Voices of Houston: Memo’s Record Shop in East End celebrates Latin music for more than 50 years
HOUSTON – Guillermo ‘Memo’ Villarreal, 81, first opened up Memo’s Record Shop in 1968. The East End record store sells different types of music and movies and serves as a musical museum of sorts with some of the world’s greatest Spanish superstars posing for pictures with Villarreal. “Vicente Fernandez, Juan Gabriel, Antonio Aguilar, Rigo Tovar, Lucha Villa and Jose Jose,” said Villarreal. Villareal has been in the record business for about 52 years and offers a vast selection of different types of music including Mariachi, Conjunto, Tejano and salsa. Before opening his record store, Villarreal was a successful music promoter, responsible for bringing stars like Vicente Fernandez to Houston for the very first time.