There are few, some are confused with the houses of the neighborhood and others with some business like so many in the center.But when crossing the door gives the feeling of entering another dimension.Footwear reparators are no longer that business almost mandatory when repairing old work boots, or school shoe prior to entering classes.Now, there is so much variety in the market and of different quality that most choose to change them instead of sending them to repair.
However, it is a trade that refuses to die, although those who exercise it, recognize the difficulties that their exercise can last.In the center of Punta Arenas there is a good amount of these workshops, where shoes shoes are managed to leave this fundamental garment.
In Croatia, between Armando Sanhueza and Chiloé, Arsenia Cárdenas Vera is in charge of the repairman Arnel, who turned 24 in this area, first in the Acapulco Gallery (current Patagonia) between 1985 and 1995 under the name of Araucaria, and then reopensIn 2006 in this sector."The footwear reparator will never die," she said the owner, since she has a clientele that allows her to keep her business calm.“We work with leather shoes, because the synthetic is lost and nothing lasts, we change plants, half plant, seams, buttresses;But we also fix wallets, jackets, closures, cases, backpacks, velcros, especially in January and February, ”said Arsenia Cárdenas, which union as the month of lower movement.
Despite not having an almost null advertising deployment “new people always arrive, for the attention we give and work, the data is being given.But the same has happened that people from the Acapulco era sees me and asks us where we are, ”said Cárdenas, who works with Master César Huelén.
In the workshop they occupy nine sewing machines and the material is brought from Santiago, and although he acknowledges that he is not in this business to earn money, Arsenia Cárdenas concludes emphasizing that "this trade gave me the satisfaction of having a land and a house."
To the old one
In Pedro Montt, in between a coffee and a travel agency, is the Austral repaire, in which José Trujillo maintains the legacy of his father José Juvenal Trujillo Mansilla.Together with his wife Marcia Henríquez and his little son, Trujillo apologizes saying that he has a lot of work, which can be seen in the large number of shoes seen in the premises.
However, although at the outset he says that who we should interview is his father, Trujillo shows that the shoe store is something that passionate about it, so much so that with enthusiasm each of his tools and machines shows, such as the polisher or the iron hts, of wood and plastic, as well as the shoemaker knife, special to shape soles, for example.
“I've been with my old woman for fifteen years, I learned as a child, it caught my attention to do my weights, but over time I took affection.It is not so much for the money that the shoemaker works, but for the recognition of how people are surprised when he sees the work we did;But it is a trade that in Chile is being lost a lot.My dad learned at age 13 and from there he transferred it to me, although at first I did not want to, but I realized that I love it, it is an art, an trade of the shoe store, ”said José Trujillo.
The store departed in Roca Street, from there he moved to O'Higgins, until his current location.However, his father had his repaire in Ovejero street, in the Governor Viel population, "although he was the whole life of the Navy," he said.
Regarding the changes that time entails, Trujillo indicates that “the shoe store has not changed much. Formerly the shoemaker worked the footwear, polished it, sanded it with a bitumen lid to which they made holes and was left as a sandpaper, with escafina. No now, one has all the right tools. ” What did change was the behavior of the clientele, since “there was a time when people stopped coming to repair shoes, because it really became easier to buy a couple, but they realized that when they wanted to fix it , as it was low and therefore, of low quality, they could not fix it because they were Chinese, synthetic, disposable, they cannot be put a tapilla. People have come to which the sole has been left in half, it is because it is not rubber, the rubber does not leave; They are synthetic, and there you cannot repair. Formerly things were done to last, but now for consumerism, you buy every time. A pair of shoes lasts with luck, one year, and they burst, ”Trujillo explained.
There are customers who do not change.“There are ancient stagnants who always come, children, grandchildren, because as my dad spends so many years, the data is passed.We have no notices or advertising, and everything in cash, an old one, ”he said.
Nor there with the Chinese
Another footwear repair that has been in this trade for years is Eleodoro Ulloa Mayorga.This folklorist arrived from Chiloé, in the midst of the shoes he has in his workshop called “Carolita” in Martínez de Aldunate Avenue, where he also fixes guitars, delivered his particular thought about this work.“I don't remember well when I started but they must be about 65 years ago.Here I have been in the center for 17 years, but in the center, in Chiloé between Errázuriz and Balmaceda;In Pérez de Arce, in Fitz Roy, in Simón Bolívar.In Punta Arenas I have been working for about 45 years.I am from the city of culture and knowledge: Ancud, ”he reviewed.
Ulloa is not considered only a footwear repairman, but is considered a teacher, because “I can design a couple of shoes, I can cut, cost and sell;He did not put upholes or seams.If they find another like me in Punta Arenas, I fix some free shoes, ”he joked.
True to his direct style to say things, when asked by the current state of the business, he said: “The Chinese have us shit, teacher;The Chinese shit us and our authorities shit, which unfortunately choose us.Because they bring these shoes, Chinese, as if here there were no teachers, there are closed factories in Santiago, and the Chinese bring shit, but who do we buy them?In the center, there may be no footwear repairman in five years, because the Chinese are killing the money. ”Already excited for his criticism, he continued: "I am not against shoes, but there is a quality review commission, between quality," he suggested.
In that sense, Eleodoro Ulloa remembered the time “of the free port, in which the pair of more bad shoes that arrived, lasted five years, and giving him every day.EnglishThose shoes were sold and gave them just because they were always used to use the same.My cute Chile has become a receptacle, garbage dump, Chinese, and who do we claim? ”
For this reason, he acknowledges that in his workshop he remains “doing seams, sewing shoes.I stay because my children keep me, so that I do not lock me in the house, this is part of my life, I want this work.I started when I hadn't even turned 14. ”
Meanwhile, in Frei Avenue, stuck almost to the Servicentro that is with Salvador Allende Avenue, in the Calixto population, the reparator “La Unión” has been fixing the shoes of the residents of the sector for almost 16 years.Although, as the owner, Eliana Ampuero (who works with her husband Manuel Navarro) also acknowledged, "there are very low months, such as January, and winter, because people wear more boots."Anyway, they defend themselves with the material they bring from Concepción, such as rubber, tapillas and templates.
Finally, in the center, where are the parking lots of the Patagonia gallery, the repairman Gaffi, by Grafiliano Barría Maldonado, also brought from Chiloé this trade.“I was from the field and took a pension in Ancud, there the owner had a repaire and about 18 I learned.I arrived at Punta Arenas in 95 and the following year I started in ‘El Chuncho’, until 2007. I am independent and I am here, ”she recalled.
As his colleagues, Grafiliano Barría points to the winter months as the most critical, as in the summer, after the end of the year parties.In his workshop he makes half -sole repairs, change of taco in lady and male shoe, full plants, tapillas, seams."Work with type of shoes, because the Chinese shoe is normal to take off, buy it and take off, then a week they bring it back, so it sticks and sews, it is the only way, if not, it does not last", he said.
He acknowledges that he works alone, "because it is a little better than working with a patron, one makes its schedule, from 9:30 in the morning until 7 in the afternoon, run, I don't close at noon," and that more than aWork, "This is like a hobby," thought according to many who chose this trade.
