Photograph by Robert Scheer
Rafael De Leon Davalos moved into his barber shop on Murphy in the early 1960s.
By KATHERINE PETERSEN
One of the last remaining tenants of Murphy Avenue's first commercial heyday plans to close up shop in the next couple of months.
After 33 years of cutting hair at 136 S. Murphy Ave., Rafael De Leon Davalos will retire to make way for redevelopment. The 85-year-old barber will be succeeded by a restaurateur who seeks to capitalize on the revitalized area's newfound prosperity.
Davalos said that when he moved into his shop on Murphy in the early 1960s, four barber shops were competing for business.
"I'm the last. I went from two chairs to one after the canneries closed," said Davalos, who started his career in Los Angeles at the age of 15.
Although Davalos said he was "ready to retire anyway," one customer thinks he's being forced out of the building. "I think he would work as long as he possibly could," said Bart Clark, a member of Sunnyvale's Heritage Preservation Commission. Clark said he has gone to Davalos for haircuts for about 10 years.
Toni Bilic, who owns the building
Davalos occupies, will tear it down and replace it with a two-story restaurant and bar called Rembrandt's.
Davalos said his clientele built up again a bit with the entrance of electronic industries, but now he cuts hair for his steady customers, some of whom he has worked with for 40 years.
"My business is almost gone. I don't take any new customers anymore. People now favor the beauty shops rather than old-fashioned barber shops," Davalos said.
He said he has enjoyed the neighborhood over the years and will be sad to leave. "I became a part of it. I'm the last of the old tenants here. Everybody else is new," he said.
A musty smell permeates the long, narrow shop and phone books lie unused on a shelf near the window. Davalos said he canceled his phone a long time ago. Customers don't make appointments; they just walk in and ask if he is busy or not.
Halima Valani, who works at Sunnyvale Travels, brings her father-in-law in for a haircut. He goes straight to the chair because Davalos has few other customers.
"We've been bringing him here for at least a year. He loves to come here. He gives us a warm welcome so we like to come here," she said.
Davalos pulls out his scissors and begins to cut. He moves back and froth, behind the chair, taking his time to cut his customer's hair. Another friend sits reading a newspaper, speaking to Davalos in Spanish.
Clark said he enjoys having his hair cut by Davalos, who tells stories of growing up in Mexico and moving to California while he works. He said one time Davalos told about working in Fresno near the end of the Chinese gang wars and of ducking below his windows to dodge bullets.
"It's a real barber shop. He takes his time. He doesn't care how many people are waiting," Clark said of his haircuts, which sometimes took an hour.
Clark said the saddest part of Davalos' retirement is that people like him are few and far between. "But he takes these things as they come. He's somebody who enjoys his work," he said.
"It feels like going back in time," Clark added. "That's one of the reasons I like it."
This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, February 14, 1996.
©1996 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.