He began in this activity at 5 years of age. Know who your favorite leaders are and also the least loved ones.
By Soleil Barragán, special for La Revista *
“My name is José Escobar; I have worked in the Plaza Grande for 54 years ”. José Escobar is a shoeshine boy, is 59 years old, and works in the Quito’s Historic center. The shoe shine is in charge of polishing and cleaning the footwear of eventual clients, making use of bitumen, sandpaper, brushes and other implements. ”The first process of polishing a shoe is sanding it. Second process, prepare the color. Third, the sanding has to look good again. Then, it is brushed so that the dust comes out, it is already dyed and it looks good ”, explains José while he polishes a pair of shoes.
This work is done by people of all ages, including 5 year old children. It was at that age that Don Escobar began to handle brushes and sandpaper..
$ 10 a day
“I liked the job since I was little, since I was little I did it as a game. Then I was growing more, and it was like a hobby. And now that I’ve made a home, this is a job for me. From here I get to pay for the home ”, he tells us. “Of course, I’ve gotten a taste for it, so many years …”, he replies when we ask him if he likes the job.
José says that, on a good day at work, a shoe shine earns about $ 10. Part of that money is taken to buy cleaning tools for the trade. “I can’t afford to buy important things; but for the food, that does solve me, “he says.
He comments that his mother shined boots when she was younger. Now, she works selling sweets and candies at a stand next to his, and she accompanies him every day.
“It is hereditary: first my grandparents, then my parents, that’s where I come from; all shoeshine … Since childhood, there have been people who studied and worked at the same time, and they graduated, they are professionals, they got ahead, now they are even politicians ”, he details.
José finished school and learned to read and write, but he has an interesting vision of learning. “I tell you one thing: illiterate people are better than prepared, because they put everything into the brain, whatever they are going to do, it reaches the brain, not the leaf,” he says.
“As long as God gives me life, this is my job and with this I am distracted and support myself,” José said when we asked him how long he planned to work cleaning boots in the plaza.
The most remembered presidents
“You talk about everything with customers, stress is removed here. When they talk to me about sad things, what happens to them, their sorrows, then I tell them mine and the horns. I make them forget, I make them smile. That’s why they call me The Amargurita, because they tell me their bitterness ”, says Don José.
Few people who have this kind of street job are enough to live with what they earn on a day-to-day basis. “Dollarized is not enough to live, it went down. Before there were sucres among the Jamil, it was still pretty there, they gave back “, José says wistfully.
A worker like José Escobar, who works in the Plaza Grande, has seen many presidents of Ecuador pass by. He himself gives us his opinions on some of these presidents.
“He was screwed when Correa entered: he has done something good, but most of it, bad. One, stop using drugs. Another, that people of an age can no longer work. The other, that there are people who lack preparation, but they do have knowledge and can no longer work ”, he says.
“The current president looks good for now (Guillermo Lasso). Right now I still see him with the application of the vaccines, he is still half calm, although the natives are protesting the rise in fuel. Now speaking of politics, it is good that I do a fuel increase once a time, but for what purpose? With that money make the jobs valued, that people are already out of work now. For companies to hire people again ”, he adds.
When we asked him which was the president who, in his opinion, was the best, he answered us without hesitation: Jaime Roldos, “because he personally took out people who weren’t fit for office jobs. He didn’t want to listen to the hairy people, he wanted to do something for the country, Because of that situation, they ordered him to be eliminated. I saw it in the square. They gave away toiletries, free medicine. When ‘Don Correa’ came in, there was corruption, they said ‘free’, and after a while they were getting paid, ”he said.
He has 14 children
Finally, José tells us his anecdotes and stories with mischief. “Tomorrow’s customers would come, with one shoe in one color and the other in another color; here they already realized, because I told them, “he says laughing.
“I have fourteen children. I had ten women. Now I admire myself, what happens to men so that they pay maintenance? The women paid me to have them by my side. I was chubby, because they brought me breakfast, the nickname. It’s not like that anymore, ”he says. José’s classmates, shoe shiners alike, tell him The Waiter of the Plaza. “It’s going to be on television,” says one; “The most wanted,” says another.
“We think that we are all the same, but we are not. Now with these human relationships that they give us, training, we are forming more personality to be able to chat with all kinds of people around us. For me it is a satisfaction ”, he says calmly.
When we go to polish our shoes, it is not known who is behind, the story of that person. José is one of many modern and characteristic characters of the city of Quito, a humble shoeshine. (I)
* 16 years old and in the second year of high school. His interest is to study Social Communication and photography. Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/soleil_fotos/
Paul is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment and general news. He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established herself as a respected voice in the industry.
