Osprey
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 3694
Registered: 5-23-2004
Location: Baja Ca. Sur
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Claudio's Magic
This is not fiction. We are very lucky to have this man in our village. (his name has been changed to protect the innocent)
Claudio’s Magic
His small house anchors a corner across the street from the local cemetery. He has a nice garden and behind the house is his business/shop; a small,
square building with a steel door. Claudio can fix anything electronic but specializes in televisions, car radios and CD players, boom boxes. He sells
and installs satellite TV systems.
For some reason Claudio has always put me in mind of Desi Arnaz, more Cuban traits than Spanish. His eyes flash, he speaks only Spanish but never
slows down for gringos – his speech is always rapid fire and to the point. His wife, Alicia, once came to me to help her sell the house/lot but it is
so close to the Pantheon that she could not entice a buyer. In the sweltering heat he always looks fresh and cool – he must have a closet full of
Hawaiian shirts.
Claudio has rules. When the steel door to his shop is open, he is open for business and ready to serve you. When the door is closed he is away from
the premises or inside the shop or house and he will not communicate with anyone in the village as far as I know. He has a phone but it rings in the
house and usually his young daughter answers it and she has evidently been told to tell everyone he is not at home. There is no sign on the house or
the shop so his business is all word of mouth. He keeps the strangest of hours – sometimes the shop door is closed for days, for weeks he might be
open only an hour or two at a time so it is just a matter of checking as often as you can.
The shop is small and cluttered; made more impossible a place of business because his friends use the place to sit and scratch and b-tch and drink
beer and talk about the next World Cup. They do all that while Claudio tinkers with circuit boards and transistors, capacitors and faulty wires to
bring back to life scores of appliances stacked and strewn all about the shop.
Claudio and I go way back – 15 years, so I’ve come to trust him and rely on him. A lot of electronic gear I brought down when I settled here was
already worn out and obsolete and when I lugged old things to his shop he often advised me I could buy a new one in Los Cabos for about the cost of
the repair part. He helped me band aid a couple of those oldies because I didn’t have the cash for new ones at the time. When he could help me, a
typical fix would be about $20 bucks including parts.
Claudio’s magic is not how he can fix new plasma TVs and Blackberries with a solder gun, it is all about commerce and transportation. The village is 7
miles from the highway, fifty miles from San Jose del Cabo to the south, 70 miles to La Paz to the north. No buses, delivery trucks come anywhere near
the village and if they did the shipping costs would be excessive. The replacement parts he uses (some as small as a grain of rice) come from all over
the world. He has found a modern day camel caravan that spans continents yet moves small things at admirable speeds and at shipping costs unmatched by
the biggest and the best.
There is no bank in the village, no post office, no delivery service centers, yet he is able to order, pay for and acquire parts from China, Taiwan,
Singapore and Detroit.
Here’s how I think he does it:
He must have informal contracts with electronics wholesalers/retailers/repair shops in both San Jose and La Paz. He also has second level credit
accounts with distributors in Guadalajara, Tijuana and San Diego.
He orders parts online from online specs by brand – those parts come to La Paz or San Jose by truck or airfreight. The tricky part, the delay,
involves Claudio, his brother, his friends and/or the wastrels who fill his shop, taking cash to the nearby cities, bringing back the goods. How else
could he put a new reader eye in a broken Sony CD player? How else could he find a new disk driver belt for a broken car radio or stereo? How did he
fix my 37 inch Magnavox TV?
It is a wonder that he has the knowledge and ingenuity to repair sophisticated appliances with limited and primitive tools. Another part of the magic
is that none of this could be possible without the The Big Overlap, the slow collision of the electronic revolution and the primitive but effective
transfer of money for goods and services that still supplies about 60% of the world’s people with things they want and need.
I consider Claudio a friend and a local treasure. I have quipped that he is so popular he could be elected as our mayor. Perhaps he would get few
votes; maybe the villagers would feel that his electronic wizardry is much more important to the town than anything he could do as a city manager.
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wessongroup
Platinum Nomad
Posts: 21152
Registered: 8-9-2009
Location: Mission Viejo
Member Is Offline
Mood: Suicide Hot line ... please hold
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I for one, have never been able to write ... other than as a technical writer...
Has always amazed me that some have the imagination, vocabulary and a means to create "thoughts" in ones head..
Much the same as a musician can do that with the "tones" from their instruments..
Find this to be an example... of the first...
Thanks for sharing your ability with folks that only scratch and claw at this stuff, called "written communication"..
Wiley S
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longlegsinlapaz
Super Nomad
Posts: 1685
Registered: 11-18-2005
Location: La Paz
Member Is Offline
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Very nice tribute to "Claudio"!!
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Udo
Elite Nomad
Posts: 6364
Registered: 4-26-2008
Location: Black Hills, SD/Ensenada/San Felipe
Member Is Offline
Mood: TEQUILA!
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Your village has to be very fortunate to have Claudio within your citizenship.
He can probably build you the newest of fishing lures with his discarded electronic parts
p.s. George...I finally figured out what that long green lure with the three sets of hooks is: something to do with catching squid.
Udo
Youth is wasted on the young!
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