San Ignacio resident #1 – Esteban Cano & family

Esteban, with lovely wife Iris and adorable 7-month old Diego.

OK, so on the bus to Belize Zoo, we met this guy Esteban. I really don’t remember exactly how it happened. Maybe he approached us to sell some of his wares, but I don’t think so. He probably saw Raquel’s homemade necklace and asked about that. You see, Esteban is something as rare as a combination insurance salesman and jewelry designer/maker working in conch.

Raquel and Esteban immediately hit it off, talking about different kinds of jewels, settings, metals, and all kinds of stuff that I know NOTHING about. I can’t say that I took much part of the conversation, but I still came to like Esteban. He has this very calm exterior, but still with an inner energy that burns brightly. Not completely unlike Ernesto back home, I guess.

Esteban invited us over to his house the day afterwards to talk even more about the jewelry, materials and techniques, and although I was a bit afraid that I would be bored out of my skull, it was a very entertaining evening. Esteban is a very charming guy, but the enjoyment was in no small part due to his wonderful wife Iris, and their lovely 7-month son Diego.

Both Esteban and Iris is two of the most warm and kind persons you could possibly think of. It’s visible in their warm smiles on the outside, but even more so in the actions they take. Although they are by no means rich, definitely not by Swedish standards, but not by Belizean standards either, they are very kind and generous.

Esteban engages himself in voluntary work for local schools, trying to spread the enthusiasm for his job. He also lets young kids from around the neighborhood hang around his house to see him work, and even try to make something themselves sometimes. He has even taken ahigh-school drop-out on as a sort of apprentice for free, trying to teach some of the tricks of the trade, firstly to keep the kid off the streets, but secondly to possibly teach him how to make a living.

Iris was also in the insurance business when she met Esteban, working for a competitor, but since having little Diego, she is at home taking care of him. What a way to remove a competitor from the market, eh? :-)

Since Esteban could get more jewelry work than he could possibly manage, I have tried to float the idea that Iris could take over the insurance business and Esteban could be staying home with Diego and working on his jewelry. Not completely surprising, they don’t seem to be able to even think about that question. It’s simply one of those things that you don’t do here it seems. At the same time, most small businesses seems to be run by women, so I don’t really know what to think, but more on that later.

Anyway, I have met with the three of them (as well as their cats & dogs) on several occasions, both with and without Raquel; sometimes at their house in the outskirts of town (a 30 minute walk from downtown San Ignacio), sometimes at a restaurant in town, and I am proud to now be able to call them both my friends. As I am writing this, I am leaving tomorrow morning for Guatemala, and already I can not wait to see them again!