A Mexican migrant always looking forward.
In 2007 Daniel was 20 years old living with his parents in Puebla, Mexico. He had graduated high school, but there was no money in the family for him to pursue a technical education, let alone university. After high school he worked growing bananas, oranges, and coffee on the small plots of land his father owned. There was enough land to provide a basic living for his father and mother, but there was not enough land to support the next generation. Daniel really did not have a cash income. He was working to help his parents, and for food and shelter. He was surviving, but no more. When the agents of Gargiulo Produce came to town to recruit workers he signed up along with his brother Leonardo.
Daniel’s immigration and work experience with Gargiulo Produce was identical to that of his brother, Leonardo’s. Like Leonardo, Daniel experienced a strenuous but uneventful crossing, worked long difficult hours under terrible conditions for low pay, and was effectively in indentured servitude—working to pay off a debt to the company that his pay would never cover.
However, while Leonardo described these experiences in detail and with some bitterness, Daniel glossed over them. Daniel looks forward and not backward and is relentlessly positive.
Today, Daniel works in a market that sells groceries and prepared food targeted to the local Latino community. Daniel manages the fruit and vegetable department. He has worked at this same store since he arrived in the U.S. Along with his job, Daniel volunteers as a tanda organizer. The term “volunteer” does not really capture the essence of what he does. A volunteer works and receives no compensation, but what would you call someone who additionally takes on significant financial risk with no monetary reward?
A tanda is a form of Rotating Savings and Credit Association. In the case of Daniel’s tanda, a group of eighteen members have come together and mutually agreed to save $200 a week. Daniel collects $200 from eleven members while another tanda organizer, Maria, collects $200 from seven individuals that she knows. One participant each week is then given the $3,600 lump sum. If the tanda works correctly, after eighteen weeks, every member would have paid in $3,600 and every member would have received $3,600.
Individuals in the Mexican community use tandas to create savings discipline. Daniel explains that it is much easier to save in a tanda because each member of the tanda is responsible to the other members. Daniel explains, “If you have a little money in your house, you just spend it, but if you are in a tanda you can’t spend it because you are obligated to contribute to the tanda. When you receive your payout on your week, you now are looking at a lump sum of $3,600. This is a significant amount of money, and you are not going to waste it.”
Instead, individuals use this money for large expenses. Money can be sent back to Mexico to make payments on a building lot, make payments on a house, invest in a business or support family members. In the U.S. money is used to pay the immigration costs of family members coming to the country, pay for important events like quinceañeras, make large purchases, or pay outstanding bills. Daniel gave the example of someone who was behind in his rent. He told his landlord that he was in a tanda and that he would be able to make all of the back payments the next month when he received his payout. The landlord agreed. Participating in a tanda thus provided this individual with increased financial flexibility.
The individuals who receive their number first are receiving an interest free loan, and the individuals who are receiving the money last are effectively saving interest free, but what happens if someone receives their money and then stops contributing to the group? Daniel says that it is a risk, he has heard of it happening, but it has never happened to him.
Daniel’s tanda is a savings group not a social group. Daniel knows everyone that is in his tanda, but not everyone in the tanda knows each other. The members do not meet as a group. Daniel is the contact for his members, and Maria is the contact for her members. Daniel is related to four members, and he works with the other seven. Most are Mexican, but a few are from other Latino immigrant communities. Daniel knows who these people are, where they live, where they work and who they associate with. He knows their character and believes that they are reliable. He knows they will either bring the money to work or to his house each week or will give him the money when he comes by to collect it.
If one of them does not pay, Daniel needs to contribute his own money to make up for the shortcoming. Ultimately, Daniel is responsible for his eleven members just like Maria is responsible for her seven members. However, he knows Maria will pay. Her husband is Leonardo’s former brother-in-law, the man who loaned Leonardo and Daniel $600 each fourteen years ago, so they could pay off their debt to Garguilo Produce and escape their indentured servitude.
Over the past fourteen years Daniel has been able to support his family and save enough to purchase three building lots and build a house on one of these lots. He has moved his mother, father, youngest sister, and her child into this house. Although he is no longer in Mexico he is still caring for his parents.
Daniel has never returned to Mexico, nor does he wish to return. Of all his siblings, he is the most comfortable in the United States. He has built his life here. He is married and has a ten-year-old daughter who was born here and is a United States citizen. He and his wife speak to their daughter in Spanish, so she will not lose her heritage. She is so American, though, that although she is bilingual, she speaks Spanish with a distinctly American accent.