alex .
Jan 20, 2004, 11:28 AM
Post #1 of 4
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New business contacts: Spanish + four wheel drive reccommended
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As we develop our business contacts we encounter one adventure after another. We do what we can to buy from the artist directly, mostly to cut out all the middlemen leaving more profit for us, but also to obtain the artist’s ”experiments” that never make it to production. One can find some pretty extraordinary pieces that way. So where do the artesania vendors get their merchandise? Well, just ask them. Invariably they will tell you that they get it trucked in from Guadalajara. Nice ruse to throw you off the scent. They know you won't go all the way to Guadalajara to cut them out. Last summer we cultivated a relationship with a terracotta pottery maker. To expand our product line we asked where to find an artist that makes plaster of paris products, you know, like the Last Supper with the glitter on it. The answer was cryptic: "Oh, no problem, you take the toll road to the airport exit, turn at the church that has a curly-que on the steeple instead of a cross, and in the shadow of the elephants tooth you will find the house of the cousin of the guy who makes that stuff." Wow, this is like an Indiana Jones movie, Mexican style. Because of the trust we have developed with this guy we believe it’s not a ruse and we are ready to get after it.
We spent the rest of the day looking for some kind of grand cathedral and don’t find anything. We’ll try again tomorrow.
The next morning we head toward where the church is supposed to be and bingo, there’s the steeple plain as day. The tianguis are in full operation, the streets and alleys are packed with people shopping for after Christmas bargains. We park several blocks away and hoof it back toward the church. Of course we have to sample some tacos at various places along the way, try on a pair of pseudo-designer jeans, and buy a coloring book and some hair ribbons. Can’t go directly to the stated goal, ya know, it just isn’t done that way. After asking around we find the architectural feature called the elephant’s tooth, a kind of flying buttress Notre Dame looking thing. Where the shadow is cast depends on the time of day and season, of course, so that might be difficult to pin down. So we ask around if anyone knows fulano so-and-so whose cousin makes figuras de yeso Finally, a young gal carrying a toddler under a blanket points and says “Well , of course, he lives in that blue house there, everyone knows that.” Well, not everyone knew that, or we would have found it a lot sooner. We thanked the lady and knocked on the door. The gentleman that answered, upon hearing the recommendation, tells us that the directions are complicated, better if he shows us how to get there. So we hike back thruogh the crowds and he climbs up in our truck and away we go. The four lane street gives way to a two lane and then a single dirt road. It looks like its going to dead end at a box canyon. “Sigue derecho” he says as he chats non-stop about how the rich government officials don’t care about the poor, just look at the condition of this road, how there are no retaining walls to keep the rains from washing homes down the canyon, and look, a guardaría built right in the middle of the wash. We chug along in low gear for twenty minutes or so and eventually arrive at cousin’s place. Its a nice, but not extravagant, two story home, tall iron fences and dogs. Lots of dogs. Ooo boy. Turns out the dogs are just out looking for a good scratch behind the ears and we are invited inside.
We strike a deal, cousin loads up the truck and back down the canyon to civilization we go. We drop off our guide near the church and head for the border crossing, my wife driving while I fill out the customs manifest.
We set up our wares for sale and we are glowing in the barrage of compliments on the artesania. “This stuff is beautiful,” says one potential client, “ I’d love to import stuff like this to sell also, where do you get it?”
“Why, we have it trucked in from Guadalajara…………..”
Alex
(This post was edited by alex . on Jan 20, 2004, 12:03 PM)
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