One of the tings that intrigues me about modern Mexico is the effort that still goes into repairing and maintaining things. It seems there is more incentive and motivation to keep stuff alive that we discard without a second thought here in the EE.UU. Old tube TV's, VCR's, radios, boom boxes - take the failed item down to the shop at the mercado, and some guy will tear them apart and work on their innards with a soldering iron. Oh, his sign - El 'Cautin' - means The Soldering Iron. And he is open 'DE LUNES A DOMINGO' - Monday to Sunday. Isn't that every day? How successful is he with his restorative efforts? Quien sabe...
The shoe repair guy (Renovadora de Calzados - his vertical sign on the entry) probably has a better shot at consistent success with his efforts, although he told us his machinery was about a hundred years old...
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We have an appliance repair shop around the corner that looks like a slightly larger version of your picture of El Cautin. I took our toaster over there the other day, it still toasts but you have to hold the lever down, it doesn't stay down and pop up anymore. When I came back the next day he told me he had bad news. It was a circuit board in the toaster that had died and he couldn't get another one.
It's sad but the more electronics are in these appliances, and the less mechanical they become, the more disposable they are. I try and buy things that are mechanical, without the fancy add ons that make them more likely to corrode and die in the tropics. It's hard though, I searched endlessly for a washer that used dials. New, cheap, electronic stuff from China may kill the local repair shops.
I've seen some pretty primitive washers in appliance shops in Mexico, that my grandmother would probably have felt right at home with, but they lacked even the most rudimentary automation. Not much more than a tub with an agitator.
I really like the effort to keep things going there. I once saw a guy in a shop reapairing an old hand-crank ice cream freezer. Get's a little scary with cars at times, but an admirable contrast to the cash-for-clunkers fiasco staged here a while ago.
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