SAN ANTONIO – A San Antonio man who faced death three times in his life is sharing his love for his city while also sharing his story behind the “Show Me Your Shoes” tradition during Fiesta.
Joel Herrera is a boat driver for the Go Rio Crews on the San Antonio River Walk.
He said working this job has been a dream come true.
“I have to give love to Bill Lyons and the Lyons family,” he said. “I was walking on that bridge, and I told him I wanted to drive one of those boats. Here I am today after being hired on my birthday, June 13, 1989.”
Herrera is both a boat guide and a storyteller, but more importantly, he’s a strong advocate for introducing people to the city he calls home.
“This is going to be my resting place,” he said. “I am going to be here. I love everybody here. It is so beautiful.”
He says nobody knows that one of his favorite memories is how the phrase “Show me your shoes” started.
He said it was actually a conversation between him and his mother that kicked off its popularity while they were at a Fiesta parade.
“It was years ago on old-school Broadway,” Herrera said. “I just came back from a booth with a beer, and my Ma and I were watching all of these girls go by on floats. My mom was like, ‘I wonder what these girlies are wearing on their feet.’ So I looked up and I screamed at one of the girls, ‘Show me your shoes!’ At first they were like, ‘What?’ Then another float went by and I said it again, ‘Show me your shoes.’
After a brief moment of confusion, Herrera said it started to catch on when the girls started showing their shoes underneath their beautiful dresses.
“It was my family, and next to my family was another family that had been going for years,” he said. “Then they started to say it. Then kids started to scream it. ‘Show me your shoes! Show me your shoes!’ It caught on so quickly. Even Nancy Gonzalez, who was a reporter at the time, was reporting and came to me and asked, ‘What are you saying?’ And I told her, ‘show me your shoes.’”
He said after that day, the rest is history.
“Next year, there were signs,” he said. “I looked at my mom and was like, ‘Are you serious?’ This area we were at, we camped out for years. There goes Joel saying, ‘show me your shoes,’ and now everybody and their mama says it.”
He said even though he knows there are others out there who claim they were the ones who started the ‘show me your shoes’ tradition, he humbly knows the real truth.
“I sit there and I laugh and giggle anytime I hear someone say it,” he laughed. “Little do they know. Little do they know. It was me on one beer. One beer, San Antonio. Now everyone says it. I say, ‘I did that.’ But people are like, ‘Nah.’ I did it. It was me San Antonio. I started it. Sorry,” he laughed.
In his life, Herrera had a gun pulled on him while a store was being robbed, he got in a real bad motorcycle crash in 2012 that left his body full of titanium rods, and most recently, he was diagnosed with cancer.
But, with his love for his city and its traditions, as well as his support and love from his wife, Susie Herrera, he continues to smile and make others smile.
“There is a reason God has kept me around,” he said. “I went through all of that, and I am still here. All of that changed me, and I am here today.”
At age 55, Herrera is now in remission and still proudly does his boat tours on the River Walk.
He hopes that when you hear the phrase, “Show me your shoes,” and when you see the Riverwalk’s beauty, his resilience reminds you to do the very thing he asks tourists to do at the end of each of his rides.”
“Stay groovy and be kind to one another,” he said. “It was getting back to doing this that helped me fight through all of my struggles. That first boat ride back on the water after going through cancer in the hospital, I was on cloud nine,” he said as he got emotional. “I was floating on water but on air. It was awesome. That was the feeling when I came back. I beat it.”
