Teen leaves school days behind to keep business open

Unlike his friends who shuffled between classes Wednesday counting down the days to Christmas break, 16-year-old Ricardo Aguello spends his days at a table in his mother's jewelry shop.

The junior had actually started school along with his friends in September, but he dropped out when the world's economy tumbled and sales at Marbe's Beads and Gifts in downtown Pharr halted.

His mother, Marabela, couldn't afford her lone employee's wage, so Ricardo traded school books for bills, beads and a hodge-podge offering of perfume and other feminine-themed wares.

On Wednesday, Aguello saddled up to a table inside the small shop, cracked open a civics book and started the year all over again. This time he's home schooled, and every Friday he has to take a smattering of tests that track his progress.

"I wanted to help out my mom because it's the family business," Aguello said, pausing from reading the introductory chapter on the U.S. political system.

Across the Rio Grande Valley, sales have dropped significantly for many area retailers, especially at small family-owned stores such as Marbe's.

"The past few days it's been getting a little better," he said optimistically. "We could tell people were suffering."

The shop has been open for almost six months, but Ricardo's mother has sold the beads for years. She initially made them at home, but they became so popular that opening a business seemed a natural idea.

For Ricardo, that's meant learning to adjust to a level of responsibility few teenagers his age are expected to have. On most days he works the shop, for free, from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sometimes he helps pay the bills, pick his 11-year-old sister, Jacqueline, up from school and even goes grocery shopping when his mom can't.

His father is away at work for nearly three weeks at a time and only gets a 10-day break in between the work periods.

Ricardo, however, doesn't mind his new life. In fact, he seems to like it aside from the occasional bouts of boredom when sales are slow. He plans to study the culinary arts in college and he's hoping that by 2010 South Texas College will have a new cooking program so that he doesn't have to leave the Valley for school.

When asked what his best dish is, he said "cherry pie."

Still, sometimes he misses the social aspect of school, but there is not even a hint of regret in his voice.

"I don't think that I'll go back," he said. "It's better to be here anyways."

Sean Gaffney covers business, the economy and general assignments for The Monitor. He can be reached at (956) 683-4434.