A Third-Generation Luthier Tells His Story

It was this patriarch who built the foundation that shaped my father’s future, my future, and the potential future for my two daughters. Porfirio Delgado Flores and Candelario Delgado Flores started our family business in 1928 in Torreón, Coahuila, México. The two brothers, although orphaned at a young age, stayed close to one another and played music together. My grandfather, Porfirio, or “Pilo,” as those close to him would call him, was a craftsman. Mainly starting out as a furniture maker, he would later get requests for repairing instruments, and then be encouraged to build one for a town fair or “faria”. He and his brother, “Candelas,” started a journey out of opportunity and passion.

In the mid-1930s, the business moved to Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, México, just 10 minutes from the México/United States border. In 1944, my father was born in an El Paso hospital, but registered and raised in Ciudad Juarez and baptized in the guitar shop. My grandfather named him after his brother, Candelario.