One year Irma, who is married to Angel, decided to open a little hamburger place along the path in town below her house just past Eliadoro's Cantina. It was right below where their apartments are now. That year I brought vintage jewelry to try and sell. I had been part of an antique collective in the early 80's in Santa Cruz. I set up a little stand at her “fast food” place along the trail and she sold jewelry for me. One day she came to my palapa and handed me about $70 dollars which was my share of our enterprise. I was shocked that we earned so much. Even girls in Yelapa liked the rhinestone glitz! I gave her my portion of money to put toward the youngest daughter Jasmin's education. She lives in San Jose now.
We were always connected after our negocio and then Angel came to Santa Cruz to find work along with his brother-in-law Ronco. I tried to teach them some English and over the years they became very skilled stone masons working on some beautiful homes and businesses in my town. You can see this great work at the Shadowbrook Restaurant in Capitola and Angel's sons are still here doing excellent work with their own company.
Ronco put the stone in for my fireplace so many years ago and recently I watched him put up a new wall in Yelapa...still an excellent craftsman.
That's Mary Ann in the photo, too.
