Mom Next Door / Mari Hidalgo King

real moms.

RÉSUMÉ

HAILS FROM Dallas LIVES IN Oak Cliff ALMA MATER Texas A&M University and Parsons School of Design CURRENT OCCUPATION Visual Director at Neighborhood Goods FORMER OCCUPATION Fashion Stylist DREAM JOB AS A CHILD A singer SIGNIFICANT OTHER Joshua King, Co-Founder and Executive Director of AURORA, a multifaceted arts platform OFFSPRING Javier, 4

mom next door / MARI HIDALGO KING mama with a vision

Mari Hidalgo King and husband Joshua are raising their son Javier to value his Puerto Rican heritage.

MANY OF US HAVE PRETTY SPECIFIC DREAMS for our kiddos. Yes, we ultimately want them to be happy—still, maybe we really want them to attend this school, go into this career field and so on. Mari Hidalgo King also has a clear vision for her son’s future, but it’s about life’s basic virtues. The rest is up to him. “Being a parent, it’s about what you think a good person should be,” the Oak Cliff mom reflects. “It’s a constant instruction, making sure you build a really wonderful human for the sake of themselves and everybody around them.”

King also values imagination and creativity. She and husband Joshua are in creative professions—she is visual director of Neighborhood Goods, a store with locations in Plano, Austin and New York, while he co-founded a Dallas-based arts platform—so they’re especially suited to fostering that sensibility in 4-year-old Javier. It’s all about helping him find his own voice and path in a world where uniformity often reigns.

ACCEPTING NEW PATIENTS SH 121N

Creativity seems to permeate your life and per- How do you and Josh foster creativity in your

sonality. What were some of your earliest memories son, Javier? Since he’s so young, what we’re trying of exercising creativity and playing imaginatively? to do is with any little moment, let it be creative. We grew up in the Barbie era, right? So, I remem- Josh will just work right alongside him. If we have ber one weekend my mom was out of town. My the tool over here that we’re using, we’ll give him father was watching me. We both enjoyed the the same tools to use over there. Javi has his own silence in the house, and we just sat doing our notebooks and his own paper, and then we’ll be own things all day. I chose to just play with dolls doing our creative exercise and he’ll be doing his. and a dollhouse all day. Then it was dinner time, Or he might come and join our paper. Joshua has and I couldn’t stand up because my legs were a beautiful piece that’s like “father and son.” [It’s numb. I didn’t even use the restroom that day. from] very early on; Javi is doodling on his work. I didn’t do anything. My father’s a doctor, and I was wanting to do some ceramics, so I he just panicked. He was like, “What is bought some clay. I’m very tactile and was wrong?” He scooped me up, rushed just trying to have him just use his me to the hospital, got X-rays. And hands. We cook a lot together. So then slowly but surely, of course, that’s a lot of creative play for us. my legs started working again. One of the big rules I like is letting They just needed to move. them get dirty and letting them just

I love to sit and play and use enjoy being dirty in a creative manmy imagination. I grew up just ner and in a free manner, and havmaking videos with friends and ing him hear his own voice. I think having our own pageants. Imagina- that’s the nexus of creativity—being tive play started really able to hear your own early for me. Tell us about your experience working in “I THINK voice and follow that path. We’ve been doing a lot of Montessori, and I the fashion industry in New York and why THAT’S THE love that method. How did you make you decided to leave. I interned with Proenza NEXUS OF the transition from fashion stylist to visual Schouler. I worked with Donna Karan Collection as assistant to the senior director of sales. Then I worked with a CREATIVITY— BEING ABLE director? I worked [in a freelance capacity] for Neighborhood Goods to open their first store in Legacy West. I was startup downtown New York designer for two TO HEAR brought in by my good friend, Marisa Dukowand some years. After that I was freelancing, YOUR OWN itz, who is a brilliant designer and store spatial and they were renovating our apartment in Brooklyn, so we had to move. I was down [in Dallas] for a holiday and VOICE AND FOLLOW THAT designer. They ended up smartly hiring Marisa, and then she needed a visual store component and reached out to me started getting styling work, because I posted PATH.” for that. I’ve always styled a that I was in Dallas on lot of interiors, and the Model Mayhem. A pho- past two or three years of tographer reached out for the cover of a magazine my 12+ years styling, it’s been a big portion of my shoot. I jumped on it and then found an agency work. I think having that experience in all those down here and it just felt good. It felt like I’d still different shapes and forms and different products be doing creative work. and different uses, the hope is that I can inform

What has kept you in Dallas? Truthfully, the this space with that skillset. art community and the Cedars [neighborhood] What I love about Neighborhood Goods is and the photo industry—it just was so much fun, the openness to experimentation in terms of not honestly, and it was so dynamic that there was no having the norms. It’s a ton of work, but it’s really need or want for more. I felt really full. I have my invigorating. I love my “mind views” and play and house in Oak Cliff. I have my studio in the back, all the future planning and quick solving and all and I was working on my own clothing line. It the different materials I work with and need to sort of checked all the boxes, unbeknownst to know. It was a fortunate turn of events that began me. And then a really great friend turned into my last May [2019]. life partner. It seems like a natural transition. It was really

How did you meet Josh? We actually met on a nice fit. I’m thankful for it. And I’m excited to set. He was a photo assistant to a great photogra- see what we can continue to learn, how we can pher, Cindy James, and I was a stylist. So we were evolve, what we can push ourselves [toward] in working together on jobs. the market to re-experiencing retail. And truly,

because I really love our brands—our products are a lot of small companies that really have worked hard to create a smart, thoughtful, responsible product and at a very competitive price point—we don’t really want to make it exclusive, but we do want to make it feel elevated.

What had it been like to be part of a retail business during COVID-19?

A lot of work. It is reactive, which makes for a lot of short timetables. And you just have to stay limber. What I like is that we’re all hypersensitive to safety, and our stores are really spacious and we like to keep it clean. We’ve always tried to follow a model where it’s not super cluttered. It is shoppable. So all those things lend well to this moment.

Your Puerto Rican ancestry is very important to you. What are some of

the ways that you teach Javier about his heritage? Being Puerto Rican, we speak a lot of our language, experiencing heritage through words and also through food and music. Music is big in our house. And it’s not just kids music, it’s Latin music I love. We have drums, congas and djembes. So I just try to make sure that he has a little bit of rhythm.

What was cool is our homeschool teacher—in Hispanic Heritage Month, she spoke of Sonia Sotomayor and she spoke of [the artist] Basquiat, who are Puerto Ricaños. And so when we were somewhere and I saw the flag, I [would say to Javier], “Hey, that’s the Puerto Rican flag, and that’s what you are, and that’s what Sonia Sotomayor is, and that’s what Basquiat is.” So we’re trying to build that little web. And abuelo and abuela are his grandparents. They are amazing at speaking Spanish constantly to him.

Was it important for you to raise your son around his grandparents?

Yeah, very much. My father is his pediatrician, so they’re going to be around each other that way too. They’ve always wanted to have that extra time with the grandkids. They’ve always really valued it, and that’s taught me that it’s valuable.

When I was in New York, my brother had his first child, and I got on a flight within three hours with no luggage because I was like, My brother just had his first. What am I doing in New York? This is not where I need to be right now. And when I turned 25 and was in New York, working in high-end fashion, I thought, Well, I don’t know if I’m ever going to have kids, but I do know I have two amazing parents who have given me a lot of opportunity. So I wanted to start in something that I am able to save and able to work towards if they ever need help.

After you had Javier, did you ever struggle with the idea of going back to work, or did you always know that you wanted to be a working mom?

It was always in my brain that I wanted to work. I enjoy working very much. But it’s just that constant push-pull. I feel like I’m a better mom because I work, but I absolutely miss moments. Then there’s the silver lining of this moment of the pandemic. I feel like I get to know my son so much more, even though four days out of the week, he has care. It still makes all of us better.

We’re homeschooling; we “podded” with another family. We had to write our own contract, figure it all out with another family, and essentially dedicate nearly two months to a bunch of interviews and a lot of time to it. But that reinvention and that pivoting—it feels really good. And it’s a dance for sure; it’s tricky, but it was before too.

That’s true. It wasn’t an easy balance before; it’s just a different type

of hard. I’m going to quote my accountant, Rachel Stas. She said that everything is the same, but you just have to cut through an ambient anxiety right now that makes it all just a little bit harder. So yeah, it’s all operating differently.

But thankfully, our store’s doing well. People are happy. We’re keeping people safe. Everyone has a nice awareness about it. I think everyone is getting in step, but we’ll see. Every moment, every day, just try to do your best. And then the rest will figure itself out.

What is the most important lesson that you want impart on Javier? I would say being able to listen to his inner voice, and to make sure that that inner voice is kind and compassionate and thoughtful about others. I also want him to be assured in his own vision. I think it’s like, “Go, honey—I want you to go as fast as you can, as hard as you want, but you always have to be mindful of others.” I want him to have respect, manners, and to hopefully better the world in some way.

1DESIGNERS OF CHOICE

COMME DES GARÇONS IS BY AND LARGE MY ALL-TIME FAVORITE. THEN IF YOU COME DOWN JUST A LITTLE BIT MORE TO REALITY, THERE’S AN AUSTRALIAN DESIGNER THAT I REALLY ENJOY—HER NAME IS KAREN WALKER.

IN STYLE mari hidalgo king’s fashionable faves

INTERVIEW HEATHER VANCE DEVERS

2DALLAS’ HIDDEN GEM g “AURORA Area 3, the drive-thru parking garage art exhibition that opened in October in downtown Dallas. Area 3 has a special place in my heart because of my deep love for AURORA, having worked the event for over a decade. I’m really proud of the team, especially my husband, for pivoting so well to bring this much-needed injection of art to Dallas during the pandemic. I highly recommend families, masked friends and even company holiday parties take advantage of this transporting new media exhibition. And you can feel good that you did because the financial model is structured to split proceeds between artists, vendors and AURORA.” AURORA AREA

3 // 1600 Commerce St., Dallas; area3.site (Open through Jan. 1)

GO-TO FOR GETTING INSPIRED

4

“Traveling really helps. I like walking busy metropolitan streets in other countries just to see how they’re living.”

3FAVORITE

‘‘EL JORDAN CAFÉ IS A MEXICAN DINER WITH THE BEST BREAKFAST TACOS AND COMFORT RESTAURANT HOME-COOKING THAT NEVER DISAPPOINTS. I LOVE ALL THE WAYS I CAN GET MY EGG-FIX HERE, AND THE SERVICE IS FAMILY‘‘ ORIENTED. HAVING EATEN THERE FOR OVER A DECADE, WE CONSIDER THEM FAMILY AS WELL! EL JORDAN CAFÉ // 416 N. Bishop Ave.,

Dallas; 214/941-4451

WHERE TO

FIND FAMILY

ADVENTURE

5“On a drive. We have ‘Ms. Cushy,’ our ’06 Land Cruiser that we just bought from a family in Lubbock. Low miles. So we are going to go offroading and try to find a little nature—random nature.”

6BEAUTY SECRETS g “I’m trying new products at Neighborhood Goods. I am loving a local favorite called Colleen Rothschild. She has this No. 9 Face Oil, which is transformative. I’ve had it for a couple of weeks and I’m just re ally in awe. I also have a cream face wash that I have used for six years; I got it on our honeymoon in Germany. It’s Primavera’s Revitalizing Cream Cleanser.”COLLEEN ROTHSCHILD FACE OIL N°9 // neighborhoodgoods.com PRIMAVERA REVITALIZING

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a tuesday in the life of

HEATHER

EMMANUEL ORMAND

6AM Jason and I are up. We chug a cup Heather Emmanuel Ormand is CEO of Nexus Recovery Center—a women’s addiction treatment facility in East Dallas. She’s an inspiration to those she serves, in recovery herself for nearly a decade. Ormand and husband Jason—a stayat-home dad taking real estate appraisal classes— live in Rockwall with their children Hannah, 4, and Levi, 18 months. Their dog Gatsby rounds out the family. of coffee each, then Jason leaves to walk Gatsby, our elderly Wheaten terrier. Meanwhile, I spend some quiet time showering and getting ready for the day. 7:15AM Time to wake up Hannah and Levi, right after chugging our second cups of coffee. Hannah is notoriously slow to wake up and loves to spend time cuddling with Mommy while she does so. She’s a beast to get dressed in the morning. Since she was 2, Hannah has resisted the uniform she wears to her Montessori school—khaki jumpers or pants. At least 15 minutes are spent choosing some sort of flashy leggings to wear under her “boring” jumper to reflect her personal style. Also, Hannah has beautiful, naturally curly hair, so I have to spend time detangling it. We accessorize with a headband or quickly do a braid. 7:30AM Levi wakes up happy. The first words out of his mouth are usually either “car” or “ball.” He’s ready to play the minute his little feet hit the floor! Both kids eat breakfast, typically yogurt and cinnamon rolls. We get Levi dressed and they are all out the door. Jason takes the kids to their school, less than a mile away, while I head off to work for the day. Everyone is out of the house by 8am—on a good day! 8AM My commute is only 25 minutes long and it’s spent either talking on the phone to my mom or girlfriends or listening to a podcast. I’m currently listening to Brené Brown’s Dare to Lead podcast on Spotify. I worship at the altar of Brené. If she told me to step into traffic because I’d be a better human as a result, I’d do it immediately. She’s my north star when it comes to showing up for those I love, and she helps me lead in a brave way. 8:30AM I have the best time walking into work because I get to pass our clients, say good morning and tell them to have a great day. I also run into a lot of staff members and get to strike up quick conversations. I am often late for whatever is on my calendar first thing for the day because of it—but I love these interactions, so it’s worth it. 9AM The workday is mostly filled with Zoom meetings, phone calls and strategizing on how we make the company even better. I recently shifted my desk to face my door, which is almost always open. I try as best I can to catch people in the hall and say hi. Relationships with our staff are so important to me while I’m still building trust and accountability with them. I’ve only been with the company since the summer, so it’s a work in progress. On my best days, I’m able to walk around the center’s main campus and learn about any treatment modalities or programs that I haven’t dug into yet. I get to witness clients interacting with one another and their counselors. I usually get stopped several times to talk through questions or maintenance issues that pop up daily on the aging campus. I love that people are comfortable coming to me and trust that I’ll do my best to fix whatever it is that’s concerning them. 4:30PM I try to plan out the next day before I head home at 5pm. 5PM My drive home is also spent on phone calls, but these are usually finishing up things from the day at Nexus. I made a commitment to Jason before accepting the role that I would do my best to be home and present as many nights as possible and leave work at work. It’s an ongoing process, but it’s worth it for my family. 6PM I’m home! The kids and I usually play outside for half an hour (weather permitting) while Jason finishes cooking dinner. Today we settle for the playroom and head upstairs. 6:30PM Dinner is served. 7:30PM Bath and bedtime is my favorite time with the kids. Levi is still small enough that he enjoys being rocked and read to before bed. I get to hold him, read Goodnight Moon for the

the fine print

WHAT SHE’S WATCHING Ted Lasso on Apple TV+ (because Brené Brown said to, and it’s amazing) FAVORITE INDULGENCE Any and all skincare products. Currently loving Naturopathica. FIRST CELEBRITY CRUSH Jordan Knight from New Kids on the Block FAVORITE DATE NIGHT SPOT Alamo Drafthouse (I’m missing movies!) GUARANTEED TO MAKE HER LAUGH My husband GUARANTEED TO MAKE HER CRY My husband BEVERAGE OF CHOICE Coffee, coffee and more coffee GO-TO RECIPE Jason does the cooking, and I love him for it. FAVORITE APP My calendar app FAVORITE PODCAST It’s a tie between Dare to Lead and Armchair Experts BEAUTY PRODUCT SHE CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT Grand Lash Serum FAVORITE SCENT Tom Ford Café Rose BEST PURCHASE EVER Hatch sound machine for better sleep NO. 1 ITEM ON HER BUCKET LIST To take Hannah to Paris WORDS SHE LIVES BY Not my pig, not my farm.

10,000th time and put him down to sleep. Hannah likes to read to us versus the other way around. At 4 years old, she’s not quite able to read storybooks but has a very active imagination. Her “reading to us” is just her coming up with stories to match the pictures in her favorite books. Ideally, both kids are asleep by 8:30pm. 8:30PM Jason and I clean the kitchen together. One of us will walk the dog before bed, and then it’s lights out pretty early. Everything in our family is a team effort—it’s just how we roll. We try to end the day by talking about three things we’re both grateful for. It makes falling asleep that much better.