ANITA'S

Estanislao Contreras crossed from Matamoros to Brownsville in 1960 with his parents. He was ten years old. They rented a humble, clapboard house in La Parra next to the old cemetery.

"The cemetery was a haunted place in those days, but the ghosts were real," recalled Contreras. "La Parra gang ruled and in the dark of the abandoned graves they drank, smoked and screwed. Both my parents assured me a whipping worse than any pachuco could have given me if they had caught me on the other side of the wall."

Limon's Tortilleria on East Jefferson and 6th was an institution in those days. Contreras' mother sent him every day for the daily supply of tortillas and every Saturday and Sunday for either barbacoa or carnitas.

"All the mothers in el barrio conceded that they had met their match competing with Limon's," continued Contreras. "Their tortillas and food were superior to anything the mothers could prepare. I remember one night that my mother served her own carnitas and tortillas.

"You made these, vieja?" questioned my father with a sternness in his voice.

"Si, viejo," she answered.

"Don't do it again."

Ari and Ana Schwarcz bought the business in 2009 and recruited Sandra Gonzalez as their general manager. Anita's Gourmet, as it is now called, is open every day from 5 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Conscious of its roots, the Schwarczes explain that "Anita's will continue to maintain the reputation of providing healthy products using all natural ingredients at a fair price. Anita's business philosophy is customer service. Anita also believes in giving back to the community via charitable contributions by the employee of the month program."

"Our secret is olive oil," explained Gonzalez. "Most other tortillerias use lard, which is not good for your heart's health. With that exception, we use the same recipe as Limon's founder. We hear it from longtime customers who were spoiled for decades by quality products.

"'We make our tortillas the old Mayan way' is our mission statement, which is a reaffirmation that you can't beat the authenticity of the traditional preparations."

Besides tortillas and tamales, the latter available with chicken, pork, bean and cheese con rajas, Anita's offers daily lunch specials ranging from chiles rellenos de queso o carne to asado de puerco to bistek ranchero. The pollo en achiote is an exotic dish distinguished by a piquant sauce. The weekends feature the staples--barbacoa and carnitas.

"I moved up economically but down culturally as my materialistically minded ex-wife insisted on dragging me out to the sterile existence of that residential wasteland between Brownsville and Los Fresnos where I didn't even know the names of my neighbors, but once a week I would return to the old neighborhood and stop at Anita's although it will always be Limon's for an oldtimer like myself," said Contreras whose Chicano Death Dirges debuts soon.

"Ari and Ana, unlike a lot of the philistines in this town, have looked to the past in their pursuit of the future. I don't want to sound sacrilegious, but if my father were alive today and didn't know about the new ownership, he would tell my mother that there was no reason to be in the kitchen because Limon's was better than ever."