She was a housewife all her life, between caring for and maintaining the home, she became a seamstress, an inheritance from her mother’s Singer machine. Today she continues with the trade. Now with her adult children and grandchildren, she continues to parade among garments, threads and patches. When he needs to sharpen his scissors, he turns to a sharpener in the Villa María neighborhood, that in the small garage of his house he dedicates himself to preparing the essential tools.
The zipper on the bag that he uses daily to store his tools broke, and he decides to go to a nearby “mover” to resolve the situation. The man’s rubber soles came off on one of the two pairs of sneakers he wears to work every day. He goes to the shoe store recommended by a friend.
And the Mobius strip of trades is perfect. Today, after years and years of work and eternal hours of work, They all support their profession and see that in these times of crisis, the residents of the city of Neuquén turn to them more than in other years.
One of the first characteristics that they share is that They don’t have a location on the street.. It’s all indoors, at the back of the patio, in the living room of the house, in some available space.
Walter is a sharpener, one of those who reminds his colleagues that decades ago he rode around on his “tuned” bicycle and with the traditional whistle to offer his service. He does it in his house. He’s not doing badly, but it’s not easy either.
“We are not in the essential field, but in the last year I saw that more and more people called me to sharpen a knife or scissors. One day he called me a butcher and brought me a knife that, honestly, was meant to be thrown in the trash. Only the mango was useful,” she began to relate. The sharpener suggested buying a new one. “He told me that he couldn’t buy a new one. Let him do what he can. And yes, with this crisis I have more clients. It makes me sad, even though it serves me well,” said Walter. A new one costs an average of 10,000 pesos, he renews it for 5,000.
Esteban inherited the trade from his old man. He is a shoemaker but not because he chose it as a way of life, but because one day he realized, upon losing his job in the State, that he could survive with it.
“Today customers don’t just come because the sole of their favorite shoe came off. They come because they have to make them last as long as they can. They even asked me to sew canvas shoes that were cracked, even though I saw that the sole was so thin that it couldn’t stand another walk. But we look for a way back,” she said.
“It is true that today, with the prices that are managed, with inflation and salaries without commensurate increases, it is very difficult. And people struggle to maintain what they have.. In terms of clothing, I think that is where they cut back the most,” added Elena, a lifelong dressmaker.
Mabel joined in and it was very graphic. “I have been a dressmaker for 30 years. They called me to make a party dress or for a special occasion. I was doing very well, but for a year or more I had to think about something else because that person who before asked me for a dress from scratch, today brings me an old one and asks me to give it a different touch. Imagine that if you have to buy a new one you have to pay a minimum of 30,000 pesos in the cheapest places in the city. “I have approximately 40% more clients than in previous years,” she said.
Elena appears and closes this note: “These trades are doing well with the crisis and we appreciate it. But it’s too bad that the vast majority are doing too badly.
