The ingenuity, the creativity and the fact that this man has outfitted a bicycle to carry his merchandise
down the highway and through neighborhoods is a testament to the Mexican "can do spirit".
This photo was taken in January 2017, but has never been forgotten. It was seen as I was heading out to the beach, an eight hour drive. It caused me to smile and it never fails to do that, even now.
If you click on the photo, you can see all the mops and dusters and brooms that this man coming in from the campo has to sell.
It is not unusual to see trucks piled high with fruits and vegetables. Or piled high with mattresses, maybe twenty of them, tied down with rope in the back of a pickup truck. Or the little trucks from over in Michoacan where the great pine forests are, come in with fifty chairs tied together and loaded in the back of a pickup truck. They defy the law of gravity.
Truly, I've never seen them lose a load, although I'm sure it has happened. It is just part of the joy of living in this country to see how the people manage to make life work for them.
Viva Mexico!
9 comments:
Maybe that could be my job when i head your way.
Viva Mexico!
Indeed Steve - I think it would be as much fun as the time I dressed up as Miss Piggy and drove on the freeways, in my car, with people laughing as I waved! And, I've alerted some of the troops that you are heading this way....
Yes, RP, Viva Mexico
Hola Babs😁
The story, after some investigating, is that the cart is another Carlos Slim business and the man was working for him. (kidding)
Seriously it reminded me of the Lady in San Fran. a couple weeks ago who called the cops on a little kid selling bottled water because she didn't have a permit!
The cart is a symbol of freedom but he is on the Amazon.com hit list.
R.
Hi R - Wow, you are on a roll tonight! Yes, freedom
is great down here where one can buy meds across the counter
without need of a prescription because they realize we have
common sense and one can have a cart with sweepers on it and
no need for a "permit". Life is good.
Admiration sometimes, pity other times, that folks have eke out such marginal lives.
Al
That is one hard working man and people like him are the unsung heroes no matter where in the world they work.
I have 50 year old memory of a man pushing a cart up the inclined street where I lived in what once was a small town between Washington, D.C. and Quantico, VA. He had one product to sell that day, in that memory.
"Strawberries. Pretty berries", was his song. Hopefully he, and the man you pictured both turn out to have had great lives.
Thanks for sharing Scott. There are a million stories in this town. Every evening, just about now, around 7PM, a man stands on the corner of Cuesta de San Jose yelling "elote" (corn). He sells more then one bucket of corn with mayonnaise and chili pepper every night, on the weekends even more. He has been there every night for every year that I have been here........I WISH I knew his whole story, but I'm pretty sure he lives in our colonia. He is an unsung hero as are all of the people who soldier on through tough lives.
BTW, Chris Smither, one of my favorite blues singers who grew up in New Orleans has a song about Mirlitons and a man selling them off the back of a cart. One of my all time favorite pieces of music.
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