Papeleria Laso is located in Jerez de la Frontera, at the
corner of two major avenues, right on the edge of the historic district in the
city´s center. It´s next door to a bank,
and right around the corner from many small business and a grammar school. It is a great location for Papeleria Laso, which is a a paper good/copy
shop/ and school and office supply store.
Luis (José Luis Delgado Herrerapiscazo) has been running the shop for 50
years. His wife, Amparo, helps him out. They explained to me that they´ve had hard
times before but this is definitely the worse.
No one has any money, everyone is just scraping by. And like Francis, what they sell is not a
necessity so people who used to purchase now often go without.
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| José Luis Delgado Herrapiscazo and his wife Amparo in their shop. |
Luis told me that the businesses that
are suffering the most are the small businesses. He and his wife have no idea how the country
and the economy are going to get out of this mess. They take the government at its word when it
says things will get better after another year simply because they don´t know
of anything better to do.
I´ll give a short story here to
illustrate their situation. They are
motorcycle enthusiasts, each with his/her own motorcycle and they belong to a
motorcycle club. (The wife is very small,
and I find it charming to imagine her on a big, muscle motorcycle.)
About five years ago, they had planned
to go to the United States and drive their motorcycles across the country, but
then the crisis struck, and they weren´t able to go. Now, they can no longer even afford to leave
the city for a vacation, so last year, they stayed open all year and didn´t
take any time off. They expect to do the
same this year.
OUR NEXT POST will be about Antonia Balao and her bar/restaurant.
