On Wednesday, people walked into the doors of Mi Tierra Cafe y Panadería to look at portraits of local restaurateur Jorge Cortez. As they walked, they admired the art he curated on the walls of the iconic restaurant.
Two colorful bouquets of flowers adorned with palomas and white roses and lilies sat around a picture frame that people stopped by to honor him.
Cortez died Monday night at the age of 81 surrounded by his family. Family members said he had been hospitalized last week, but his health had deteriorated over the past two years.
He had taken on the helm of La Familia Cortez’s five restaurants along with his brothers, David, Ruben and Manuel, and sister, Rosalinda, in 1984, following the death of their father and founder, Pedro Cortez.
Their restaurants include downtown landmark Mi Tierra, Pico de Gallo, Mariachi Bar, Mi Familia at The Rim and La Margarita.
He is survived by seven children; Pete, Deborah, Christina, Paloma, Cariño, Alexandra, and Sol Jorge; 12 grandchildren and a great-grandchild.
Jorge Cortez was a creative and artistic visionary who played a key role in weaving the tapestry of cultural assets that have become a large part of the historic district across downtown San Antonio’s west end, known as La Zona Cultural. He also established the Centro de Artes Gallery, which highlights Latino artists.
He would frame things in his sight with his fingers, creating a square to visualize his ideas, and sketch renderings on napkins, his eldest son Pete Cortez, 59, recalls.
Jorge Cortez was friends with the late Jesse Treviño and renowned heart surgeon Alfonso Chiscano, who helped connect San Antonio with the Canary Islands — where the city’s founders came from, 100 years before the Alamo.
His mission was the similar, wanting to bridge San Antonio to its sister city, Guadalajara, Mexico, where his father was from.
Chiscano died in 2019 and Treviño died in 2023.
“I can only imagine the chaos and the havoc they’re creating in heaven right now. I can imagine them around a table, imagining all kinds of things, and … driving God crazy,” Pete Cortez said, sitting at the table they used to sit at long ago in the dining room of Mi Tierra.
Table #327 was his father’s favorite table; or as he called it, “God’s Table,” in the corner of the restaurant where almost everything is visible.
“Now they’re in heaven and there’s a broader palette of things to draw from and a bigger budget,” he said laughing with slightly teary eyes. “He wanted everybody to experience our culture, almost through his own eyes,” he said.
Jorge Cortez hired the company’s longest-standing employee of 54 years, Raul Salazar, who started working at Jamaica #5, the original restaurant that “gets lost in the story,” Pete Cortez said. It was a three-table food stall.
Salazar said he had been trying to get a job at the restaurant for weeks when he was finally hired on as a dishwasher. He never told anyone, but he had planned on moving to Chicago with his buddies that night he got the call for the job.
Jorge Cortez later asked what he wanted to do, and eventually promoted him to chef.
“He was my jefe, mi patron,” Salazar said. He describes working with Jorge Cortez almost his entire life, including 14 years with his father, Pedro Cortez.
In Spanish, Salazar said his boss’s biggest virtue was caring about helping his own and his staff’s families, including financially when he could. He helped Salazar get his own phone when he was undocumented, and eventually helped him purchase a home.
Salazar visited Cortez on his deathbed Monday to thank him for everything. What he didn’t expect was for Cortez to tell him, “Gracias por todo.”
“Back then, it wasn’t La Familia Cortez. It was Jorge. … Jorge levanto todo esto,” he said. “That gratitude he gave me the day before yesterday, I was so happy to see him alive still, even though it was the last time, but the words he told me [when he could hardly speak], it was all worth it.”
He’ll be one of the honorary pallbearers at Jorge Cortez’s funeral.
In the past two years, Jorge Cortez visited the restaurant less, but his legacy lives on. He curated the beautiful artwork inside the restaurant, including the American Dream mural that pays homage to more than 100 influential Latinos who made a difference through politics, arts and community service.
In a 2016 interview with the San Antonio Report, Jorge Cortez said the restaurant’s mission was not only to serve high-quality food, but to celebrate and promote the unique culture his parents brought from Guadalajara.
Jorge Cortez painted artwork, but never sold it, his son said. What inspired his artistic vision was visits to Mercados en Mexico with his father. It was the sounds, the smells, the people and the colors that inspired how he saw everyday life.
A U.S. Air Force Veteran, his family thought it was significant that he died on Veterans Day.
He grew up on San Antonio’s West Side, within a three-block radius from more influential San Antonians, like former mayor Henry Cisneros, Lionel Sosa, Hope Andrade and Alex Briseño. He graduated from Central Catholic High School and earned a business and marketing degree from St. Mary’s University.
In one of the several messages in Pete Cortez’s iPhone, a former employee of the company sent the family a message, sharing his condolences.
“To this day, I credit [Jorge] as a pivotal influence in my personal and professional growth. He was not just a mentor, but a beacon of light, guiding those around him to their fullest potential,” wrote Riccardo Charbel.
“He’ll live on for generations through the countless lives he influenced. … No one could make me laugh, frustrate me or show so much genuine care, all within a matter of minutes the way he could.”
Those who knew him better say he was a “dynamic personaje,” flamboyant, Pete Cortez said. He said his father was known for an earthy, orange smell everyone could smell as soon as he walked into the building. He was known for walking in, dancing to music playing in the kitchen, and for his impeccable attire; sometimes a guayabera or in his white mandir (apron), and his sombrero.
“He was small in size, but he was a giant. He was almost like a little pebble in a big lake, and the ripples are like tidal waves. He was just incredible,” he said.
Pete Cortez, who serves as chairman of the Alameda Theater Conservancy, said he wished his father would have lived long enough to witness the reopening of the historic theater, but the work will continue.
The family will host a celebration of life ceremony open to the public from 1 p.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday at Porter Loring Mortuary on McCullough Avenue.
Jorge Cortez will be buried wearing his white guayabera, his slacks, apron, his hat, famous cologne, and his chain which holds a palomita (white dove).
The following day, shuttle busses will transport visitors through La Zona Cultural for a funeral procession, starting at 9 a.m. passing through Mi Tierra and La Margarita, where employees will be waiting outside to see Jorge Cortez off.
Archbishop Gustavo Garcia-Siller will co-officiate the mass at the San Fernando Cathedral at 10 a.m. Wednesday. There will be mariachis, doves, then his ashes will be spread at the places he wanted to be.
In lieu of flowers, the family asks guests to consider making a donation to the Alameda Theater Conservancy.