{"id":25522,"date":"2025-10-29T19:09:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-29T19:09:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/25522\/"},"modified":"2025-10-29T19:09:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-29T19:09:10","slug":"truco-or-treat-miamis-oldest-costume-shop-sells-halloween-magic-for-over-50-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/25522\/","title":{"rendered":"Truco or Treat: Miami\u2019s oldest costume shop sells Halloween magic for over 50 years"},"content":{"rendered":"

The last time Jorge Torres wore a Halloween costume, he was six years old and he was Steve Austin, aka \u201cThe Six Million Dollar Man\u201d from the 1970s cult TV show of the same name.<\/p>\n

He has not celebrated the holiday since 2007, when he became the head manager of a costume shop in Little Havana, and has since worn the same costume every year: that of a cashier.<\/p>\n

Casa de Los Trucos, or House of Tricks, is a family-owned store in Calle Ocho that sells a wide range of costumes, decorations, theatrical makeup and pranks. It\u2019s been a go-to Halloween stop in Miami for over 50 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen it first started, it was a wooden house on cinderblocks, so it kinda reminded me of the house from\u00a0The Wizard of Oz,\u201d Torres said. \u201c\u200aSo we were lucky that we didn\u2019t get any hurricanes at that time because we would\u2019ve been screaming for Toto!\u201d<\/p>\n

A shop with the same name existed in Habana Vieja, or Old Havana, in Cuba. After Torres\u2019 dad emigrated to the U.S. in 1959 under Operation Peter Pan, he decided to bring the store with him and Miami\u2019s Casa de Los Trucos opened its doors in 1972.<\/p>\n

Inside the shop, customers browse through narrow walkways and find themselves surrounded by hundreds of options for their holiday dress-up. There are multiple computers along the glass showcases with a catalog of over 15,000 styles of costumes.<\/p>\n

\"FamiliesValentina Sandoval\/WLRN; Families browse through the store\u2019s 15,000-costume catalog on Oct. 21, 2025.<\/p>\n

Torres said they get customers looking for getups for Thanksgiving, Christmas, Valentine\u2019s Day, heritage months and even Election Day, but the store is open year-round. Among his regulars are local cops and firefighters who buy trick toys and gadgets to play pranks on each other.<\/p>\n

To order the costumes ahead of the holidays \u2014 and he starts as soon as the day after Halloween \u2014 Torres tries to keep up with pop culture and trends to know what people will look for next year. This year\u2019s number one costumes are from the Netflix hit movie\u00a0K-Pop Demon Hunters.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u200aNow, I have not seen the movie because I\u2019m not a 10-year-old girl, but it\u2019s very popular,\u201d he said. \u201cI mean, (lead characters) Rumi, Mira and Zoe \u2014 I don\u2019t know how I know those names, but we have those costumes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those names were on the minds of a group of kids, parents and teachers from a local school who walked through the store on a recent morning. They were looking for costumes for the school\u2019s Halloween dance and called for each other across the store looking for their \u201cDemon Hunter\u201d outfits.<\/p>\n

Nine-year-old Monique Hamilton was among those asking her mom for help finding the right Rumi costume. \u201cMe and my friend are going to dress as the same character, but in different outfits,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Lines around the block<\/p>\n

On the weeks leading up to Halloween, customers fill up the store searching for the right ensemble \u2014 but many tend to leave their shopping until the last minute. Inevitably, their busiest days of the year are Oct. 30 and 31.<\/p>\n

Miami locals like 13-year-old Maria Perez know the best window of time to visit the store. \u201c\u200aI think that two years ago the line was wrapping around the whole block, like [on] Halloween,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Looking for a good outfit to be Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie from\u00a0My Little Pony, Perez brought her friend Amanda Mendoza.<\/p>\n

Regardless of the time of year, she loves to browse the shop with friends and family. She used to do theatre and visit the store for costumes and makeup all the time, but Halloween has a more special meaning for her.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u200aI just really like that you can be yourself,\u201d Perez said. \u201cLike you can dress up as anything you want, you can express yourself without anyone being able to say anything about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AValentina Sandoval\/WLRN; A wall display of pranks and tricks at Casa de los Trucos on Oct. 21, 2025.<\/p>\n

Jorge Torres also enjoys the artistic expression and humorous costumes that come from Halloween. His favorite costume this year is the \u201cBaby in High Chair,\u201d which has the person\u2019s body as the high chair and foam baby arms that can be moved with sticks.<\/p>\n

Torres shows people the different jokes and pranks around the store with excitement to see their reaction to cockroaches under donuts and exploding Coca-Cola cans.<\/p>\n

The trickster side of the store reminds him of his dad, who loved to prank people with fake explosion sounds in cars or fake winner lottery tickets.<\/p>\n

After his dad\u2019s death in 2002, Torres\u2019 mom, Carmen Torres, took over as the store owner and he took the role of head manager. As he continues his dad\u2019s legacy, Jorge Torres\u2019 favorite part is seeing new and old generations bond over their love for the shop.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe see people across generations,\u201d he said. \u201cWe got people here that come in and say we were kids and then they come back and now they\u2019re bringing their grandkids. That\u2019s so cool.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The last time Jorge Torres wore a Halloween costume, he was six years old and he was Steve…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25523,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[225,227,226],"class_list":{"0":"post-25522","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-hialeah","8":"tag-hialeah","9":"tag-hialeah-headlines","10":"tag-hialeah-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25522","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25522"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25522\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}