ADRIAN FONCERRADA

Adrian Foncerrada es un bohemio. Es un chilango. He is a shepherd who tends to black sheep. He sleeps with both eyes open. He sees infinity with both eyes closed. He stands on his hands. He drinks tequila for breakfast and orders milk at a bar. He is a magician. He is a musician. He is a man with means. He is a millionaire without money.

"When I am missing Mexico City, I stick my nose in an exhaust pipe and breath deeply," says Foncerrada as he leans against a wall on Washington Street. "If downtown were a barrio in Mexico City, it would be filled painters and poets. I love downtown. It makes me want to sing even when I don't have a song."

Foncerrada is a familiar figure downtown as the owner of El Hueso de Fraile. He says that the drunks make more sense than the politicians. He adds that the prostitutes are more honorable than many powerful women of Brownsville who plot against their own children.

Foncerrada appears on stage at El Hueso as part of Ensemble la Mision. The band is comprised of his wife and sons. But he is at his happiest blowing his sax in a backup role with the Doc Scully Blues Band at the Palm Lounge.

"In the early morning or the late afternoon, before and after the heat, I'll walk down Elizabeth, up Washington, down Adams, up Jefferson, breathing in, breathing out, counting one with each inhalation, counting two with each exhalation," continues Foncerrada over a one-dollar draft at the Sportsman.

"Downtown is like a dream. It may turn a little nightmarish when the sun crashes and the zombies reclaim the streets, but the past speaks to me at every turn. Sometimes I spy the dead looking at me through the upper-floor windows of the historic buildings. But in order to capture this mix of fiction and reality that is life, it takes a certain type of writer. I'm glad I'm speaking with someone who doesn't allow facts to become obstacles."

Adrian, Laura and their three sons, Adrian Jr., Luis and Sebastian, have the natures of gypsies, but at the end of the road even those filled with wanderlust feel the need to plant their roots and call a place their own.

The Foncerradas have etched out their establishment on Elizabeth between 8th and 9th. Musicians, poets and artists of every walk can find a stage to unleash their inspired spirits.

"Laura and I have known each other since first grade," said the family's patriarch. "We were raised in the Coyoacan district of Mexico City, home to both Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo as well as the conquistador Hernan Cortes.

"It is a place of eternal spring. You sense antiquity there. The Americas as we know them today began in Coyoacan. Whenever I return to the home of my childhood, I depart with a sense of renewal."

Adrian and Laura settled in Leon, Guanajuato after their marriage and opened a coffee house they operated for eight years. Restless, they brought their vision to Brownsville and started a similar shop near the corner of International and Southmost. It failed. The raza wasn't ready for folkloric music.

The couple supported themselves by forming the group Ensamble La Mision and recruited their three sons to expand their presentation and repertoire.

"Laura and I have been playing together for years," said Adrian. "We have made great music together and produced three wonderful compositions named Adrian, Luis and Sebastian. Both my wife and I find it gratifying that they have followed in our footsteps.

"Without an artistic impulse, life is empty. Art is the religion that allows us to find beauty in the existential meaningless that engulfs us."

El Hueso de Fraile, named after the string of beads that indigenous peoples wear around their wrists and ankles to add rhythm to their dances, opens every morning at nine and closes at midnight. Besides the regular evening shows, anyone may take the stage for an impromptu performance.

"We specialize in a variety of coffees," said Laura whose melodic voice is the heart and soul of both the band and the business. "Our licuados are very popular. I can guarantee their freshness. HEB is caddy-corner and I make two or three trips daily for strawberries and bananas. And now, to the delight of all, we have beer and wine.

"But it's our sandwiches that I'm promoting first and foremost. If you like Subway, you'll love our plates. El Gringo, lamb on pita bread with tzatziki sauce, El Argentino, ham and provolone cheese with chimichurri sauce, and El Chilango, turkey on a baguette with diabla sauce, will please the palette of the most finicky customer."

It is not surprising that it is a transplant inspiring those who planted their roots here.

"I settled in Brownsville because the resacas serpentining through the city won my heart," concluded Adrian. "They are mystical and enchanting. Downtown also caught my eye. Downtown is authentic. Authenticity has an immeasurable quality."