By Robert Medley
Managing Editor
On Friday, Nov. 19, a new small business opened in Okarche.
Meraki SkinSpa,118 N. Main, is offering a wide range of services from full body waxing and sugaring to massage sessions, to facials and makeup and special occasion hairstyles.
The day of the grand opening and open house owner Ana Barcenas announced she is offering prepackaged services at a discounted price along with a discount on all SkinCeuticals Skincare products.
“I also invited Gordo’s Authentic Mexican Food Truck to help me by offering delicious food to all the people that came to my event, and to the town as well. Needless to say, it was all a huge success,” Barcenas said.
“I would like to send out a huge thank you to everyone who came out. Also thank you for all of the text messages and voicemails from everyone who wasn’t able to make it. I felt the love and support from all directions and was surprised by others. It made me realize that our town is excited to have a spa business in town,” Barcenas said.
Barcenas moved to Okarche in 1993 with her family when she was a month shy from her ninth birthday, and she knew no English.
She is the oldest of five children. Her father Ignacio Trujillo risked his own legal residency to cross her and her younger brother over at that time, she said. Father Leven, whom was the priest at the time at Holy Trinity Catholic School, welcomed the family to Catholic school. Ana was in fourth grade, and her younger brother Ignacio was in third grade at the time. They graduated from Holy Trinity and went on to Okarche High School. The rest of her siblings followed in her footsteps. Her parents’ goal was to get their legalization straight, so that they could take on more opportunities as life presented them. Life was very, very tough growing up, there were many things that they grew up without, but the family always had a roof over their head and food on the table even if that meant only beans and rice and salsa sometimes, she said.
Barcenas graduated from massage therapy school in 2003 and continued with cosmetology school until she graduated in 2004.
Because of her double certification and license she was one of the students who actually had a job lined up before she graduated. The staff all knew her very well, she said, so, she got her first job through recommendations.
In 2008, she started working on her own in Kingfisher at different locations as the years went on. She was previously with Studio 201 Salón and Spa for 11 years. She also worked at TrailCreek Wellness Clinic for 18 months until the pandemic hit.
“I truly love and enjoy what I do,” Barcenas said.
“To this day I can’t help but to be thankful for my parents for everything that they have done for me and my younger siblings. But I’m also so grateful to have been raised in this small community. I grew up being surrounded by teachers and kids my age that had determination, ambition, dreams, and work ethic. My peers, were so, so competitive academically as well as in sports and everything else they did. They all helped me mold into the person that I have become today,” Barcenas said.
For more information visit the website, https://www.merakiskinspa.com/
