The
transmission of knowledge from father to son along five generations has
shaped the 150 years that the Armentas devoted to saddlery. An invoice
issued by Don Manuel González Armenta to the Exmo. Sr. Márquez
de Alcántara is the oldtest document that witnessed the origins
of the Armenta family. Said invoce, corresponds to the draft saddlery
performed by the workshop at El Conde 38, for the Exmo. Sr. Márquez,
amounted 1188 reales, 88 of which were written off by Don Manuel, as it
is stated in the document.
In this days, Don Manuel González Armenta mastered all spealities,
from saddlery to pack-saddle, collar and tack fitting. He would run his
business until 1877, when his son Don Enrique González Fernández,
who already worked in the workshop, took care of the family business until
1911. Don Enrique moved the workshop to som neighbour streets, Duque de
la Victoria, 39 and Tetuán 1.
After his dead, his widow and their sons undetook the business. It is
in this period when the Armenta family consolidates saddle fitting as
the speciality of the house, adcording
to a 1920 bill.
In 1921, one of Don Enrique's sons, Don Rafael González Fernández,
becomes in charge of the workshop. A third family generation appears an
runs the business until 1975. this is period of changes in which the Armenta
brand is created. From 1921 to 1955, the registered name of the company
is changed into Don Rafael González Fernández, and from
1955 until 1975, it becomes Vda. e Hijos de don Rafael González.
From 1930 onwards, farming orders become scarce, due to the increasing
mechanisation of field work. At this point, the Armentas decide to make
saddlery their main business, giving up some other jobs and focusing on
saddle fitting, especially on harnesing nad on vaquera saddles (which
ar pecualiar to Andalusia).
The determination, taken by don Rafael González saved the company
and allowed the Armenta family to continue to be present in the sector.
By this period, all saddlery workshops in Ecija had disappeared, because
most of them depended on farming or draft orders. Already in 1940 , the
only saddlery workshop that remained open is the Armentas', still located
in Duque de la Victoria 38 and Tetuan 1. Their professionalism and expertise
made Armenta saddles gained a great deal of prestige in a very short time.
That is when Don Rafael González Fernández created the Armenta
registered trademark, as we can verify from a 1942 bill, whose headed
paper reads "Guarnicionería Armenta - Casa Fundada en 1850"
(Armenta Saddlery - Establihed in 1850)
In
1995, at the death of Don Rafael González, the family business is
managed by his widow, Doña Carmen Sánchez Araujo,and their
sons, Enrique, Rafael And Luis, who are the 4 th generation of saddlers
in the family. When doña Carmen dies, it is her youngest son, Luis
González Sánchez, who will manage the company. This is magnificient
period because Armenta products reach national and international consolidation.
Enthusiasm for horses is growing, so there is a considerable increase in
the demand for horse related articles.Don Luis González decides to update his workshop, so taht these new demands could be met.
As time passed, this modernisation turned out to be insufficient, and tah led to the creation of a new company in 1987, Sayra Armenta, created by Don Rafael González Martín, Don Luis González's son. A fifth generation of Armenta saddlers is born.