no stranger to the music industry with his father being a lifelong musician that’s been playing since the age of 12 and uncle who served as a famous composer and the owner of Falcon Records. Memo was a promoter of music and decided to continue pushing the sounds of the Hispanic culture to the public by opening Memo’s Record Shop in 1968 in a small building just across from where the current one stands. As a local promoter of international musicians, Memo helped bring big artists and big audiences together while his shops stock music found nowhere else in Houston. In addition to promoting music by Spanish speaking artists, he was politically active during the 70s with Houston’s Hispanic leaders Leonel Castillo, Al Luna, Roman Martinez and Ben Reyes. Memo currently has two shops, the original in Magnolia Park, as well as one in Northside.