Interviews

The Cafe Owner

This is an interview with a North American who has owned and operated her own cafe for13 years in a small tourist town in Northern Mexico. Over coffee she describes the challenges she has faced in the transition to a new culture. As a small business owner, she found that she was caught between the traditions and attitudes of a rural Mexican workforce and the unwritten rules of the Mexican bureaucracy.... [view full item]

Hotel Owner, San Jose, Costa Rica

A former California real estate developer talks about the business culture in Costa Rica, the banks, credit, and the effects on his business. He bought and renovated a colonial home that he now operates as a hotel in San Jose.... [view full item]

The Counter-Protesters

When protesters from around the country converged on Miami for the November, 2003 trade summit, Café Mundo was there. We sat down with two free-trade advocates to hear their side of the issues. Their position is that the politics of the “fair trade” protestors are hurting the very people they intend to help!... [view full item]

The Cinco de Mayo Interview

The Associate Vice President of Academic affairs at Metropolitan State College of Denver shares his memories of the Chicano movement, and its beginnings in Colorado. He offers some interesting and controversial analysis of what the Chicano movement stood for; how it has evolved and matured since the 1960s; and how immigrants have changed its character. Is the current wave of immigraton a Latino version of Manifest Destiny?... [view full item]

Doing Business in Mexico

This interview with an expatriate North American followed on the heels of a short article sent to me by a friend who started a vehicle maintenance business in Utah. He complained about the degree of regulation on small business in the U.S.; the taxes; the costs of computing and filing those taxes; health care costs; and wondered aloud why people go into business in a regulatory climate that raises the cost of an employee by about 30% of the employee’s actual wage. See the article on our Bookshelf. I thought it would be interesting to interview an American business owner in Mexico on the subject of operating a business south of the border – the taxes, regulatory requirements, and labor issues in particular. His answers were surprising, as apparently it is not the government but the cultural factors that are the largest stumbling blocks.... [view full item]