STOCKTON, Calif. — A palace lies in downtown Stockton. Well, actually it's the Marble Palace at 711 S. San Joaquin Street.
The company boasts it's the largest fabricator of natural and engineered stone products for kitchens and bathrooms in Northern California.
"It's nice to be able to work with somebody by the time they walk in where there are so many different options to choose to put in their home," said Maria Rangel-Barba, Vice President of Sales and Marketing.
It's her brother Gil who purchased the business in 2001 at the age of 25.
"He got into this business when he was 18 years old, working for a cultured marble company, and by the time he was 25 he knew everything that he needed to know as far as the field," Rangel-Barba said.
Rangel-Barba and her brother are children of farmworkers who emigrated from Mexico. Her parents picked fruit and vegetables all around San Joaquin County. Her mom and dad also instilled the message of hard work and another critical one not forgotten.
"If you don't want to do what we're doing, you guys need to go to school, get an education, start a business," Rangel-Barba said of her parents’ advice.
Today, that business has grown to 66,000 square feet and spans more than five acres. Their inventory includes thousands of slabs of quartz, quartzite, granite, and more. The stone is polished, cleaned and cut to size.
To fabricate pieces, no tape measures are needed here. Instead, everything is measured with lasers, on the job site. And, then the measurements are brought to the business and robots are used to cut.
"It's easier and it's faster and it's foolproof because it is down to millimeters," said Art Mejorado, Robot Manager for Marble Palace.
In 2018, Marble Palace was recognized as the Central Valley Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Business of the Year.
They continually try to be cutting edge with new products while never forgetting their Hispanic roots.
"It does have a little bit more meaning because everything that we have is because of the hard work," Rangel-Barba said.
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