Get Your Boots Shined at the San Angelo Rodeo

SAN ANGELO, TX — Ernie Cantu’s shoe shine booth is an institution at the San Angelo rodeo. The shoe shine guy for the stars said he has shined the boots worn by Tommy Lee Jones and Michelle Pfeiffer.

“I wouldn’t go to see them,” Cantu admits. So he has never met either star. “But I’ve shined their boots.”

Cantu is now in his 63rd year as a professional shoe shiner. He began his career at the age of eight in Amarillo: “10 cents for boots, 5 cents for shoes,” he said.

“I used to sell newspapers and I watched those guys shine shoes all day long at the bus station,” he said. The money they were making exceeded his newspaper cash and he wanted in on the action. He learned he had a talent for shining shoes then.

“I love to do it and that makes me keep on doing it,” Cantu said.

Cantu’s has two daughters. One daughter, now 26, received one of Cantu’s kidneys when she was in infant. The other daughter was in a bad auto crash three years ago and is still in a coma, he said. Tragedy hit Cantu hard. He spends much of his earnings helping his daughters.

“I’ll keep doing this until I can’t do it anymore,” Cantu said.