  We study the mass spectrum of the quark sector in an special type I-like
model with gauge symmetry $SU(3)_c \otimes SU(3)_L \otimes U(1)_X$. By
considering couplings with scalar triplets at large ($\sim TeV$) and small
($\sim GeV$) scales, we obtain specific zero-texture mass matrices for the
quarks which predict three massless quarks ($u,d,s$) and three massive quarks
($c,b,t$) at the electroweak scale ($\sim$ GeV). Taking into account mixing
couplings with three heavy quarks at large scales predicted by the model, the
three massless quarks obtain masses at small order that depends on the inverse
of the large scale. Thus, masses of the form $m_u \lesssim m_d < m_s \sim MeV$
and $ m_{c,b,t} \sim GeV$ can be obtained naturally from the gauge structure of
the model.
