A book, a documentary and a newly revamped building on Texas Avenue in central El Paso are all the works of an entrepreneur, Don Shapiro, and filmmaker/author, Valentin Sandoval. Around a year ago, the two came together to start Power at the Pass at 1931 Myrtle Ave.
In 1950, Shapiro graduated from New York University with an accounting degree. A Bronx native, Shapiro went to school on the GI Bill after serving in the Navy during World War II.
“After that I wanted to travel, and as luck would have it, a friend of mine and myself were offered an automobile to deliver from New York to Fort Worth,” Shapiro said. “That was my first taste of Texas. I was there a month and had a job unloading freight cars and earned enough money to buy a car with my friend. We headed west and wound up here.”
Shapiro started Acton West, a store that specializes in jeans in 1970. This was around the same time that the North American Free Trade Agreement started to create jobs across the border. The company started as a $9,000 investment in a small 4,000-square-foot building with 25 employees which grew into four plants that employed 1,700, while supporting an additional 1,000 through contracted plants.
Shapiro became a multimillionaire and sold the company in 2004 when the government put an embargo on all imports and they could no longer cross any goods.
Now 90 years old, he has been in El Paso for 63 years and invests his money in real estate. He owns seven of the buildings on Texas Avenue between Piedras and Cotton streets…
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