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Appendix B A Summary of San Francisco el Alto Case Studies Julio: Hotel Owner Julio’s father was an agriculturalist. He had approximately twenty cuerdas of land. Twenty-five percent of the crops was used for subsistence, and the rest was sold in the San Francisco market. He grew corn, lima beans, black beans. His sister inherited the land. The land is very valuable because it is in the town center. He did not want to continue with agriculture. The work is very hard and, with the influence of commerce, people do not want to work the land anymore. Julio’s father had dayworkers in the field. They used to make Q4 a day, and now they make Q18 or Q20 per day. Julio went to school up to the sixth grade. He then worked selling panela (unrefined sugar), which was his father’s business, but he felt that he would not prosper in that business. Then, he decided to sell cloth, which he would buy in Guatemala and resell in Mazatenango, Retalhuleu, and other places, and also on the streets or sidewalks. After five years of doing this he started making clothes. He learned the job as an operario for a pants maker in 1965. He also worked as assistant to a tailor, who in turn was an operario for a man who only sold on the coast (unlike most merchants who sell in the east, Petén, and others who go to El Salvador, Honduras, and Mexico). He was assistant to a pieceworker for four years and made very little money during that time. He had his own sewing machine. He would go to the tailor’s house to pick up the pieces, and often he would do the work for free so that he could learn the job. Then he moved on to the resale of cloth. Then, in 1972, he became workshop owner. He had up to eighteen pieceworkers working for him. That business lasted for fifteen years. He would supply several middlemen in Guatemala. The pieceworkers were from the hamlets. But his customers began to die. Then the competition among the pieceworkers began, and between the pieceworkers and himself. They were not serious about the contract with the boss. Others left to go to the capital or looked for other san francisco el alto case studies 203 people who would pay them better. He lost half of his workers. It is hard to compete with the secondhand clothes (pacas) from the United States. He left his business three years ago and built a hotel. The hotel business is bad because foreigners “are afraid to come here because of the problem with the gringas” (1997). He also has a few locales for rent. Horacio: Workshop Owner, Sacmixit Hamlet It’s about a thirty-minute walk to reach Horacio’s house from Sacmixit center. The house is in the middle of the cornfields that he and his brothers and sisters inherited when his father died. Horacio is twenty-six years old and the oldest of four brothers and three sisters. He is single and lives with his mother and younger siblings. His first job was as a shepherd taking care of his father’s animals. He then helped an uncle in picking apples. As an adolescent he traveled to the capital to work in the shop of some people originally from San Francisco el Alto. He spent three years there. When he noticed that his mother and siblings were not doing well, he decided to return to San Francisco. He learned the skills of tailoring. He says that this was not easy. It took him about eight months. He says it was sometimes so frustrating he almost cried, until he finally was able to make a pair of pants correctly. He started his business with a capital of Q500 (approximately US$90). He bought a used sewing machine for Q375. He bought the tools he needed (measuring tape, scissors, needles) and had approximately Q80 left to buy material, which actually costs more than that. He was able to obtain some of the material on credit and began to work independently five years ago. Before that, he had spent some more time working as an apprentice for another uncle. At first, he worked with his brother, who learned the job in only one day. Then they felt that they needed additional help because Horacio began taking merchandise to shops in Guatemala City. At that time he remembers that...

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