It's a quiet Friday morning at Leonardo Otero's two-chair barbershop on East Broadway near Park Avenue.
It's nice that way. It's quiet and the empty shop gives Otero time to catch up with unread newspapers he has on a small pile.
"But you never know who's going walk through those doors. Sometimes three people walk in at the same time," said Otero, known as Leo to his friends.
But after 5 p.m. that day, he turned the key to lock the door. No more customers will walk in.
After 50 years of barbering, Otero, 82, locked up for good.
I visited Otero, on his final day, to hear him reminisce about a Tucson long gone and history which preceded Tucson.
He loves history, his own, his family's and that of Southern Arizona.
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Otero served as an Army infantryman in Europe during War II. He earned a degree at the University of Arizona and he owned his business.
But barbering was his pleasure. Cutting hair, talking to customers and exchanging stories is what he liked the most — and will miss the most.
He was born to Isidro Otero and Porfiria San Ysidro Otero. He grew up on La Hacienda Otero, the family homestead ranch in Tubac, close to his present Green Valley home.
Otero is a descendant of a Spanish colonial-era family. The family's royal land grant ranch is known today as the Tubac Golf Resort.
His great uncle, Sabino Otero, ranched in today's Sabino Canyon. Sabino Otero was a Territorial-era philanthropist who helped finance St. Mary's Hospital. The Otero's Barrio Viejo family home was demolished in the mid-1960s during an earlier Downtown redevelopment project.
Growing up on the ranch, Otero did what all young boys-to-men did on Southern Arizona cattle ranches.
They strung wire fences to keep livestock in and out, they herded cattle, they planted and harvested crops and they survived the lean years alongside other families, largely Mexican, who lived along the banks of the Santa Cruz River.
"To me they were special people as the day is long," Otero said. "They were honest and hardworking."
When war came, Otero, who didn't complete high school, went. He served in Gen. George S. Patton Jr.'s Third Army in the Battle of the Bulge, during the winter of 1944-1945.
After military service he turned to barbering. His first job was at the Deluxe Barber Shop on East Congress Street, owned by a Sicilian immigrant, Sam Pignato.
One day Otero told the boss he wanted to open his own shop. Pignato encouraged him and Otero opened his first shop at South Plumer Avenue and East 21st Street, in a residential area.
He built a clientele and eventually moved the shop to the corner of East Broadway and Campbell Avenue. In 1997, Otero sold the property and moved his shop a few blocks west on Broadway, a block from Miles Exploratory Learning Center.
Throughout his barbering years, Otero followed a wise suggestion when he first began — look professional. He wore a necktie to work each day.
But one of his proudest accomplishments was finishing school. After the war he earned his high school diploma and eventually a degree in business and public administration at the UA.
Otero's last day ended as usual. He closed the door and walked away with memories and stories.
"It's the right thing to do," he said.
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