Growing up in a traditional Mexican family in the small village of Tlachichilco on the north shore of Lake Chapala, Jose Juan Vazquez felt he couldn’t go after his true passion to become a hair and makeup artist because his father, Cirilo, wouldn’t have accepted it.
With much water having since run under the bridge, “JJ” has opened a busy hair salon in Ajijic, doing what he loves, and his 84-year-old father is dealing with it.
“In Tlachichilco, my dad would take me to his cornfield to crop the corn. I was around ten years old,” says Vazquez. “When I was alone, I would braid the corn silk, until I got busted. In a loud voice, he asked me, ‘Who did all these braids?’ Because I was afraid of him, I lied and said it was my friend Rosie.”
Years later, Jose was living in Los Angeles as an accomplished hair and makeup artist, and his father paid him a visit. As they were standing in line to buy groceries and Vazquez was browsing through a Rolling Stone magazine, he saw his work for an Old Spice advertisement. Excitedly, he showed his father, who simply shrugged and changed the subject. “He couldn’t see how my career became something significant. It just wasn’t important to him.”
Sister Leticia, ten years older than Vazquez, was his inspiration. “As she was applying her makeup and dressing up, she’d ask me, ‘Does this look okay? Did I do my makeup right?’ And I’d offer suggestions. She respected my opinion.”
When Vazquez was 12 years old, the family moved to Chico, California, where his father found work as a migrant worker. After five years, he retired and the family returned to their small Mexican village located midway between Santa Cruz de la Soledad and Mezcala.
But Vazquez no longer felt like he belonged there. “I needed to go back California because that’s where my life was.”
He returned to Chico a year later, lived with his sister and attended classes at the community college, trying to discover his passion.
He found a job as a dishwasher in a restaurant, working the graveyard shift. “The work was difficult but gave me the drive to be ‘somebody’ in life,” Vazquez says.
Coming from a tiny village, Vasquez was shy but managed to make friends with two Mexican-American college students. They saw his potential and pushed him to better himself.
“One of the friends moved to Sacramento and got me a job in a collections agency where he worked. I had never worked in an office before, but did a great job and was able to move up the ladder to a larger company.”
On weekends, Vazquez would travel to Los Angeles. “I was attracted to the show business world so a friend who lived in L.A. encouraged me to move there. I had a good job and good pay in Sacramento, and left everything behind to move south. In Sacramento I didn’t feel complete. I wanted to do hair and makeup. That was my passion. The only reason I didn’t pursue it was because my dad didn’t see it as a manly thing to do.”
A fashion designer friend then invited Vazquez to a show in L.A. “Backstage, I met the key hair master and saw how exciting it looked to be doing hair and makeup.”
Driven to learn all he could, he returned to school and two years later received his certificate in cosmetology from Los Angeles Trade Tech College.
Soon after, Vazquez ran into the same man who invited him to the fashion show. “I told him I was going to school to get licensed and he asked me if I’d like to assist him. That was music to my ears. He brought me to do a fashion show and, at 30 years old, I felt like had reached the pinnacle of my life.”
At a later photo shoot, he met Jeffrey Rodriguez, one of the world’s biggest makeup artists. “He asked me if I wanted to assist him in makeup. I was thrilled, to say the least.”
His first assignment was a fashion show for Teen Vogue at Paramount Studios. “He opened doors for me that people fight years to achieve. Not a lot of Mexicans make it this far, especially in L.A.”
After that, he got one assignment after another, doing photo shoots and ads for major magazines and working on famous actors.
Vazquez’s friend from Sacramento ended up moving to Ajijic. “His move made me think about my life. Did I want to be comfortable financially living in L.A. or did I want to reach for better things, spend time with loved ones and help others achieve their dreams?”
Over three years ago he made the move to Guadalajara and every weekend would visit his mom in his childhood village. “I noticed a lot of the younger kids were using drugs and alcohol, so I started talking with them and giving inspirational talks at my old school in Mezcala. I let the kids know that they could be anything they wanted to be, and I was a living example.”
One day, Vazquez stopped in Ajijic for dinner. “I had never been there before because, for me, it was a place for gringos, not Mexicans. One of my friends suggested that I open a hair salon in the village. I didn’t know anyone and didn’t think it was a good idea, but she kept pursuing the subject.
“Two weeks later, I came back and noticed a ‘For Rent’ sign on a shop door. I talked to a nearby business owner and asked him, ‘How do you like living in Ajijic?’ He replied that it was a great place to live and work.”
Vazquez rented the place within 15 minutes of talking with the owner. That was almost three years ago. He opened his shop, did one person’s hair, then they told another person, which created a domino effect.
Says Vazquez, “One of my customers was the founder of the boy’s orphanage, Luz de Esperanza in Ixtlahuacan. I thought of the idea to teach the kids barbering, because once they turn 18, they need to leave the orphanage. The director gave me the okay, and I’ve been teaching every week since May.
“I still have a nonprofit in Tlachichilco that I run with two friends. We bring art supplies and have successful people give inspirational talks. I keep a connection with the kids and encourage them to talk about their problems. They see me as their mentor, their uncle. I finally feel like the purpose of my being back in Mexico makes sense and I know exactly what I want. Moving here means being near my mom, my friends and my old neighborhood. I wanted to get back to that little boy and show him that it was okay to braid corn silk.”
For JJ’s Beauty Salon, call 333-973-9499.