Cristina Martinez grew up on the South Side of San Antonio, the daughter of immigrant parents, with Spanish as her first language and the streets of her neighborhood as her first classroom. She did not set out to open a shop. She set out to say something true. In 2013, she said it with a name: Very That.

A Name Rooted in Pride

The name itself is a declaration. "Very That came from a place of pride," Cristina has said. "Very That is derived from a queer term. I had a best friend who was a drag queen here and 'very that' was a term around drag bars at the time." She took a phrase rooted in joy and courage and made it the name of a shop celebrating who she is and where she comes from. That combination of South Side San Antonio, Chicana culture, and unashamed identity is the thread running through every item she makes.

Walk into Very That today and you will find stickers, Fiesta Medals, earrings, necklaces, keychains, mugs, tumblers, cutting boards, wooden signs, vinyl decals, candles, and coasters. The pieces are not mass-produced. Each one carries Cristina Martinez's design, her voice, her sense of what it means to be from here. The Shop by Dicho collections celebrate Chicana identity and South Side pride in the kind of plain language that her customers recognize immediately, because they feel it too.

Finding a Home at Painted Tree

The shop now lives at Painted Tree Boutiques San Antonio, Space A9, open daily from ten in the morning to eight at night. Getting there was not a straight line. Before this location, Very That had a home at Pica Pica Market on Southeast Military Drive, a mercado-inspired space that Cristina credits with saving her business at a critical moment. She saw the post about an open space at Pica Pica Market, responded immediately, and had the keys by the end of the day. She has said that Pica Pica Plaza saved her business and a part of her heart. That kind of connection between a small business and the place that gives it room to grow is something the South Side understands well.

Cristina also writes a blog that she calls love letters to the South Side. "I write these love letters to the South Side with my Very That blog," she has said. "The beautiful and the ugly. It is important for us to accept the whole of ourselves, not just when we are winning." That honesty is part of what makes Very That more than a shop. It is an ongoing conversation between one woman and her neighborhood, kept alive through earrings and stickers and words that do not pretend the South Side is anything other than what it is.

The South Side in Every Piece

She has described the South Side the way someone describes a place they would never leave by choice. "The South Side is like this beautiful cactus," she has said. "We are going to survive in all seasons, the heat, the cold, ice, rain. We are made up of so many beautiful people that are resilient." That is not a marketing line. That is a worldview, and it shapes every item that leaves her hands.

For San Antonio families who want to give a gift that says something true about this city and this culture, Very That offers that. A mug with a South Side dicho. An earring made by someone who grew up speaking Spanish with her mother. A keychain that carries pride without apology. These are the kinds of things that you cannot find in a chain store, because they come from a specific place and a specific person and a specific story. Cristina still lives in the home she grew up in, and that rootedness shows in every collection she builds.

Online orders are also available through her website, shipping in three to seven business days through USPS, so you can find her work even if you are not near the Painted Tree Boutiques location. There is also a second storefront in Austin at Painted Tree Boutiques Austin, Space D7, for neighbors who travel.

But the heart of Very That is still San Antonio. It was born here, on the South Side, from an immigrant family's daughter who decided that her culture deserved its own store. More than a decade later, that decision is still paying off. Thirteen years in and the shop is still growing, still adding new collections and new dichos, still finding new families who recognize something of themselves in what Cristina makes. One South Side-made piece at a time.

Check out Very That at Painted Tree Boutiques San Antonio, Space A9, and find a piece of South Side San Antonio to bring home.