Cristóbal Finkelstein, working for the community
By Tania Noriz, Sept, 15, 2006

Only 25 days before concluding his work in the 2003–06 administration, Cristóbal Finkelstein, the young head of the International Relations, Tourism and Economic Development Department, spoke with Atención San Miguel about the contribution of his department to the San Miguel community; his work, challenges and pending issues; and his future as a father-to-be and professional.

For Finkelstein, the most important issue the next administration must focus on is the orderly development of the county, so that the city and outlying communities will have what they need to fight poverty, migration and crime. 

Finkelstein promises always to work for San Miguel, through both political and personal endeavors. “I’ll always work for San Miguel; I want to be part of its development. This is a place that I love, a place where my family will grow up.” 

Tania Noriz: What is the focus of the International Relations Department?

Cristóbal Finkelstein: The office is concerned with five main endeavors: administration, investment, promotion of handicrafts, human resources and international relations.

The investment section assists with the creation of small and medium-sized local enterprises and negotiates credit for the creation of these businesses. Handicrafts promotion provides business advice, workshops and marketing information to local handicraft producers. Human resources manages a job search database. The international relations section has twofold responsibilities: services for emigrants from San Miguel and assistance to the foreign community. The international relations section also issues Mexican passports and permits for foreigners to purchase property.

TN: What is the value of the department?

CF: The department has been a valuable tool that has created very open communication between all community members: Mexicans, foreigners, tourists, emigrants, and so on. This is an office where we always look for solutions to very different and human problems—from a complaint about a neighbor’s dog to arguments between neighbors to the return of bodies of Mexicans who die in the United States or in an attempt to cross the border.

TN: What contribution has it made to the community during these three years?

CF: One important contribution is that we have obtained significant resources for San Miguel: individuals and associations who love the city have donated approximately four million pesos. They wanted to contribute, and so we helped them to help us. The department worked to allocate those resources in a very clear and ordered way. 

Other contributions have been the creation of the Casa del Migrante Sanmiguelense (the Sanmiguelense House) in Dallas—the first office of its kind created by a Mexican county to help its emigrants have a decent life in the United States through advice and programs. The Dallas office has since become an important tool in locating sanmiguelenses in the United States.

During the past three years, San Miguel has established sisterhood relationships with 25 international and national cities and become one of the three most active counties for foreign affairs relations in Mexico.

TN: What were the most pressing issues during your administration of the department?

CF: Without any doubt, it was the rape case. Even though it was not an administrative problem, it exposed administrative problems, such as crime prevention and lack of communication between authorities and the community, that we didn’t know existed. I still believe that many overreacted against the authorities because they didn’t know how the Mexican police, district attorney’s office and legal system function. I have always said that San Miguel is a very safe city to live in. It is a place that is in development and its challenge is to create the conditions for ordered growth that ensures the well-being of its inhabitants.

TN: Speaking of well-being, what can be done to slow the migration of sanmiguelenses to the United States?

CF: All sanmiguelenses, locals and foreigners, must cooperate, pay taxes, pay our employees and contribute to county development in order to improve our lives. For all those Americans who live here without paying taxes and who also oppose immigration into the US, I tell them that they cannot demand that our people not go to work in the States, since they are adding to the employment problem. 

TN: What has been the most important challenge? 

CF: For me, it has been a challenge to prepare, compile and finish the San Miguel file for the UNESCO World Heritage appointment. This represents a big effort of a big team. If all goes well, we will receive the appointment in 2008. I know that many people think this is something easy, but it required three years to be ready and a two-million-peso investment. The UNESCO appointment will help guarantee that San Miguel’s heritage will be preserved for the coming generations.

TN: Any errors that occurred under your administration? 

CF: There have been several errors—we are humans and I would be a liar if I told you I haven’t made a mistake. But I must say that every time that we make one we work arduously to correct it. All the people who work here have created a good team and I’m very proud to say it.

TN: What issues will be pending when this administration ends?

CF: The expansion of the San Miguel Migrant Office to include locations in North Carolina, Chicago and Los Angeles. This project was already presented to governor Juan Carlos Romero Hicks, and we hope the next administration finalizes it. There is also a plan to create a handicrafts business center. We have the land, but we need resources. If it becomes a reality, it will revitalize the handicraft economy of the city.

TN: What projects do you think the next head of the department must work on?

CF: I expect continuity. We are preparing for the transition of the directorship with all the details of the pending issues and ongoing projects. The next head of the department must have fresh ideas and provide his or her personal touch and work to attain more resources for the department and increase our human resources. 

TN: What do you think about the relationship between the Mexican and the foreign community in San Miguel?

CF: I think it is a good relationship. San Miguel is a place where people from all over the world can live in peace, and that’s why it has a cosmopolitan character. However, I think the foreign community must integrate with the rest of the community if they don’t want to be separated. They must know the culture and the language of the community where they live, and, very important, they must know their neighbors. 

TN: What do you think will be the main challenge for the next mayor, Jesús Correa? 

CF: He must be very active and sensitive of the people’s needs. He must be very perceptive and create positive relationships that favor San Miguel.

TN: What do you think about the post-electoral condition of the country?

CF: We are living in special times. We are facing an incipient democracy and must work hard to change conditions. Six years are not enough to fight many people’s ignorance, which is expressed through social resentment and the wrong image of a hero. We always are waiting for a hero to come save us and fix our problems. No, we are the ones who must work to make this country a better place to live.

TN: What do you think of the new president of Mexico?

CF: I think he will have to work very hard to depolarize Mexico. He should work on a tax and electricity law reform to generate wealth and employment and fight against poverty, migration and crime.

TN: What are your work, political and personal aspirations for the future? 

CF: First, in February of next year I will become a father, so I’m going to prepare myself for such work. I will continue working hard to improve my relationship with my wife, Gaby, and my family. For the future, I have several important challenges. I’m creating a new legal firm with former ecology director Gerardo Arteaga. About my political aspirations I must say I do not have any, but who knows? The important thing about politics is that you have the opportunity to work for the community.

TN: What is the first thing you want to do after finishing your work with the current administration? 

CF: Work, work, work. 

TN: Will you continue working for San Miguel?

CF: I will always work for San Miguel.

TN: Any words for the foreign community?

CF: To work for you and with you has been a privilege. I have learned something from every one of you, and I am thankful from the bottom of my heart for all the support of the people that were closest to me. All of them were very positive for me. I would like to thank former United States Consul Coronel Phil Maher, current consul Ed Clancy, Atención San Miguel editor Suzanne Ludekens, Tony Adlerbert, Floyd Edwards, Sudir Amembal, Cecilia Hogaza, Roberto Maxwell, Bob Spencer, Ali Zerriffi and all the people who provided me with their support. You made my job easier! Thank you all.

Monte de Piedad: the bank of the people, part II
By Jesús Ibarra

Editor’s note: Jesús Ibarra reports on a Mexican institution that continues an age-old European tradition: the national pawnshop. This is the second in a series of three articles.

 

Nacional Monte de Piedad (the bank of mercy) is the country’s oldest and most renowned pawnshop. About 10,000 people patronize the pawnshop each and every day to trade their possessions for much-needed pesos.

The principal objective of Monte de Piedad, a nonprofit, philanthropic institution, is to loan cash, without hassle and at the country’s lowest interest rate, to those who need money. The client is only obligated to pay a fee equivalent to two percent of the loan and one percent of the total value of the object. The pawn brokerage also supports small artisans by selling their goods in its stores, called almonedas.

The bank also funds projects and programs for indigenous peoples, the ill, handicapped and elderly and orphans (e.g., Telethon). During the last 10 years, Monte de Piedad has donated more than 2 billion pesos. A benefactor to its employees as well as of the public, some have worked at Monte de Piedad more than 40 years.

The “coyotes”

All the passersby who walk through Monte de Piedad Street or Palma Street on the Zócalo in Mexico City, regardless of whether they are going to the Nacional Monte de Piedad, are approached by insistent itinerant buyers, commonly called coyotes, who try to purchase whatever objects the people are carrying in order to later sell them on their own. In front of the pawnshop’s two entrances one repeatedly hears “What are you selling? I’ll buy it!” “How much do you want for your camera?” a coyote asked a passing man. “Three thousand pesos,” answered the man. “No, it is a good camera, but it is not worth that,” the coyote said. 

Enrique has worked as a coyote outside the Nacional Monte de Piedad in Palma Street for more than 28 years to earn his daily sustenance. “We buy anything, from a small gold chain or any other jewelry to electronics or cameras,” said Enrique, who said that a lot of merchants from La Lagunilla or other tianguis come to him for merchandise to sell in their stands. “There are two groups of merchants who work outside Monte de Piedad,” said Enrique. “One works in Monte de Piedad Street, and the other here in Palma Street, and there are about 30 merchants in each one.”

According to Enrique, the objects he buys and sells bring a profit between 10 and 100 pesos each, depending on the type of object. Watches are the most profitable objects. 

According to Gustavo Méndez Tapia, the Nacional Monte de Piedad’s official spokesman, the coyotes are a street problem, just like other itinerant hawkers, and it is up to the authorities to solve it, since the pawnshop does not have the right to remove them. Méndez stated that the coyotes do not affect the institution’s operation. However, in both entrances to the pawnshop signs are posted advising people not to trust these unscrupulous merchants, whose activity, according to Méndez, is beginning to decrease.

The employees

According to Méndez Tapia, the Nacional Monte de Piedad has an enviable record of retaining personnel because the employees truly love the institution. He said that many of them have worked there for 30, 40 or even 50 years. For example Don Javier, 75, has worked for 50 years, holding several posts. Currently, he works as a vendor in one of the branch offices.

Another case is that of Don Miguel Oropeza, who had worked for almost 70 years in the pawnshop before his death, the last years as an appraiser in the firm’s appraisal institute because of his years of experience assessing the value of items.

Méndez said that “just as the institution works to benefit its users, it also works to ensure employee job satisfaction” by providing employee benefits above those required by law and by allowing employees opportunities for professional growth.

Monte de Piedad is the only institution in Mexico that has an appraisal institute, where the appraisers are formally trained for their jobs. They receive instruction in art history and in evaluating precious gems and gold and silver objects. To apply to be an appraiser, an employee must work for at least five years in the institution and have demonstrated good character. A trained appraiser can determine the number of grams of gold or silver in a piece of jewelry, the carat weight of stones and the current market value of the object being appraised.

The Nacional Monte de Piedad currently has about 3,000 employees who work in its 140 branch offices all around the country. About 600 of them are located in the main and administrative offices in the former Cortés palace in the Zócalo.

Legends of Monte de Piedad

 

Many old stories have been told about Monte de Piedad. In one legend, a small man dressed in a worn, dark suit at least one size too large came to the pawnshop during the Mexican Revolution. It seems that once he had been fortunate, but luck had abandoned him.

When he arrived at the pawnbroker’s window, he carefully took a violin out of an old case and handed it to the appraiser, who examined it and found that it was a genuine Stradivarius. The little man gratefully accepted the money the appraiser offered him and asked for a favor. It seemed that the violin, being so fine and delicate, had to be played every day to avoid cracking the sound box or breaking the strings. So the little man asked permission to come to the institution and play the violin every day for an hour. The appraiser could not deny his request. For the next three months, two weeks and three days, the employees at Monte de Piedad enjoyed a daily concert of extraordinary quality.

Méndez Tapia tells another story about when Pancho Villa and his troops entered Mexico City during the Revolution. Among his men there were some who had been bandits and plundered everything they found on their way. When they arrived before Monte de Piedad, Villa advised them: “Monte de Piedad must be respected; it is the bank of poor.”

The customers

The users of Monte de Piedad do not belong to any particular social or economic class. All those who need cash—from the most humble person who needs money for food to the most important businessman who needs cash for a personal reason—can come to the pawnshop. According to Méndez Tapia, politicians, famous artists, writers and actors have all come to Monte de Piedad to pawn objects.

“In high seasons like Christmas or when school starts again, we serve up to 13,000 people a day,” said Méndez Tapia.

Teresa, one woman I spoke to, has pawned objects at Monte de Piedad several times and says she has always received good service and personal attention. This time she is pawning a gold bracelet, for which she hopes to get 1,000 pesos. She’ll use the money to buy books and school supplies for her children. 

Juan José needs money to buy a book that is indispensable for his studies. It is not the first time he has pawned something, and this time he will pawn a gold chain.

Elisa pawned two small gold chains so that the Three Kings could arrive at her home last January 5.