E
E VA L U C R E C I A O L I VA S
va Lucrecia Olivas is
the owner of Eva's
Salon in downtown
Alpine. Born in Ojinaga, Mexico,
she came to the United States in
1996 with two small children to
join her husband, who was
already living in the U.S. Olivas
had a small vocabulary of
English, she said, but wanted to
be able to communicate, not just
identify words like ‘table’, ‘chair’,
etc. She enrolled at Sul Ross
University in an ESL class and
then with her background in
business from Mexico, she
enrolled in the GED program.
After that, she went to beauty
school. Olivas was very active
with her children and they were
a key motivating factor for her.
“They learned English in like six
months,” she said. “I wanted to
be able to keep up with them. It
was a must, a need,” she said.
After beauty school, Olivas
worked at a local salon, and soon
after got a job at the salon where
she is now. A short time later,
the owner of the salon left along
with everyone else and Eva took
over and named it ‘Eva’s Salon.’
Olivas said a strength of her
beauty salon is the organic
chemicals she has used for some
time. “I want to protect my
customer’s head and my lungs,”
she said.
Olivas is full of sunshine and
energy, and in the years since
coming to the United States has
been very active in the
community and the Catholic
Church. She was president of
Lupanas for three years, she is a
former Chamber of Commerce
member, she danced with the
Mystic Gitanas for eight years,
she coordinated a trip for 10
church members to go to Mexico
City….
The
list
of
her
accomplishments is long.
The youngest of five children,
one of Olivas’s earliest memories
is playing outside as a child. “We
would play outside every night
after homework. We were always
running, playing games. We
were healthy, not sitting around
watching TV,” she said. When it
was time to come in, the mother
would call out ‘ Eva, Maria, Jose.’
“That was the cell phone in those
days,” Eva says.
Another early memory is
dancing. Olivas likes to say that
she was dancing before she was
walking. Recently a former
elementary school classmate sent
her a picture of the two of them
dancing the Mexican hat dance,
him behind her with a rope. “I
still like dancing,” she said, and
is still dancing, now in the
Catholic Church. Two years ago,
a group was started at the Our
Lady of Peace Catholic church in
Alpine called Matachines Danza
Guadalupe, a group that
evangelizes through dancing, of
which
Olivas
is
the
leader/coordinator. December 12
is their main celebration. “It’s an
interesting ministry,” she said.
“Everything has a meaning. The
drums are Mary’s heartbeat (for
example). It’s very mystical and
passionate.” It’s the first time in
the history of the 100-year-old
church that they have had
Matachines, Olivas said, and
Father Beto Lopez is a big
supporter.
One thing that really made an
impact on Olivas is that the
United States celebrates Cinco
de Mayo. “It’s just a battle, not
that important in Mexico,” she
said. “So I came here and it’s
celebrated and commercialized.”
Now she looks forward to it.
If she could live in any time
period, Olivas would live in the
days of fancy hats, poofy dresses
and umbrellas. “It was so elegant
and fancy how women dressed
back then. Now it’s so sloppy and
anything goes.”
Olivas loves movies and can’t
really pick a favorite – she likes
VOI CES
of the trans-pecos
them all and has fond memories
of all the many cartoons and
Harry Potter she watched with
her children.
She loves living in Alpine and
loves the friendliness of the
people. “It feels like a home,” she
said. People always call out
greetings wherever they are –
grocery store, post office. “’Hi
Eva,’ they’re so happy to see me.”
She considers Alpine to be 99%
safe and friendly. Gossip is her
least favorite thing, “It runs like
dynamite,” she said. Her favorite
book is the Bible, and she reads
it every day.
One of Olivas’s life philosophies
is to treat people the way you
want to be treated. “It always
works for me,” she said. “Always
smile. When I didn’t know
English, I would smile, and
people would be nice to me.”
One vision she has of the future
is travelling with her husband.
They bought a popup camper last
summer to use on trips and to go
to San Antonio to visit their
granddaughter. “If I could, I’d see
her (my granddaughter) every
weekend, I’d be living there
already,” she said. “I will travel
but I will keep coming home to
Alpine.”
Anyone who’s driven down
Holland or walked past her salon
can see that Olivas’s favorite
flower is the sunflower. It’s been
her favorite “for as long as I can
remember,” she said. “It’s
colorful, cheerful, and yellow,
which is my favorite color.” The
sunflower is the perfect symbol
for her as she brings out the best
in everyone she connects with.
“People come to the salon and say
“Eva, make me beautiful,” and I
say, I just enhance God’s beauty
because everyone is beautiful.”
Cenizo
Winter 2020
15