About Us

In the 1940’s Jose Oscar  Alvarez, Sr. at the tender age of 19 was offered a dispatcher job working for  Mr. John Spindel in his U.S. Customs brokerage house, American Customs Brokers Co. in Laredo, Texas. Oscar moved up the ranks and became the office manager of American Brokers. Soon there after, Oscar was called upon to do his duty in World War II. As an active infantry man, Oscar knew the only way to move up was to work hard.

After his stint in the Army, Oscar  went back to American Brokers only to find Mr. Spindel in poor health. After a few years of deteriorating health, Mr. Spindel  offered Oscar to take over the business. Oscar then studied, took and passed his U.S. Customs Broker exam.

In 1957 The J.O. Alvarez, Co was established. At that time there were only a handful of U.S. Customs Brokers in Laredo. Cotton and fruits were the main commodities that Oscar handled in those early days. Soon after learning of his hard work ethic and integrity; clients flocked to the J.O. Alvarez, Co. for importing assistance. His charm and humor attracted the attention of customs officials, Mexican customs brokers and transportation executives. Before he knew it, Oscar had formed long lasting, true friendships and important alliances.

The 1960’s brought forth new regulations which fostered better relations with our neighbors to the south. Large corporations were looking at the Laredo border to find competent brokers who could help initialize international trade with Mexico. As an example, one of those who sought the J.O. Alvarez, Co was General Motors. To this day, the largest automobile company in the world.  American Motors followed and along with that, many of the automobile company’s suppliers. At that time, PEMEX, Mexico’s governmentally owned petroleum institution, taped J.O. Alvarez’s expertise which started a successful south bound business . These world class establishments helped exemplify the world class service mentality which J.O. Alvarez, Inc. continues to have today.

In 1970 Roberto Garza-Gongora, Oscar Sr.’s son-in-law joined the business and received his U.S. Customs broker license. In 1973 J.O. Alvarez, Jr. received his license and joined the ranks. In 1978 Sergio Alvarez received his U.S. Customs brokers License and soon moved to McAllen, Texas to manage J.O. Alvarez, Inc.’s second location. In 1982 Eddie Alvarez graduated from The University of Houston

and joined the corporation.

In 1982, during the great peso devaluation, J.O. Alvarez, Inc. moved from their small and outdated installations into a state of the art facility on the Tex-Mex rail line. This large office with a 30,000 sq.ft. warehouse was indeed a catalyst to offer customers more services which luckily brought in more business; much to the astonishment of J.O. Alvarez, Sr. who never dreamed of filling up his big warehouse. The warehouse has grown to over 150,000sq.ft.with plans to open up an even larger facility. Up to now, there are still customers and employees who are still with us after 50 years or continued service..