Adding to basket
On the way to the community you can see different landscapes formed by the sugar cane plantations, the trees on the hills, and the quarries where people from the community work extracting sand, stones, gravel and clay.
Eight hardworking, responsible, and honest people from the community came together to form the "San José" group, named after their community.
The group members are:
Guadalupe, Margarita, Irene, Guillermina, Pascuala – Who raise and sell pigs.
Rutilo – Who sells groceries and sandwiches.
Felipe – Who grows and sells corn.
Susana – Who sells groceries.
Don Rutilo's nickname is "Tilo". He has formed a family together with Hermenegilda, with whom she has five children; only one depends on them. Tilo has been working for ten years, selling chicken, beef and pork milanesa sandwiches in different communities. In order to fulfill his customers' demands, he starts preparing the sandwiches (he only sells during the weekends), he prepares the meat, vegetables, bread, and napkins to wrap them once they are ready. He puts them in a basket and then they are ready. "I like to walk the community's streets with my basket; I enjoy being a small businessman."
Tilo decided to start selling sandwiches because it is a highly demanded product by the different communities, and the customers always have fifteen pesos to buy a delicious sandwich. With the profits he makes, he has been able to improve his family's living conditions, and enlarge and remodel his house. He even opened a grocery store one year ago. He started off with a table where he offered rice, beans, sugar, cooking oil, soups, canned tuna, crackers, coffee, and milk, a small showcase filled with cookies, and snacks, and a fridge filled with beverages. His profits helped him to install shelves in concrete with a larger capacity to better display his products.
He said that he sells 100 sandwiches every eight days. His small store opens Monday to Sunday, from 6:00 am until the last customer comes to buy. This time he will use the money from the loan to buy rice, beans, cooking oil, sugar, milk, coffee, beverages, bread, mayonnaise, meat, chilies, and napkins. He will invest in his two activities.
Tilo says that his plans for the future are to have a larger store, and start a new activity and in this way improve his income.
“Kundajnu xuka ngiaje xi tjiña´un ngunda nga tjinikeya yon xi tjinixajonji dio nga sxunu ngañu,” in one of the Mazateco dialects from the region, can be translated into English as "many thanks to all of you for lending us the money. May God and the Virgin bless you always." This is what Tilo said to express his gratitude.
* The picture was taken in "La novia del sol" [The sun's girlfriend], where the contract was signed. Tilo is the one wearing a red shirt.
In this group: Guadalupe, Rutilo, Irene, Guillermina, Pascuala, Felipe, Margarita, Susana
Translated from Spanish by Kiva volunteer anonymized. View original language description.
