Adalberto "Adal" Castellon Jr. spent his childhood in southern California with frequent trips back to Chihuahua, Mexico to visit family.
It was on these trips to the hot, dry region in Mexico where he spent countless hours with his uncles at the family-owned barbershop.
Even as a child, Castellon realized his uncles had created more than just a simple place to get a haircut. The family barbershop was a community space where people could seek refuge from the heat and socialize for hours, talking about the news or gossip of the day or just enjoying the company of others.
The barbershop, Castellon learned, was a magical place of community.
It was his desire to tap into that magic that set him on a path to open his own barbershop in Louisville's NuLu neighborhood.
"It was important for me to carry on the legacy of barbering," Castellon, a third-generation barber, said. "It wasn't so much that it was the barbering, as it was more the (desire to) have a communal space."
Now, six years later, Castellon is fostering that community, and his Mexican heritage, one haircut at a time.
'Build up from nothing'
When Castellon arrived in Louisville 10 years ago, he found himself drawn to what would become the NuLu neighborhood. At the time, he and his wife were moving from downtown Los Angeles with dreams of building something.
"We picked NuLu mainly because of the promise of what (it) had to offer," Castellon told the Courier Journal. "I do not come from a privileged place, I needed to build up from nothing, and I saw a neighborhood that was raw."
Castellon quickly found himself behind the barber chair working at the now-defunct Market Street Barbers for about four years. Then in June 2018, Castellon opened Spanish Fly Barbershop, 626 E. Main St.
"I decided to open Spanish Fly because it was important for me to have representation in the small business landscape," Castellon said.
Inside, the quaint barbershop is tricked out with Hispanic decor, an extensive collection of artworks, photos of his uncles in their original Mexican barbershop, and a handmade American flag made with traditional Mexican fabric.
"Ever since the inception of Spanish Fly, we've always been a little bit more than a barbershop ... It has a very vibrant ... almost art gallery-like feel," Castellon said, which helps create a sense of community.
At the center of it all is a little piece of family history and a nod to what inspired Spanish Fly Barbershop.
When opening his shop, Castellon traveled back to Mexico to retrieve two of the barber chairs his uncles used for clients for decades. He had them restored and feels a sense of pride and connection to his heritage each time he gives a haircut to a client sitting in the chair, something he hopes will continue at his barbershop for years to come.
"He brought those chairs from Mexico because they're so important to him and his family and ... in terms of what's inside the barbershop, those are the focal points," said Kevin Trager, a client of Castellon's for the past three years.
Giving back to the community
In a neighborhood that was once a little more than vacant buildings, Castellon has helped foster a community within his small businesses, bringing in clientele from engineers at GE Appliances and factory workers at Ford Motor Co. to teachers and employees in local government.
Most recently, an interaction with a client led Castellon to his newest community-building endeavor — working at the Backside Learning Center at Churchill Downs. After being invited to coordinate a monthlong program for teens at the Backside, Castellon said he couldn't get the workers there off his mind.
Now, as he focuses on giving back to the Hispanic community, Castellon hopes his presence as a Latinx, small-business owner will help the barbershop culture he grew up with extend beyond the doors of Spanish Fly and into Louisville, his chosen home.
"There's a lot of things that I really admire and respect about him, I mean, he took a chance on Louisville, ... he's opened a business, he's helping the economy, he cares a lot about his customers and about the community," Trager said. "He's more than just a barber or a businessperson. He really loves to help out people in need."
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This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: NuLu Spanish Fly Barbershop combines Mexican culture, community spirit
