HomeMy WebLinkAboutInformation regarding Mariano VazquezooUll60
Mariano Vazquez was born in Havana, Cuba on Dec. 12, 1930. As a young man in Cuba,
he took interest and began learning about the trade that he eventually mastered throughout
the years and that became apart of his life ....the meat business.
Mariano was a man always looking for a challenge and so he left Cuba in the early 1950's
to seek those challenges herein the United States.
With little English language skills, he settled in New York City where he began working
as a butcher in a successful meat plant. There he learned how to bone out beef plates to
make pastrami and corned beef .
During this phase he was drafted and served 2 years in the U.S. Army.
He would travel between NYC and Cuba frequently to visit his family. There would
always be a stop in Miami and in 1960 another challenge arose and so he opened up a
market not far from here on N.W. 7th Ave and 54`h St. called El Liborio. Although he
owned the market his love was that of the meat dept and so with all the experience he had
gained, the market quickly became a success. He fended off a challenge across the street
from a first of it's kind giant super market called Shell City but as usual David had no
problem with Goliath and so his little market flourished until another challenge knocked
on his door.
He sold his share of the market and in 1964 on this corner of NW I O'h Ave and 23`d
Street in the small building, Mariano took on what would become his biggest
challenge .... and turn it into his most successful one ...... High Top Products. With not
much experience in the ham industry Mariano took a small operation and expanded it to
the major USDA ham manufacturing plant that it is today.
Mariano also built one of the first USDA ham plants in Miami in 1984 as well as owning
a similar processing plant in Puerto Rico. He opened a distributing company in Puerto
Rico and dealt in the exclusive importing of boneless beef from Central America and the
Dominican Republic here to the United States.
Mariano passed away on Jan. 8'h of this year (2010) at the age of 79 after a long battle
with a chronic illness; the only challenge of his life, he could not overcome.