Obdulio Álvarez

A Writer's Library

James Clavell is one of my absolute favorite authors. He primarily writes historical fiction, which is my preferred genre, especially when it's related to the Orient.

I began reading him at the age of 15, during the quiet weekends in Puerto Ordaz. Of his works, the first I encountered was Tai-Pan, which deals with the formation of Hong Kong by the British, narrated through a fictional character: one of the leaders of the largest companies trying to control trade between China and England.

Even then, I was captivated by his affection for and knowledge of the Far East, as well as its culture and customs. Immediately after finishing Tai-Pan, I decided I would read Shogun, a novel with over 1,100 pages that was a worldwide bestseller at the time.

What can I say? Shogun is the novel I have reread the most. For that 15 or 16-year-old boy, it was discovering a new world: medieval Japan; its culture; its vision of life, politics, love, cuisine, and sex; Zen Buddhism. I remember starting to drink black tea when I arrived home from school in the afternoons and sat down to read the novel (at that time, 1982, green tea, called "cha" in the novel, was unknown to me and the merchants of Puerto Ordaz). I tried to perceive the aromas and flavors that the author almost managed to make me experience with his words. I wanted to try Japanese food, which was nonexistent in our country at that time. I remember that while living in Caracas, when I learned about the opening of a Japanese restaurant in El Hatillo, near my house, one afternoon I took the novel with me and sat alone in the restaurant to order a sample of each dish they had on the menu. It was a very intimate meal, in a Japanese atmosphere, alongside the author's words. I wanted to pay him that honor.

After reading Shogun, I made an effort to find King Rat: Clavell's first novel, which he wrote under the pseudonym Les Daniels. It's about an American in a Japanese concentration camp. Excellent. Later, I read the two volumes of his other bestseller, Noble House, which is a projection of the family and company of Dirk Struan, the main character of Tai-Pan, in 1960s Hong Kong. Gai-Jin, Whirlwind (about Iran at the fall of the Shah), are other of his novels that I have enjoyed.

But, to be honest, none like Shogun. I reread it at the end of last year. I hope my words do justice to those of one of the authors in my library; that they encourage you to read his works.

The Election: Award-Winning Story from Hispanic America

Victoria walked like a hawk with open wings. The heat and humidity were unbearable. Even though it was already December, the weather remained as ignorant as most of the people of Porosocomo. That was one of the reasons that had driven her to be a candidate.

She left the kitchen and stepped onto the polished cement floor of the corridor, which, regardless of the ambient temperature, was always cold. She took off her sandals and enjoyed it for a few seconds.

"One... Two... Three..."

She descended the steps to the inner garden of the house and passed under the small churuata in the middle of the patio. It was silent and dark. Before, it was filled with laughter and gossip when her father, a gringo she never met, sent them money—at least that's what her mother told her. It had been the center of family entertainment. Now it looked more like a cemetery of old customs, with two faded hammocks spilling languidly onto the columns; the coffee table, which had served for coffee, dominoes, or truco, cluttered with things that weren't important enough to be given their place; chairs facing different directions with invisible occupants who couldn't look each other in the face, and a television that hadn't worked in a long time.

Dodging a few indifferent hens, she walked quickly to the main room where her mother awaited her next to several fans: the air conditioner compressor had been damaged by the power outages, and it was too expensive to buy another. But today, at least, there was no lack of electricity, thank God and a special operation that had been carried out for the Election.

If it weren't for the Election, we'd be sweltering in the corridor. You see how it's already bringing changes for us," she said optimistically to her mother.

"Yes, my dear," replied Mrs. Sonia, her mother, with a hopeful smile and a look that expressed what her limited vocabulary couldn't.

"Then, let's begin. We're going to finish getting me ready."

Victoria's spirit was unbeatable. She had prepared for this day since she was very little.

It all started when Teacher Teresita had gotten sick and they had sent a young pedagogue from the Capital to fill in for her.

From the moment she entered the classroom, she had impressed Victoria: she had beautiful, shiny, and well-cut hair. How elegant she looked, even though she dressed informally, in fashionable jeans. Her hands were well-groomed with long, red nails. She was beautiful. And then, when she spoke to them, she finished captivating her: her voice was melodious and cheerful, with the accent of the Capital. Her words conveyed wisdom, even though Victoria didn't understand many of them.

At that moment she realized how much she had to learn and change to reach the level of a woman like The Teacher —that's what they ended up calling her, after she taught them some words in English. Victoria's first in another language.

The Teacher was different. She had never seen women like that in Porosocomo, who could serve as an example. Not even Teacher Teresita, who was also from the Capital, different and educated. She had always been like a grandmother to Victoria. At 8 years old, everyone over 20 already falls into the adult category, and those over 50 into the old category. The only women she had seen like The Teacher were on television, and that was like a distant fantasy.

'How many things must change,' she realized at that moment. She immediately clung like a tick to the new teacher. She had to try to learn everything she could from her in the short time she was going to be in the town

Mariana, as The Teacher was called, received her with affection and tried to guide her. There wasn't much she could teach in a few days to an 8-year-old girl. The only thing she could do was encourage her not to stop her learning. 'Don't stop learning or dreaming that you can achieve great things,' she told her.

Since Victoria didn't have internet and access to books was very limited in Porosocomo, she recommended that she go whenever she could to the house of Don Matías, the most important cattle rancher in the town. He had a computer connected via satellite. There she could watch fantastic television channels from which she could learn many things. That she should approach Corina, Don Matías's daughter, and maybe they would make good friends.

And that was the first project Victoria took on. It wasn't easy to accomplish: she didn't like Corina. She was always off doing her own thing, separated from all the people of the town, as if she felt different and superior. Her mother, Clotilde—who used to work at the grocery store—spent her time showing off all the things she bought, displaying them to everyone, saying how special her daughter was. And Mrs. Sonia, Victoria's mother, had also had something to do with her opinions about Corina, to be honest.

But Victoria knew there were ways to achieve her goals. She treated the people of the town well. She knew María and Antonia, the cook and the housekeeper at the Hacienda, very well.

She thought it was going to be simple: she just had to go to the Hacienda after school. It was far, but worth it. Her plans were dashed when faced with reality. She realized it took her 45 minutes to get there, and when she did, Corina was sitting in front of the television, after her snack, watching what she liked. Mission: Impossible, she said to herself—referring to the impossibility of watching television, not that Corina was watching the series of films of that name, which she didn't even know at that moment.

But she was patient. She studied Corina's customs and schedules. She learned that on Tuesdays and Thursdays she had private lessons in Peresequeme, a nearby town. And on Saturdays, all day, she went with her mother shopping in the state capital, Parasacama.

So she made arrangements with María and Antonia to watch television on those days.

And it had indeed been very instructive. From the first moment, she became aware of a world of things she didn't know, which excited her and set the course of her life. The Teacher had been right.

She attended assiduously and educated herself, discovering things about which she later tried to research in the town, despite the many limitations.

"Done," her mother said, bringing her out of her reverie after finishing her hair.

"Well, Mom, I'll see you downtown. Manuelito will take you there. I'm going to walk to stroll through the streets like a normal person. I don't plan to arrive in a luxury car with one of the ranchers. I want the town to see that I'm one of them, that I haven't sold myself for advantages. That will be decisive in receiving their support, and also when the results are given. That way it will be harder for them to try to cheat."

Victoria was already savoring her name.

"Go with God, my dear. We'll see you there," her mother said, admiring her with her wise eyes.

And so she went: alone, greeting the neighbors, and remembering everything she had gone through to get to this day.

She passed Miguel Cadenas's house. Victoria knew that Miguel had always been in love with her. But his vision of the future was to get married, have children, and remain tied to a town and a past she didn't want. Today she didn't see Miguel in front of his house. He was probably downtown waiting for her arrival.

She continued her walk. She revisited her childhood and adolescence. She strolled through the tedious moments, without electricity or breeze, that seemed endless in Porosocomo; through the town square, which had no heroes; through streets of red dirt that ended in the same places. But none of that stopped her. She had goals. Thus, between her memories, greetings, and smiles, time flew by. She was already arriving downtown. A large group of people could be seen gathered at the site. She stood taller than she was and put on her best smile. People were already pointing her out from a distance.

On her way in, to one side, she could see Corina. As always, dressed in clothes that didn't fit her; that made her look plain, even though she had a very pretty face and was almost as tall as Victoria. Her eyes, which were also green, streaked with brown, were hidden under glasses that looked like an old teacher's.

Victoria was surprised to see her around. She never cared about events in the town.

But she noticed that she was handing out leaflets. When she saw Miguel Cadenas at the entrance of The School, which was a polling place, everything made sense. She remembered that today there seemed to be an election to give autonomy to the town's leadership. She had heard something like that.

"Politicians are so dumb," she thought. "How do they come up with the idea of organizing elections to change some laws on the same day as the Miss Porosocomo election? That's why nobody votes.

People began to greet her, and Victoria forgot about trivialities, a word she had learned alongside her two television tutors watching the soap opera channels. Because, of course, when Corina left the house, Antonia and María were in control of the television, and the special channels they watched were E! Entertainment, the soap opera channels, and, on gala days, Hola, with specials about the Spanish royalty.

The tutors with the most "curriculum vitae" were The Kardashians—no: the Kardachans, as Antonia and María called them. Her contact with the Far East was through Arab and Korean soap operas. There Victoria understood that the important things in life were the same everywhere: unrequited loves, the poor girl who marries her prince, long nails, and salon hairstyles.

If she had let go of her prejudices, she would have talked to Corina. She would have been delighted to have a friend. Then Victoria would have been influenced by Discovery Channel, National Geographic, Disney Channel, and the history channels, which were the favorite of the girl of the house. Even Corina would have convinced her father to let Victoria accompany her, on Tuesdays and Thursdays, to the English classes she received because she wanted to understand the channels that were not translated, like CNN or Bloomberg Channel. And her father would have been very happy to help his daughter.

She also would have understood that Corina wasn't unfriendly. She was simply shy. She tried to hide her mother's excesses.

In short, if things had been different, the present would have been different. But Victoria hadn't learned about the imperfect subjunctive, "would have," and would never know the future subjunctive, "were to have.

At the same time as Victoria, her main opponent in the contest was arriving. She did come in the luxury car of one of the ranchers. Everyone already knew who owed whom favors, or vice versa.

Victoria enjoyed it. She knew she was burying herself. "What a limited vision," she thought. "Staying tied to the town, even if they win the contest." Not her. She had never associated with anyone. She had waited and prepared to win this election. That way, the pageant would take her to the Capital, and she would be famous. There, she could meet a real millionaire to set up her hair salon in a cooler climate.

"Victoria!" she and the town shouted at the end of the contest.

Among the people was Mrs. Sonia, proud of her daughter. She thought that, without a doubt, Victoria had taken the best: her brown skin and her curves mixed with the will, the height, and the green eyes, streaked with brown, of Matías.

Some Spanish words carry a double meaning or connotation that is lost in English. In this short list, I explain each of them, including certain proper names:

Victoria: Victory

Manuel Cadenas: Manuel Chains

Curriculum vitae: In Spanish, 'curriculum vitae' can have a double meaning, humorously referring to a woman's bottom, because it sounds similar to a slang term. And The Kardashians, indeed, have impresives ones.

A Writer's Library

Art for the post with some books by Carlos Castaneda

It's not exactly literature, anthropology, or history. Philosophy or religion, perhaps. I prefer to call them practical guides to becoming sorcerers and achieving freedom

A violent and indecipherable start, I know. So let's go little by little.

Carlos Castañeda, or Castaneda, as he is known for his books, came to me almost magically.

I remember that, since I was very little, one of the books my father had in his library caught my attention: The Second Ring of Power (my father prefers to read in English). Although I didn't even fully understand what the title said, I memorized his name. It was a book that, whenever I went to my old man's house, attracted me. It was like a source of power.

Much later, in my early twenties, rummaging through the bookstore that was in the Chacaíto Shopping Center, a reference for me, I found the book in Spanish. I immediately knew that I should buy it and satisfy my curiosity.

Although I am a very broad person when conceptualizing reality, a great admirer of Zen stories and teachings, at first it was difficult for me to enter it. I was not able to see anything in that haze of words. But, even so, I could perceive that there was something important in them.

I decided that the problem resided in the fact that I wanted to evaluate and value what Castañeda said based on my cultural reference, using my intellectual patterns to pigeonhole things and feel comfortable and safe.

I began to read again without trying to judge everything and without trying to feel so intelligent. I let the words say what the author wanted to say and not what I wanted them to say.

There I entered a new world and a different way of evaluating life and its objectives.

I must say that, to understand and visualize things that Castañeda wrote, the experiences I had when I was recovering from a traffic accident that left me in a coma helped.

In that recovery stage, one of the hemispheres of my brain was very inflamed and was not working properly. In fact, I tried to speak and said nonsense: the words that came out of my mouth had nothing to do with what I wanted to say, even though I thought they were correct. In that state, the hemisphere that was healthy assumed what the other did, but in its own terms. Therefore, in that state, I was able to perceive life in another way and have abilities that would seem impossible to me, if I had not experienced them.

Accordingly, I must say that Carlos Castaneda was very famous in the 70s because his books talk about the consumption of peyote as a tool to achieve states that allow us to perceive reality in another way (I will say it this way, so that you understand me).

I achieved by a blow possibilities of perceiving things in another way, while the inhabitants of northern Mexico used drugs for it. Many young people of that hippie era used Castañeda's books to get into whatever they could, supposedly for cultural purposes. That made him famous for good and bad reasons.

Now, the formal analysis: Castañeda's work recounts his learning of the art of nahualism or shamanism of the Mesoamericans or Amerindians who resided in Central and South America of the USA.

He, a Peruvian who studied anthropology in California, while conducting studies for his thesis met Don Juan Matus, a Yaqui Indian who introduced him to the world of sorcerers or warriors. From that thesis his first book was born: The Teachings of Don Juan.

Ready. So far the encyclopedic text. Now, summarizing too much, let's get to the point: according to Don Juan, the world that the common man perceives is only one of the millions that we are capable of perceiving.

As he explained, the human being is an egg of energy, which possesses a sphere of differentiated energy within it through which some of the millions of energy filaments that the Eagle spits out, the center that generates all the energy of the universe, pass.

The human being is capable of perceiving only the energy filaments or realities that pass through that point, called the assembly point.

Supposedly, when we are very young, the assembly point moves freely and very easily, until socialization fixes it at a specific point, which allows it to perceive the world like the rest of us.

The first seers, sorcerers or warriors were able to perceive this and created the path of the warrior or witchcraft, whose objective is to learn to move the assembly point at will. In practical terms, perceive other worlds and take advantage of them.

But of course, this is not as simple as wanting it: you must have a specific energetic configuration and lead a life full of demands and learning, which have nothing to do with our day-to-day, to achieve it.

In his books Carlos Castañeda recounts all his experiences with Don Juan, his Nagual (Teacher or group leader) and his disciples. Each group of warriors is made up of a male nagual, a female nagual and a series of warriors who must be dreamers and stalkers (skills that must be developed).

Many of these teachings have things in common with those of Buddha and Jesus Christ, but their purposes, apparently, are different. For example, the death of the ego. According to Don Juan, the ego, maintaining the image that we create of ourselves, consumes almost all of our energy. That leaves us very little for tasks that are really important for sorcerers.

He also gives Castaneda tasks to end his self-pity and that of others.

Another of the teachings is that of dreaming. According to Don Juan, when we dream our assembly point is released and other worlds can be perceived. Learning to dream means learning to be aware in our dreams, perceiving other worlds and taking advantage of them.

Before reading The Art of Dreaming I slept like a log and did not remember any of my dreams. After reading it, I began to practice ways of being aware in my dreams. Today I can tell you that I have learned to fly, like Superman; I recurrently find myself in places to which I belong in those dreams, with people who have a history and I can recognize; I have composed music, or I have been able to convert a classical music that was playing into a techno that was better adapted to the environment in which I found myself. I have woken up from a dream within another dream, to continue in the new one (supposedly, a resource that generates a lot of energy).

Castaneda explains that at first the ancient sorcerers took advantage of these techniques to have benefits in purely earthly and human approaches, which almost led to their disappearance. Then came a group of new sorcerers whose only objective is to generate enough energy to satisfy the eagle when our time comes to die. Don Juan explained to him that we are a sphere of conscious energy that the Eagle spits out; that, when we die, that bubble explodes and the energy is reabsorbed by the Eagle. That if you generate enough energy and satisfy its demands, the Eagle allows you to remain as a conscious energy forever.

Of course, this is what I have concluded after reading many of Castaneda's books over many years. And of course, I am not a sorcerer nor have I dedicated myself to living according to those demands nor to looking for the person, the nagual, who will explain it to me and guide me.

What I am is a human being very curious to hear new interpretations, with meaning, about our life and the doubts that accompany most human beings.

Of course, some say that Castaneda is a charlatan. I do not know. If everything he writes is invented, he was a genius. In his books I have found brilliant syntheses about human behavior and society; explanations to worlds that I have been able to live in dreams or in the state in which I found myself, after the accident.

If you are a curious person and open to new interpretations about what we are, I recommend it. But be patient, to understand it completely you must stop judging.

Can two grocery stores illustrate the success or failure of nations? In this unpublished text, Jorge, one of my characters, tries to do so. Do you think he succeeds?

—I always like to focus this theory of the success of nations on simpler examples. I call it the case of the grocery stores.

Jorge hit some commands and posted a chart.

—We have two grocery stores that started operations at the same time and in the same area of Madrid. Both owners inherited the store from a family member. They have similar facilities and are surrounded by a public with the same mix of socioeconomic levels in Spain. The difference is that one, whom we will call Number One, is a university graduate who worked in the human resources department of a multinational. The other, whom we will call Number Two, is a high school graduate who worked in an appliance workshop.

»When starting operations, Number One asks for a loan to fix up the premises and make them more attractive and modern. To match his lifestyle. Also because he knows that he will have to pay all the fixed costs of the business during the remodeling period, including the salary he assigned himself, similar to what he earned at the multinational he came from. He wants to maintain his standard of living. He also converts an area into a daycare center for the children of the business's workers, and hires a graduate educator to run it. He replaces the manager with a college-educated administrator to oversee operations, allowing him to focus on distributor negotiations. Based on the store's sales history, he sets some goals for the first year and offers incentives to the employees if they exceed them. His wife does not join the team because she works as an advisor at a foundation, and his son because he is only a child who will enter university next year. He must take care of his studies.

»Number Two, recognizing his limitations, decides to maintain the existing physical and operational structure. He does not hire anyone new. On the contrary, he fires the cashier. That job, along with others, can be done by his wife. He also fires the boy in charge of cleaning the store and arranging the shelves, because his son can do it when he leaves school. He is already becoming a man and will enter university next year. He must begin to assume responsibilities. He retains the manager, those in charge of serving the public in the meat and sea food area and the one who serves in the delicatessen area. Number Two concludes that they already know their job and their customers. The only thing he must supervise is that the operation and waste management are adequate. In other words, to prevent theft.

»Because Number One's store is under renovation, it can't open at the same time as Number Two's. Some of his clientele moves to Number Two's premises. Without expecting it, Number Two starts selling more units of items. In addition, he becomes more profitable than his benefactor relative (may he rest in peace) because they are saving the salaries of the two employees they fired and because he and his wife take over the administrative tasks after closing (working overtime). They also replace the seafood worker, who has been stealing by hiding portions in the trash and selling them to his neighbors.

»"When Number One's store reopens, he recovers some of the customers who have switched to Number Two's. He doesn't recover all of them, because he has a loan to pay; new costs that weren't in the business before; higher salaries for the two hired professionals; and the fishmonger, who steals part of the merchandise and no one notices, has to increase the price of his products. Although this doesn't affect the upper and upper-middle class consumers, who don't mind paying more to go to a closer, and now much nicer place (it even steals some of the buyers from those segments to Number Two), he loses a portion of his lower and lower-middle-class customers, who represent the largest sales volume.

»At the end of the year, Number One is very happy: he exceeded his turnover targets, he has improved the kind of customers who come to the store and he has reduced the number of people who buy low amounts, which was making operation and service more difficult. He pays his employees their production bonus and gives collective vacations. He also takes vacations .and, as usual, vacations in the Caribbean. He has calculated that it is the best time for everyone to go: most of his clients are also going on summer vacation. Besides, they always have a great time in Saint Martin, and the kid, his son, has to be rewarded because he graduated with honors.

»Number One fails to realize is that the sales of units and the number of clients have decreased significantly; that the increased revenue was due to price increases and the sale of a greater range of expensive and luxury products, which are those consumed by its buyers. Nor that, to achieve this, it has had to increase the number of suppliers, which slightly increased administrative costs (reducing profitability) and decreased the volume of purchases from each supplier, weakening his negotiating power.

»Number Two is also happy: he has earned much more money than his relative (God bless him) because he has a more profitable and effective operation; because he had significantly increased his sales volume (attracting customers from Number One´s grocery store)) and because, with the increase in sales, he secured better prices from suppliers (increasing his bargaining power). He has also been able to lower prices and, even so, increase the profit margin. He does not go on vacation because he knows that the other grocery store is going to close and part of his clientele, which he has lost, will necessarily buy from his business. Although two of his employees are going on vacation, he is calm: his son will take one of the positions and the other can be covered by him and the manager, to whom he plans to give a small bonus.

A smile was already appearing on everyone's face, as they understood where the example was going.

—At the beginning of the second year, Number One buys a car so his son can go to college. He is going to study art. He takes out a loan through the grocery store to finance the car. The accountant recommended it to him because it allows him to deduct the interest payments and report lower profits at year-end.

»Number Two is also going to buy a car. Not to send his son to business school (Madrid has excellent public transport), but to offer home delivery, He convinced himself that he would have to remodel his premises and spend a lot of money to get the upper- and upper-middle-class clientele to come back. He came up with the idea of delivering the products to the homes of those types of buyers, at the same price that Number One has them in his shop (and that's if we don't take into account the gas an time costs that he saves his customers, because then they would be cheaper). He knows that most of these products are expensive, with a large margin. And, on those that he doesn't have, he can require a minimum purchase. He can afford it. If customers won't come to him, he will go to them. To support the service, his son made a website that only cost him a few euros. Customers can go around the aisles of a very elegant shop with their shopping cart. This also benefits suppliers, who can advertise promotions, contests, and special offers on the site. Additionally, his son also came up with the idea of selling advertising space, where suppliers, and even some of his clients, can display their image campaigns or television commercials. With this, the site and its maintenance will be free. Possibly, It might even generate revenue. However, he prefers to use the space for in-kind exchanges, such as discounts or merchandise..

»By the middle of the year, Number One doesn't know what to do. Sales have fallen and his costs are very high. Even his employees don't buy from him anymore, because he can't finance them. They end up buying at Number Two's grocery store . The only solution he can find is to raise prices a little more. He can't afford to offer home delivery at Number Two's prices or make significant changes to offer new services. His wife is doing very well at her job, and can't leave it, and his son is dedicated to his studies.

»And as life goes, a crisis comes. Although some upper-class clients remain loyal, he loses many upper-middle-class clients, who sacrifice luxuries first. Now he is up against the wall. He has to ask for a new loan to get through the situation and pay fixed costs. But the bank makes it difficult for him, because his business numbers don't look good and he still has two loans that he hasn't finished paying off.

»Number Two is not even feeling the crisis. The volume of purchases, which decreased a little among lower-class people (but not much because they don't buy luxury goods), has been recovered by new upper-middle-class buyers who were previously Number One's clients. In addition, he has no debts. The loan he took out to pay for the delivery van pays for itself, with a small percentage of the income generated by that operation. In fact, the bank is offering him a new loan, at a very low rate, to buy another one. He doesn't know whether to use it for that or to buy some special offers that the suppliers are making because of the crisis. He has to do the numbers with his wife. Numbers will tell him what to do.

»At the end of that year, Number One managed to get the loan and save the business, but he had to put up some personal assets as collateral. Although the crisis is no longer so severe, he has not recovered many middle-class customers who stopped buying from him.

»Number Two, on the other hand, has a new delivery truck, but not because he tooked out the loan offered by the bank. He sold the one he had and took advantage of an exchange, for advertising on his website, with Mr. Andrés's dealership, a client. The new truck is a little bigger and more comfortable, and it adapts to the new pollution regulations that will surely be approved. He thought it over carefully and, although the financing of the loan had excellent features, they would have to hire a new driver and delivery person that they do not need. And that left him thinking about what to do to keep that going and not need many employees to increase sales. With that in mind, they renegotiate the loan as a mortgage, which has even better conditions, and buy the land that is next to the grocery store. There they build a parking lot and place a shopping delivery center, like the ones at fast food stores, which do not require large investments. Customers can now shop from wherever they want and pay for it on the website, at the same prices as in the store (without increases for delivery charges or minimum purchase requirement) and pick it up whenever they want. And the best part is the financial game that his wife come up with: to buy the property with a personal mortgage and not from the supply store. Then to create a real estate company, whose main capital will be that land, so the new company can rent it to the grocery store. The idea, when the numbers of the new company allow it, is to also buy the property where the grocery store is, to free it from that burden. They have realized that the supply store business is buying and selling merchandise, not owning property or managing real estate. For the supply store, those are costs. Buried money that cannot be used to buy inventory or new equipment. The new company will make a business out of that.

»At the end of the third year, Number One can't take it anymore. He had to sell his car and the one he bought for his son to pay off his debts. He is also determined to sell the business for whatever they will give him, before he loses even his apartment, on which he also has a personal loan. He is listening to offers.

»Since Number Two's new company can now afford it (the real estate company), his wife, who is in charge of its operation, comes up with a new idea: that company will apply for a loan to buy the property where their grocery store is located. With part of that money, the grocery store will be able to buy the property and the operation of Number One's. That one is at an excellent price, is very well located and has an infrastructure that is even better than theirs. In that new location they will be able to develop a customer service that her husband has been thinking about: a daycare center so that adults can enjoy their shopping in peace, and establish the positioning that they have been thinking about achieving for a while: “Grocery for the family.” In addition, it will allow their employees to take their children when they have no one to leave them with. Although they are not a charitable society, they know how complicated and worrying it can be for parents not to have anywhere to leave their children. They have experienced it. They love being able to help their employees. That way they are a little happier and work more comfortably. That, in addition, is also noticeable in the business environment and in their sales.

»They end up buying the Number One´s grocery store, who think that the crisis has put an end to its business. On the land next to his first grocery store, where they have the parking lot and the delivery site for purchases made through the website, Number Two develop a production center and unify the butchery, fishmonger, and delicatessen areas of the two grocery stores. They sell the equipment from both and take advantage of excellent financing plans offered by the bank to buy new equipment with greater capacity and quality. With the improvement of the operation and increase in sales, the credit will pay for itself. And they still have the liquidity from the sale of their old equipment. With that money, they decide to improve their first location, to unify its appearance with the one that belong to Number One, and to reduce the customer service areas of the fishmonger, butchery, and delicatessen in both stores. They only leave one employee per category, who serves at a small counter and pleases the customers who have time (those who want their cuts prepared in front of their eyes). The free space left behind is full with self-consumption refrigerators that display the packages processed in their production center. The customer only have to approach the refrigerator and take the product with the weight or preparation they want. From a previous study they carried out, they know which are the most requested by type of product. This greatly improves the circulation of the public in the store and reduces the time of purchase, so there are no crowds that require increasing the size of the store or the parking lots. At most, an additional cash register, to also speed up the payment. Although buyers can also make the payment through the website. Word has already spread about their prices and services and buyers come from other areas of Madrid. Things are going very well. And their employees are happy: the manager of their first grocery store now manages the shop where Number One´s grocery store was, with the salary that the previous manager of that business had, a person with a university degree. The employees of the delicatessen and the fishmonger now manage the production center and earn better salaries. The butcher preferred to stay serving the public in the grocery store, which is now smaller, for the same salary he had. There is everything in the Lord's vineyard.

»This is a simple comparison, without going into macroeconomics, political systems or sexual scandals. They are two equal inheritances, which is the investment. Both have a project. Although Number One had a better chance of success at the beginning, due to his academic training and learning in the multinational, it was Number Two who did. If you understood correctly, because most of the money invested by Number One was destined for social spending: salary equal to what he had in a multinational; hiring a manager, to have free time or less workload; daycare for the children of his employees; salary of a graduate teacher to take care of the daycare; vacations, and in Saint Martin; car for the cherub; bonuses to employees, for fulfilling a job for which he already pays them a salary. And I am not going to include the fact that his wife or son did not participate, because they are not directly costs that are paid by the grocery store. While, on the other hand, there was dedication to learn (basic education); cost reduction; increase in workloads; commitment and dedication of all the inhabitants; loans and investments only to generate more money or to solidify the position of the business. And in the end, and only as a consequence of the above, social benefits arrived.

»Number One wanted to have profits; Number Two wanted to produce them. Number One is Venezuela; Number Two is China and Japan before and after world war II.

Note: There is a previous text, also unpublished, where Jorge sets out his theory of the success of nations. I will publish it at another time, when I have verified some data.

Picture by Jose Murillo at Unsplash

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A Writer's Library

The Election: Award-Winning Story from Hispanic America

A Writer's Library

It's not exactly literature, anthropology, or history. Philosophy or religion, perhaps. I prefer to call them practical guides to becoming sorcerers and achieving freedom

Can two grocery stores illustrate the success or failure of nations? In this unpublished text, Jorge, one of my characters, tries to do so. Do you think he succeeds?

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