Abstract

This oral history interview with Rey Arturo Esparza-Álvarez, conducted on June 19, 2025, documents his life journey from Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico, to Cleveland, Ohio, and his leadership role as President of Comité Mexicano de Cleveland. Esparza discusses his birth in 1975 in a low-income community, his educational experiences moving between Mexican and U.S. school systems, and his path from electrical engineering studies to a career in computer science software engineering. He details his 2011 relocation to Cleveland to work for Bendix Commercial Vehicle Systems and describes the founding and growth of Comité Mexicano de Cleveland, which began in 2016 as a community group and became a 501(c)3 nonprofit in 2020. The interview covers the organization's cultural programming including Mexican Independence Day celebrations and Día del Niño events, its collaboration with the Mexican Consulate in Detroit, and efforts to preserve the history of Club Azteca. Esparza reflects on the characteristics of the Mexican and Mexican-American communities in Northeast Ohio, challenges in building connections across regional communities in Lorain and Painesville, and the impact of contemporary immigration policies on Mexican communities. He also discusses his entrepreneurial ventures including Revy Fair Trade and his work promoting fair trade artisan products from Mexico and other countries.

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Interviewee

Esparza, Rey (interviewee)

Interviewer

Martínez Abeijón, Matías (interviewer); Souther, Mark (facilitator)

Project

Voces de Cleveland

Date

6-19-2025

Document Type

Oral History

Duration

165 minutes

Transcript

Matías Martínez Abeijón [00:00:04] Today’s date is Thursday, June 19, 2025. My name is Matías Martínez Abeijón with the Cleveland Regional Oral History Collection at Cleveland State University. My colleague Mark Souther will be the facilitator for this interview. Today we will be interviewing Rey Esparza, President of the Comité Mexicano de Cleveland. Thank you so much for meeting with us, Rey.

Rey Esparza [00:00:25] Thank you for the invitation. It is a pleasure being here with you guys and sharing a little bit of my history and my background and how I got here to Cleveland.

Matías Martínez Abeijón [00:00:34] Rey, where and when were you born?

Rey Esparza [00:00:38] I was born the precious city of Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico, and I was born- The birth date is … 1975.

Matías Martínez Abeijón [00:00:51] For the record, could you state and spell your name for us?

Rey Esparza [00:00:54] Yes, my full name is Rey Arturo Esparza-Álvarez. First names, R-E-Y A-R-T-U-R-O. Last names, E-S-P-A-R-Z-A A-L-V-A-R-E-Z.

Matías Martínez Abeijón [00:01:12] Thank you. Can you please tell us a little bit about your family’s background?

Rey Esparza [00:01:17] Okay, family background. So going back all the way to 1975 from conversations or talks, you know, with the family, I can recall that I come from a low-income family. That for sure, I can assure that. So my family and my mother and my dad, both of them are from the city of Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, and I was born in a low-income community in Ciudad Juárez. Our income was low. That, I can say, that probably this room right here, it’s probably about the size of where our living space was. I was not even born in a hospital actually, I was born in that room by a, what they called back then a partera. So I forgot the word in English. I’ll see if I can remember right now.

Matías Martínez Abeijón [00:02:21] A “partera” is a woman that helps you do labor [inaudible] that helps you deliver or midwife.

Rey Esparza [00:02:30] Midwife, exactly. That’s the word I was looking for. Yes. Yeah, so actually my parents, when I was born it was with the help of a midwife, you know like I said probably it’s about 10 by 15 room from there on I can recall that it was even with my grandparents’ house that we were sharing this room. My parents were sharing this room with them. My mom, her name is Magdalena Esparza and, well, Magdalena Álvarez de Esparza after she got married. My dad’s name is Arturo Esparza Castro and after that moment, I believe how they say it, I was, you know, like their beginning on a different view of the world. They had to take a little bit more responsibility. So my parents tell me that actually my dad didn’t want it to take responsibility. Not that he didn’t recognize me as his son, but it was like not supporting the family. So it was the classical person in the barrio who, at the corner just hanging around, you know, just waiting for friends or see what does the day has for them. But what my grandparents tell me it, my grandparents from my mom’s side is the one that, you know, almost forced them, like they say, gunpoint almost to, you know, you have to be more responsible, have to take care now of this family. So that’s what I recall they told me. And that’s how they started their family. My dad started looking for a job actually once my mom was able, she actually also contributed. Since then she had a job in a maquiladora in Ciudad Juárez. And both of them started from there on their journey as parents.

Matías Martínez Abeijón [00:04:48] Very good. Where did you go to school?

Rey Esparza [00:04:55] So part of the story here, it’s, I feel it’s kind of interesting. Why? Because actually my dad, he was born- He was son of a U.S. citizen, but we were in Ciudad Juárez. And my grandmother, Manuela, she was a Mexican citizen, but there were some conflicts in there. I believe in this is why and probably how earlier generations think. You know, she didn’t want to move to the U.S. She didn’t care about having U.S. citizenship or residency or nothing like that. So she stayed in Ciudad Juárez in Mexico. He, of course, he was from the U.S. He stayed in El Paso. My dad lived with her. So, going back to your original question, there was some turbulence as I was growing up and going to primaria, how they say over there in elementary school, how they say here? Because I started going to elementary school, primaria, in Ciudad Juárez. So I was there first grade, second grade. Second grade, we moved to El Paso, Texas, because my dad started a process such that he could get recognized from his dad as a U.S. citizen going through court and hopefully getting the U.S. citizenship that he deserved. After a year or two years later, the courts determined that no. Why? Because there was a misstatement that was provided by her mom, my grandma. So they denied the U.S. citizenship. And now we go back to Ciudad Juárez and I finish my primaria over there, which is third, fourth, fifth and sixth grade, in Mexico. So, before I forget, I wanted to add a little bit of dialect of what I can recall as I moved into the U.S. for the first time and being at a elementary school for the first time in the United States. It was way different compared to school in Mexico. Because in Mexico they only have, I believe it’s 3, 4 hour, two cycles during the day. So there’s “matutino,” which is in the morning, students going in the morning, and “vespertino,” which it’s going in the afternoon. So usually I would go in the afternoon, which is around from 2 to 6 PM, around 4 hours, which in the United States you go starting in the morning all the way to like 2, 3 PM so that was different. That was a different schedule. Of course, I didn’t know any English when I moved into this school, right? So because of that, and I could not communicate well, I was moved from second grade back to first grade as I came into the United States. Of course, there was bullying. I saw all the things that I had to see regarding bullying because I didn’t speak, my color, everything, you name it. And I was fortunate that I had a cousin that was living in El Paso, Texas. He was born in El Paso, Texas, he grew up in El Paso, Texas. So he was going to the same school as I was. He was about my age, so he was in the same grades. And he took care of me. And I’m happy for that because one of the guys who was bullying me, taking my money away, or the little money that I would get for lunch, or taking my lunch away or push me around, my cousin, he was well known and respected at school. Because if this guy was a bully, my cousin was the bully of the bullies. He was known at school. He was known the area where we grew up, which in downtown El Paso, it’s called Segundo Barrio. And he was, we can say, one of the head of the gangs there in Segundo Barrio. So that’s why he was respected. And once this guy knew that he was my cousin, he completely stayed away. And since then I did not have any troubles at school. No one would even try to touch me. So for that story, I’m grateful. Which I see it sometimes in movies and it does really happen in the bathroom. That’s, that’s where this encounter one time that he was pushing me around, my cousin saw him and he just jumped in front of him and pushed him back and told him, you know, don’t mess with him, he’s my cousin. So if you do something to him, you’re gonna get, you’re gonna see me. So since then that stopped and I was able to walk free at school.

Matías Martínez Abeijón [00:10:08] Very good. You mentioned that you started in school in Mexico, then you came to El Paso, then you had to go back to Mexico. What about high school?

Rey Esparza [00:10:18] High school after finishing elementary school or primaria in Mexico. How is known which is up to sixth grade. Then that’s another part of the story where my parent. My dad is involved because as I said, my, my dad started, you know, taking care of his family. By that, by 6th grade, I had- We had already- I had a brother, so they had another son. So now we were living at our own house. But he had already been working in El Paso, crossing the border every single day, which back then it was no issue. He knew across the border all across El Paso, at least downtown El Paso, as far as he can go. He could cross through any- There were several spots that he knew where to go through where he would come out in downtown El Paso. Downtown, yeah, main streets. He knew when was the shift change of immigration officers. So that was a bigger window of time to cross the border. And by, like I said, by that time he was already working constantly. He had a job in, you know, El Paso, in construction. So, after sixth grade it was already in the ’80s. And that’s where the amnesty program came into effect. Through that amnesty program, my [inaudible], my dad’s boss, he submitted the application. He worked with my dad such that he can get his residency. So that made it a lot easier for him. A couple years before that they passed another, I guess it was, yeah, I’m thinking it’s a law in pair with that amnesty where if you had amnesty, you could bring your immediate spouse or significant other to request for her to bring her to the United States. A year later or so, there was another amendment done to it that now you could bring your whole family into the United States. So it was first the person working, immediate family or spouse, significant other, and then your family, if you had any children. So that’s when I came into the United States. That was after finishing. Actually I could have gone to coming to United States through that program when I was in sixth grade. But my parents said no, go ahead and finish sixth grade in Mexico and then we can do the process such that it can move to the United States after finishing elementary school. So I started again back in El Paso in school at the beginning of seventh grade, which is middle school. From, I finished middle school. It was Wiggs Middle School in El Paso, Texas. I think I kept some of my English from the first time that I was in school. It wasn’t as hard, but still, you know, just getting used to again to how the school system is here in the United States. And now in middle school, you- I was, you know, it was something again, new to me that you jumped from one classroom to the other. That was- I was lost. I was. Why are we doing this? Because in Mexico, even the secundaria, which is after primaria, the professors are the ones [who] go into your classroom. It’s the other way around. But here, no, you’re jumping around periods, you know, for the different topics. So I had to get used to that. After that, you know, I went to El Paso High School, which- That’s where I finished my four years of high school. In high school, I was, you know, already I was, I guess, now accustomed to the school system. I already had friends from coming over from middle school. I actually played sports in high school. I played tennis and baseball in high school. I got my letterman jacket. We can say I was not hiding under the rocks, but I was also not the most popular student in there. I kept my grades up because that was something that my dad would always push into me because he didn’t want me to be working his area, which is construction, even though later on he was able to start his own company. So. But he wanted me to study to such that I wouldn’t be doing hard labor. We can say it that way. So I always kept my grades up. Actually, my GPA, I didn’t make it to the top 10, but I was top 20. When I graduated from high school, I think my GPA was 3.9- 98, 99, something, which was decimals that, you know, threw me from top 10 to lower top 10. So with that, finished high school. Honestly, I didn’t know what I was gonna do after high school because I’m first in family with my parents, so I’m the oldest. I don’t- When we moved again to El Paso, it was a similar situation as me and my wife moved here to Cleveland because we didn’t know anyone besides his boss in El Paso. I had no- I had my cousin here, but he never went for a higher education. And those- That was the only cousin that I knew. And I think by that time they had moved out to Denver. So I was like I knew no one after high school. Just friends that I made some good friends that I made in high school. But regarding college, universities, I was blank. I didn’t know, you know, how, how to apply, how to get funding. Nothing, nothing related to that. Good thing, like I said, I played baseball. I was pitcher, so I needed to have a good relationship with the catcher. So Alex de la Cruz, who was the catcher and friend of mine, friend of me and my wife, later, he’s the one that, because I talked to him and I told him, you know what? Because he asked me what university are you gonna go to? Have you applied to the university? So I’m like what are you talking about I don’t know how to apply, I don’t know, I’m not gonna be able to play to pay for that. You know, my dad makes good money now, better than before, but he’s, he cannot pay for university. So what I was thinking is going to a two-year technical school where I can get a degree or certification as mechanic, as electrician or something like that, goes no, you can’t do that, you shouldn’t do that, you’re too smart, you should be going to the university. And he’s like I’ll help you. So he took me, he worked with me, he showed me how to fill out the or how to go get the application. Fill it out. Applied for financial aid and I was glad that I did qualify for financial aid, the Pell grant that is offered by universities. So thanks to him I can say I went to the university. I went to UTEP, University of Texas in El Paso, and he went to a different university. I came into the university, again. None of my friends from high school were at the university at UTEP. We all scattered. So university was a different story. So I studied, I went in, started my basics with the idea of becoming an electrical engineer as I went to university. Why electrical engineer? This is part of a journey, history, memory that I have when I was in elementary, you know, they do field trips or middle school they also do field trips, but I believe this one was [inaudible] when I was still in elementary school. They did a field trip to Bowie High School in El Paso, and, as we were there, they already had a laboratory in which they were working with computers. And I like computers. Since then I fell in love with computers at that point, what they would do, what you could do. So when we finished that tour at Bowie High School, I was like I want to work with computers. I didn’t know what I was going to do with computers, but I want to work with computers. So when I went and checked the degrees they offered at UTEP. I was like I want to go into computer engineering. Which computer engineering was derived was from electrical engineering. So your core degree was electrical engineering, computer option. So that’s how they had it at UTEP. So that’s why I went into electrical engineering with the idea of going into this computer option. At first I thought I was going to be fixing computers which it Turns out I was not going to be fixing just computers. It was electrical engineering. It’s a lot of electronics, devices that you could design and work with, right? So I went and started my school. Like I said, I already had the funding that way to go to school. After, my parents were so glad, you know, they were also happy because it was, I’m the oldest going to university, something that probably they never thought one of the kids would be doing. Actually my dad took out a new car and told me, here, this is for you so you can go to school. So I was happy with that, of course. Now I had transportation. So I started my journey going to school as an electrical engineer. The first year that I go into university, here comes the news that I’m going to be a father. So people believe that going to university, it’s hard. Try going to university as a father and working two part-times. And there was one year that I had a full-time and two part-times working in university and going full-time to the university. Of course, that year it was terrible. Too much stress. So I just dropped, I had to drop one of the part-times because if not I was gonna probably not do great on my schools, on my classes and probably lose my Pell grant, my funding for it to continue going to school, which following semesters I did. I was about to lose it, but unfortunately I was able to stick around, do better in my classes and continue getting that support from Pell grants. Later on, after three years of being in electrical engineering, towards my last year, actually because of my load, electrical engineering, the curriculum, is designed such that you go four years. But those four years you’re talking 18, 20 hours credits. So that’s like four or five classes every semester. That was too much. So I took it down to 12, 14, which is still full-time instead of the 18, 20 hours. So because I took that strategy, actually my career was gonna be five years instead of four. So in my last year I started taking some programming classes. Microcomputer. Yeah, microcomputer, which basically I started doing some - I forgot this - assembler language and then I did some C language, which now these classes were targeted towards my computer option degree. [inaudible] that I usually say is I didn’t hate electrical engineering, I liked electrical engineering. But you know when you have those labs and you go and you start doing this RC resistance capacitor circuits and other amplifying circuits and everything, I would get bored in those laboratories. I would get bored. I would go into the lab, start building the circuit. It’s not that I wouldn’t do the work. I would do it. I would still- But for some reason it was like, aw, shoot, it’s just half hour, still have to go, stay here for another two hours. So what am I gonna be doing? And you know, I would continue working circuit. For some reason I got bored. On the contrary, when I took those programming classes, C language, assembler, it was totally different. I could be there, start programming, whatever the lab was. And to me it seemed like I was there for half an hour. Look, I’ve been here for two hours. So, you know, that’s when someone asked me why the career? It’s like what career should I choose, where should I go? It’s gonna all fall on what you love doing. Same thing with your work. If you want to do something because of money and you don’t like it, you’re going to suffer. If you do it because you like it, you enjoy it. Time’s gonna fly. So where I’m going is after those classes I changed careers. I went from electrical engineering to computer science and that caused, you know, delay graduating because now they revalidated of course all the basics were covered and maybe a couple classes that I had taken like the microcontrollers and the C class, which is a C language course, a couple of them were considered by the computer science department. But still I was about two years short of other classes. So instead of graduating in four or five years, I graduated like in six, seven years, down the road. So I ended up graduating in computer science. And I was fortunate enough that my last year when I was working on my senior project, about to graduate. You know, you make friends. I was really good friends with this girl named Flor, and she was already working with a company named Stoneridge Electronics in Mexico. She was a co-op. Turns out that last year she had gotten married. Her husband was being relocated to, I believe, Dallas, Texas. So, she was leaving that opening as a co-op and they asked her, is there someone you can recommend? So she looked to me and that’s how I got my first job as engineer. Actually, she was doing a co-op as electrical engineer. Since I had the background in electrical engineering. He said, she asked me, do you want me to recommend you? I go, yes, of course. So that’s how that was my transition to my first job as engineer with Stoneridge Electronics. Thanks to her as well.

Matías Martínez Abeijón [00:26:58] Good. If I might ask, you mentioned that baseball was key to your high school. Were you able to also play baseball in college or it was something just for high school?

Rey Esparza [00:27:12] I asked UTEP. I researched to see if they offered a baseball, if they had a baseball team. They didn’t. But I didn’t stop there. Actually, in college, the university, I didn’t play baseball, but I was playing racquetball. I started playing racquetball and I got to a point that I was playing B level and I started going to tournaments. After I graduated from, from, got my degree and graduated from UTEP, I actually went back and I was playing in a team in Mexico, in Juárez. The reason is going back to Stoneridge because once I graduated, I was already working as a co-op there, and they gave me the opportunity to continue working there. And actually to that story is they knew by the time I graduated, they knew that I was not getting a degree in electrical engineering, that I’m doing computer science. And even year before that they asked me they needed support, the software department needed support and doing validating software, testing the product. So since I’m a co-op, you know, they move you around to different places. They asked me, would you help us? So I started, actually, I started my software career doing some testing on software, on products. So by the time I graduated, they really liked how I worked with, you know, testing. And the opportunity gave me at the software department, the software department wanted me was trying to pull me into their department and, again, the manager from the electrical department, he was really good, I guess he called me into the office and he told me, you know what? We’re gonna have two openings in the engineering department. We’re going to have one as a junior engineer in the electrical department. And we’re going to have one in the software department. And he asked me if you want to go to the software department, that’s fine. I would’t put any hurdles. I won’t try to retain you. It’s your choice. But I do want to say you’ve been doing a good job here in the electrical department. We would like to have you stay here in the electrical department, but it’s up to you. If you want to move to the software department, that’s your choice. So, I ended up choosing for the software department. So, in that company, after I was really working there for probably two years, in Mexico, in the maquiladoras, there’s an association. That association does some activities. They do intramural activities and they have teams competing with other maquiladoras, factories in Mexico. So Stoneridge had a baseball team. Yeah, they had a baseball team, and I started playing with them. And the guy who was in charge of the baseball team within the company, he put me, you know, at first, like the new kid, “Okay, you’re gonna go play left field.” Right? So I started playing left field. And then once he saw that I could throw from the field all the way to home, it’s like, “Have you pitched before?” And I go, “Yes, I have.” “You want to try it?” “You know, it’s been a while since I pitched, so I’ll need to warm up really good and give it a try a couple times.” Goes, “Okay, yeah, no problem.” So since then, I started pitching with them. But then he was also had a team outside the maquiladora. It wasn’t like the top teams, but it was a team that would go out to compete with other cities across Chihuahua. One of the teams that we, that I got to go play against was in Parral, Chihuahua, which I was the opening pitcher. And actually we won that game. So. So, yes, I continued my journey as baseball. Later on in El Paso, I couldn’t get into a baseball team, but I saw my dad once. He had his company, he was invited to or he invited me to a picnic with his fellow workers. And they were gonna get together and they were re gonna play slow pitch fastball. And he invited me and I’m like, of course, slow pitch, I can hit that ball easy. If I can hit 80, 90 mile-per-hour baseball, why not a slow pitch? I’m like, I’ll give it a try. So I went with him. My first experience batting as slow pitch, I strike out. It’s a different strategy, you know, patience and the, I guess eye and hand movement, they need to be synchronized in order to hit that ball forward. But, again, what they liked about me was my arm because even I was playing outfield. Again, from outfield, even softball, I could make a nice, nice line throw to home plate and to second base, and I stopped many people from stealing second base, you know. So the guy who was organizing the picnic, he had a team, a softball team. And they played Thursdays. Yeah, I think it was Thursdays and Sundays. And he invited me to play on Sundays. Since then, I played with them. There was another guy who saw me play or was in the team, and he made his own team and he invited me to play. And for years I played travel, which we played in tournaments in Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. Slow pitch. And we won a couple championships. So.

Matías Martínez Abeijón [00:33:34] Congratulations. If I might ask, how do you end up living in Cleveland?

Rey Esparza [00:33:39] Okay, so going back to that. So in 2008, 2009, if you recall, violence in Ciudad Juárez rose tremendously, right? My city started becoming a ghost town. Many businesses were moving to El Paso, Texas. Many restaurants were closing in Juárez, but they were opening in the U.S. There was a big demand for housing in El Paso. Many, many businesses were closing down in Juárez and opening across the border. By then, funny thing is, also, I was working in Ciudad Juárez. I would cross the border every day back to Juárez to work with Stoneridge Electronics, which sometimes I see it as a funny story or the irony of life. Why? Because my dad, when he started working, he would cross the border from Juárez to El Paso every single day to go to work. Now, me, with a degree as an engineer, I had to cross the border the other way around. I had to cross from El Paso to Juárez every single day to get to work. So sometimes I reflect, and then I’m like, what an irony, you know? So when that happened, that was not the only reason but at that time, I was- There was also a recession. They froze salaries in the company that I was working for. There were, several people were laid off. So there was tension. So after that recession, when things started to be back to normal, so like I said, the company had frozen salaries. So I’m like, okay, we’re out of the hole, maybe, so next evaluation, whoa, we might get a good raise. To my surprise, we didn’t. It was just normal or even not so good of a raise. So that’s when I said, you know what? I’m gonna start looking. So I worked on updating my résumé, put it out there. A couple months later, nothing. Nothing came up. During that time, I also asked for a raise. Of course, no, nothing. So I’m like, what’s going on with my résumé? You know, I have this experience. I’ve already been working with this company ten years. So I went online and I searched for my position, and I searched for résumés of people who might be applying for my position, and I got some hits. I started looking at some of the résumés. I’m like, okay, I know how to do that. I know how to do that. And I would look at my résumé. It’s not here. Those words, what, what they describe, I have it here. But I didn’t have the same words. So the key there was words I was not using, the keywords that usually even at that point, you know, they get filtered by automatic programs that they look at résumés. So I didn’t have the keywords in my résumé that others had. So at that point I updated my résumé, added some of those keywords, changed phrases, added some of the other things that I saw here that I didn’t have on mine. Boom. After that, a week later, a call, an email, a call, an email. I was flooded with emails, I was flooded with calls. I got interviews, like three, four interviews every week, like for about a month from there on. After a month I got second interviews with about six companies from there. The next week I received four invitations to come on site to for an in-person interview. So one of them was Bendix Commercial Ecosystems, Continental in Detroit, and the other one was, the one that I confirmed, was another company in Fargo, North Dakota. This one was not a company- I think it was more of a software solutions company that, you know, they offer their services to other companies. I don’t remember the name of that one. The reason is that I, on the same week I planned it, and my colleagues in Stoneridge don’t know, but I set up vacation, three days of vacation. I set up my interview in Detroit with Continental on a Monday. So I flew out Sunday, went to interview on Monday, went back home that evening, next day, Tuesday, fly to Cleveland and then interviewed on Wednesday, then Wednesday fly back home. Thursday I’m back at work. So my interview with Continental went awesome. They were looking for a computer embedded software engineer that would do what we call the application level. So I got interviewed by them. During the interview they asked me different questions. Basically what we have, the other layer is low-level software development. Which I also had the experience. So it turns out during that interview they called the manager of the department that does the low-level software and both of them interviewed me. At the end of that interview, basically I was told we have two positions. Which one would you select? So my answer was, well, you’ve seen and you heard my experience. As you know, I can work in either, either of the two departments. Either of the two software levels. Where do you need the most help? That’s where I can, I can work for you. So as I was coming out from that interview, I already knew I was gonna get an offer. I came into Bendix and I was interviewed the whole day. I was in an interview with the manager of the software department and some of the other colleagues from the ADAS department. So from that one I wasn’t so sure as I left the company if I was going to get an offer. But I was, as I was driving to the airport to drop off the vehicle, I got a call from the software manager, Ron Stahl and he’s like, “Hey, I forgot to ask you something. Do you mind if I make that question now?” I go, “Yeah, that’s fine, go ahead.” And he’s like, “Are you allowed to work in the United States? Are you legal? Are you a citizen able to work in the United States?” And I go, “Yes, I’m a U.S. citizen.” By then I was already a U.S. citizen. So he’s like, “Okay, that’s all I needed to know.” after he hanged up, I’m like, I’m gonna get an offer from them. So yes, then that the following week I was gonna interview in Fargo, North Dakota. But since I already had, I was pretty sure I was gonna get those two offers. I just called the third company, told them, besides, it’s cold over there too snowy. More than here. So I was like, you know what? I called them and I told them the situation. And you know, I’m going to probably accept one of those offers. So I don’t want to waste your time with the in-person interview. Waste some of that money that- Because they pay for everything. So I’m just not gonna go to your in-person interview. So that’s how I ended up at the end, I accepted Bendix because I saw it’s a smaller company. And my idea was that, you know, Continental is such a huge company, you’re more, more- Not that most companies, you know, they treat you as a number, but since Continental, it’s a bigger company, it’s more like a number. And since we’re coming out of a recession, I’m like, what if this happens again? I’m probably gonna be one of the first ones to go at Continental. Bendix was smaller. It was, I don’t know, it gave me the impression that it was more, more company willing to work with its employees. So that’s why that was one of the reasons why I chose Bendix and moved over here to Cleveland. That’s how I ended up in Cleveland.

Matías Martínez Abeijón [00:42:51] Thank you very much. Besides your work as an engineer with Bendix, it is my understanding that you have opened and been involved with many business in the community over time. Like with Fruti, La Estrellita Hispana, Revy Fair Trade. Can you tell us a little bit about how you came to get into this business? How do you do the transition from engineering to the business side of things? Can you expand? Tell us a little bit about it?

Rey Esparza [00:43:20] Yeah, and that’s- I could probably say that the trigger of that or who made that make me move into that direction. I would blame my wife. Why? Because when we got here, I mean, she was a Zumba instructor back in El Paso and she started here. Actually that was one other reason why I chose Bendix. Because right away in conversations they were offering Zumba classes at Bendix and they were looking for an instructor. So when, I don’t remember how, but HR, probably in a conversation they found out, well, my wife’s a Zumba instructor and they’re like oh, we can ask your wife if she wants to give the classes. So. So right away even they had a third party contract. But they could recommend, you know, we have her, we want her as an instructor. So they said we can have her as a Zumba instructor. She can, she would have a job coming over here just like you. So once we got here, I mean she’s a person that- She likes to be out in the community, so she started looking for something to do in the community. Back in El Paso, she was with a working at a community center doing projects with different areas of the community. As the last program she worked on was a grant that they received in order to help fix things of in the houses from low-income communities. You know, maybe if they have a leaking roof, if they have need work and fixing something of plumbing or something, they had the grant such that they can go out there and fix, repaint the houses, fixed roofs, or stuff like that. So she was looking for something here in Cleveland as well, something she can work and do in the community, so she started getting involved in Lorain, and then we jumped into Cleveland. So after a while - I’m gonna probably fast forward a little bit - so after a while she started working in Cleveland and she came across with Dr. Pujana and Dr. Pujana was looking, she initiated the idea of having a “Ventanilla de Salud” from the Mexican Consulate in Detroit to have it here in in Cleveland. So, turns out my wife, she had worked that same program, “Ventanilla de Salud,” in El Paso. That was one of the other part-time jobs she had in El Paso. So she had the experience of working Ventanilla de Salud program at the Mexican consulate in El Paso. So when she heard about it, of course she applied. And since she already had the experience, the background as what the program does. So, the Mexican consulate didn’t doubt it on hiring her to have her here in Cleveland. So that’s how she started getting involved more and more with the community. And through those programs she met Eduardo, and Eduardo was working for Esperanza. And this is where we talk a little bit more on and the representation in the community of the different areas of the communities. So Eduardo, as he was working at Esperanza, he had been working there probably for, I don’t know, probably less than a year. And he noticed that most of the programs that are offered not just by Esperanza, but Hispanic American, American, the other organization that’s at West 40th, Hispanic American Hispanic or something like that.

Matías Martínez Abeijón [00:47:41] Spanish American Committee.

Rey Esparza [00:47:42] Yes, that one. So similar to those organizations, they focus a lot on the Puerto Rican community. The idea behind that is that, you know, Puerto Ricans are considered U.S. citizens, so it’s easier for them to get federal funding. But when they work with communities like the Mexican community from Guatemalans and [Hondurans] or communities from El Salvador, people from those areas, most of those people are immigrants without their legal status in the United States, right? So it’s harder for them to get funding because they cannot easily report those numbers, the quantities of people they’re helping out. So Eduardo noticed that there was, in a similar way there was a lack of representation of the Mexican community in the area. And he decided to talk to his manager and he threw in the idea of starting a program such that we can do a little bit more representation of the Mexican community with some activities that are true to Mexico. Like I had not heard in Cleveland of, you know, doing a celebration for Independence Day, which later on going through some books, talking to some people, long time ago there used to be celebrations, but they stopped. So things we started doing some activities in that essence that would focus more into the Mexican community. So that’s, that’s how Comité Mexicano de Cleveland came into place. Because that was, that was part of our mission that you know, we would focus on arts and culture that would represent our Mexican heritage and culture. And it’s open for everyone. Not because it’s Mexican-based or Mexican-focused, it doesn’t mean it’s just for the Mexican communities. It’s- We welcome everyone that wants to continue learning. Because I know there’s a lot of people out there that they love traditions, food, arts, that is done in Mexico or reflects Mexico. So that’s how Comité Mexicano started back in 2016. And we started as a group. It wasn’t even a nonprofit organization. We were- We started working under the umbrella of Hispanic Alliance. So back then it was Hispanic Alliance. Eduardo was working for Hispanic Alliance. Maybe I mentioned this before but no, the correct organization is he started working with Hispanic Alliance, he was working with Hispanic Alliance and that’s where he came up with this idea. And we did a brainstorming meeting back in 2016 where we invited community leaders, primarily Mexican community leaders, and we got ideas from them. Okay, what would you like to see? What would you like to happen here in Cleveland that relates to our Mexican heritage? So we got ideas from there and from that meeting, we just did an event here, an event there. Like I said, our first Independence Day celebration was actually in the parking lot of- Is it University? USC. It’s an elementary or elementary middle school. Just right off- It’s right next to this Metro Health hospital that was renovated. They just renovated the whole area, the parking lot, and they even closed down a section of a street.

Matías Martínez Abeijón [00:51:53] Is it like the one on Lorain Avenue?

Rey Esparza [00:51:56] Yes, yes. It’s that elementary school. It has the parking to the entrance, has like, a u-shaped, horseshoe-shaped entrance and it’s gated. So that’s why we liked it as well, because we could set up there and have our celebration. Actually, in that celebration, it was- We were able to get in touch with the Mexican consulate at that moment. And it was his first day, first week coming into Detroit for starting his work here. And that was probably the first event he participated in. He flew into Detroit and drove here to celebrate with us Independence Day.

Matías Martínez Abeijón [00:52:45] It’s the Urban Community School.

Rey Esparza [00:52:46] Urban Community School, yes. Yes. That was our first collaboration and our first, the first location where we celebrated Independence Day. And actually we have pretty good pictures from that celebration. From there on, every year, we’ve been doing this celebration on, around the weekend of September 16. Other celebrations that we started doing- And it was an idea of Patty Esparza. It was celebrating children. We- Every April we tried to do it at the last weekend of April, even though in Mexico they celebrate children on the 30th of April. And this was, for me and my wife, it was something that was in our heads because in Mexico, the 30th of April, there’s actually no school. Well, there’s school, but there’s a special- It’s a special day. They have activities, they have performances, they invite parents to come in. Stores are giving out candy. There’s events throughout the cities. So it’s a big thing in Mexico, celebrating children on April 30th. So like I said, that was a memory that we had and we wanted to start doing something similar here in the area, in Cleveland. After reading a little bit about Children’s Day, you know, it’s celebrated on different dates throughout the world, but it is celebrated in many, many countries, including the United States, but it’s different state, different dates, so the first time we celebrated this event was at the parking lot of La Plaza Supermarket. I believe it was, it was, was it the drive through? I think it was before the pandemic hit. So, actually we had a couple organizations that supported us. It was not a huge turnout, but we had some kids that were there. We gave out candies, we got toys for the kids. And then we, we didn’t give up. We continued. Next year, unfortunately, that’s when the pandemic hit in 2019?

Mark Souther [00:55:21] 2020.

Rey Esparza [00:55:22] Yeah, 2020. 2020. And we had already everything planned, so we turned it into a drive through. So we had the organizations, we had the toys, we had candy. So instead of people coming into the parking lot- And you know, it was that time when things started to calm a little bit down, you know that people can start go out and a lot with their masks, with any precautions and in order to avoid cluttering, because that’s what they didn’t want it for people to be in groups. So that’s why we did it as a drive through. And the turnout was good. It was better than the previous year. So the following year they said, okay, now let’s try and, you know, promote it earlier. Try to get more organizations involved, this and that. So we ended up going to the Pivot Center. So we asked permission there to host the event. We got organizations that are established there to be part of the event. So actually the first event there, it was great. We had over 45 organizations participating, including the ones that are already there. The museum was a big help, the Cleveland Museum of Art Community Center. They were supportive. They got their mobile van outside for activities for the children. We used a parking lot. So that was another thing that allowed us to use the parking lot. We put up tents. It was great. It was great. We were able to get funding to have not only toys, but food for the children. And one thing that we usually ask the organizations and participate, if you can, you can make a donation to us, but what we really ask from you is either have an activity or have a giveaway for the kids. That’s mainly the thing that we ask for. So in that first event at the Pivot, our number grew from, I don’t know, from 30 the previous year to around 250 children attending. So that was a big jump. With the parents included, I mean, we had about 600 individuals or people walking through at this event, and it still continues. This year we had close to a thousand people show up. We- And it has kept growing. Now we have organizations like 501st Legion from Columbus, they drive all the way here, and they dressed up as Star Wars characters. We had the Ghostbusters organization. They showed up, like five people, four or five people dressed up as Ghostbusters and they had their car, I think they called [Ectomobile], something like that. So I mean we have performances from Julia de Burgos, from other groups. Rosa, I think she has her group also performing and a lot of activities. And year after year we start, actually, now, at the beginning of the year, we start getting emails. Hey, are you guys doing the other niño this year? So it has gotten so well, it has been well received that now even organizations are reaching out to us when the time comes such because now they want to be part of it. So. So things like that. Comité has been promoting and doing activities in the community. Not to mention we have a very good solid connection or not connection, but relationship with the consulate, Mexican consulate, in Detroit. We support them. And there’s been occasions when they needed support here in Cleveland and they have had- They had the trust that we can help him with some cases. And the same thing. It’s sometimes when we have cases of this happened to this person, then we can reach out to them and they’ll try and give us support for those cases. So, yeah, Comité Mexicano has been growing. We’re working a lot with organizations, doing collaborations, attending fairs, hosting fairs. So, it is a nonprofit that I say still fairly new, even though I said we started in 2016. That’s when we started as a group. But officially when we became nonprofit, it was in 2020, right after pandemic, right after we had been approved to have a space with the Cultural Gardens because we already have a dedicated space. So which that halted a little bit our process with the gardens because now when the pandemic hit in 2020, we couldn’t do any activities, any fundraising outside. So. So that stopped us. But we’re looking into get the ball rolling again, get a team together such that we can start doing something for the Cultural Gardens. We do a lot of collaborations also with MetroHealth. We have support from CAC, Cuyahoga Arts and Culture, Cleveland Foundation, programs like Neighbor Up. See and I mean there’s big list of collaborations that we do with other nonprofits around Cleveland, Clark-Fulton area. So, too many to mention.

Matías Martínez Abeijón [01:01:52] Thank you very much. Are there like any services that the Comité provides to the community, that the Comité provides to its members to the community, like assistance with documentation, maybe advocacy for agricultural workers? Are there like any specific services that the people can reach out to the Comité for getting assistance?

Rey Esparza [01:02:17] So, not that we specifically provide the service, but we can reference and we can provide some firsthand reliable information, for example, like documentation you mentioned. So since we have been working with the Mexican consulate, we usually share their information and we can reference people to, to the Mexican consulate such that they can get the correct information. I mentioned this because, for example, when they are doing their mobile consulate or they’re going to be traveling to a specific site, especially here, Northeast Ohio, we see that there are groups of people or people that they do a business out of it because they get in the Mexican community and they charge them. For example, making an appointment which an appointment is free, so we try to provide that information to them too. You know, this is the number you can call. Now they have also a WhatsApp number where you can follow the sequence of questions. But many people also, they don’t like to wait. They get anxious because sometimes they are waiting on the phone for someone to answer or it takes too long. And sometimes most of them believe that when they’re calling this number they’re calling to the Mexican consulate offices here in Detroit, which it’s not. They’re calling to a call center in Mexico, in Mexico City. And then when they make the questions like which mobile consulate date are you looking into? So they give the date and sometimes people give the incorrect information. Like for example they say oh, the one in Cleveland, when they asked which mobile office, which consulate office do you want to make the appointment for? And they say Cleveland, because the mobile van is going to be here in Cleveland, but it’s not Cleveland, it’s Detroit. So the person on the other line says oh, there’s nothing in Cleveland. So yes, they’re coming to Cleveland, they’re going to be here in Cleveland. They’re like, no, there’s nothing in Cleveland, so they have to talk to them and to Detroit, okay. So they look up Detroit and now the dates come up. So, so sometimes it’s that type of misinformation that they have, that we try to clarify. We can also try and help clarify what documentation do you need? Or we post in our Facebook page, from it we put up there the requirements like to get a passport, like what do you need to get, how to get your birth certificate. Because you can actually, if you go online you can print it out yourself, the birth certificate, as long as you have the correct information, right? So there’s, there’s some information that we post on our web page and the- If they call, we can probably direct them and give them that information. The other thing that we do is in our events we usually try and gather. Like this year we couldn’t, but previous years usually work with the food bank and have some boxes of what they usually provide non-perishable items or vegetables. So stuff like that for the families. So those are the most of the times in our events, that’s where we provide, you know, some more services because we do have an office. But our office is probably half the size of this room. So it’s mainly for scheduled appointments or mainly for our address such that we can get letters and everything that we can receive via mail. But usually the office is by appointment. It’s not something that’s open throughout the weekdays and offer service there.

Matías Martínez Abeijón [01:06:55] Thank you. What are some of your duties as president of the organization?

Rey Esparza [01:07:01] Oh, as president of the organization. Do you want the theoretical definition of president of the organization, or what I actually do with the organization?

Matías Martínez Abeijón [01:07:13] I think we can go with what you actually do or with- Whatever you want to tell us, we are happy.

Rey Esparza [01:07:19] So you know, as president and the board, you know, the main reason of that group is to look forward and come up with a plan and what is it that you want to do or where the organization wants to be two, three, four, five years down the road. Right? But me as president, I’m working on that. Not too far off in the future. But also I myself do a lot of activity with the community. I support the executive director and our volunteers and program leads on, what they say, day to day activities. So when we plan the events, when we plan any activities, I’m there, I’m planning with them, bringing up ideas, coming up with the dates, what should we do, reaching out to. If we’re gonna have a performance group, let’s reach out. We already have some contacts. Let’s reach out to this group, that group and that group, see which one’s available. The funding I’m also looking out for. We can say I’m the grant writer right now. I’m the one who is searching for grants for the different cultural aspects. And then if I see that it’s something, you know, feasible, something we can do, start the process of starting the grant application or sometimes, you know, letter of interest, provide letter of interest, you get invited to apply for the grant. So I’m doing a lot of work right now. I’m doing a lot of work with grants during the events, I’m there as well, helping out with whatever I can. Usually an example, again going back to the El Nino. I helped out prepare flyers, then directions on some of our members and some of our volunteers to distribute to post. And then looking into sending out emails to the different organizations that have previously participated, see if they’re interested in participating again. Previous people who have been monetary support of this event calling back again, see if they want to continue or this year they also want to be a support. I submitted the grant such that we can get funding because, like I said, moving on from last year or two years ago, we usually focus on providing at least one toy for the kids and providing lunch for all the children. This year we were fortunate enough that we provided lunch for all the children, toys for all the kids, we provided lunch to all our organizations participating and to all our volunteers. So we were fortunate about that. So the day event I was there. I was see what’s helped organize the layout. You know, at the beginning it gets kind of crazy because you’re moving tables, you’re showing up tables, people are starting to come in. We had some costumes for the kids, giant bear. I had no one to wear it, so I had to wear that costume. I just wore it for half an hour and I was sweating like you couldn’t imagine. So after the event, usually help out with the cleanup and picking up everything that, you know, that belongs to us such that we can put in boxes, take it away, take it to storage. I usually have like everything that we have at Comité Mexicano either at my basement, my garage. But this year I said it’s too much. So I actually now I’m putting everything into a storage. But the title of president is just a word. I honestly I am involved in every aspect of the organization.

Matías Martínez Abeijón [01:11:50] Thank you. Can you tell us a little bit about what are some of the traits of the Mexican and Mexican American communities in Cleveland and the greater Northeast Ohio area? How can you character- Or how you characterize a little bit the Mexican and Mexican American communities here in Cleveland, in Northeast Ohio?

Rey Esparza [01:12:12] You know, I think I would say that it’s obvious that- And not- I cannot say that it’s 100 percent, but most of Mexican Americans I see, they are hardworking individuals. I mean it’s- If it’s out in the field, if it’s in the kitchens of restaurants, myself and many people that I know of, I mean it- Those are not the only areas which is a misinterpretation from other communities. We also have engineers, we have doctors. Myself, I’m a computer science engineer, programmer. I know colleagues that are electrical engineers, mechanical engineers, quality engineers, which they are interacting - especially quality engineers - they are interacting companies within the United States and Mexico which gives them an advantage and I’ve seen it an advantage of being able to communicate more fluently because they are fluent in both languages. We have, and this is a clear example, my daughter, she is now working for the City of Cleveland at the mayor’s office. How was she able to get there? Her hard working and the fact that me and my wife as parents, we can take a little bit of credit, because in our house we always taught them Spanish. You go to school, yes, you go to school, you learn English at the school. Once you hit, go past the main door of our house, Spanish. So she, of course she also spent a lot more years in the border which in the border, El Paso, Texas-Juárez, is if you don’t know Spanish, you’re going to have a hard time. So she was more exposed to the Spanish language. So it had given her an advantage here in Cleveland. Not just for the job she has right now, but for other opportunities. She has been working with Goodyear, with Flynn and the advantage she had over other candidates was that she was very fluent and she can very well understand Spanish. So. So the dedication also of our community. Many, many of us are kind-hearted. They’re not- They are- We are welcomed. We welcome anyone and everyone and we usually express that if you’ve been to someone’s Mexican family, at a house of a Mexican family or visited someone at their home, there’s always food. That’s the way we welcome also everyone. We always will offer food. And I think that’s also something that characterizes most of the our Mexican, Mexican Americans. Even when you go to Mexico there’s always going to be food at a table. And we always have, most of the times have conversations at a table and food is a factor. So let’s see. There are so many, so many things. I mean artistic wise we have so many good artists like Frida, Frida Kahlo. I mean sometimes I’ve heard some people, I don’t want to go into politics but there’s usually things like they try to minimize are not just the Mexican but other Latino communities but they focus a lot on the Mexican committee have been, you know, people that are influenced or they drug drug addicts, people that you know, deal with drugs that they’re here to steal. But no, that it’s. They focus on the carteles of Mexico. But like, one thing that I was reading is if you focus on Mexico, on the aspect of contraband, carteles, it’s because maybe that’s what you are. If you would’ve said to me, talk to me about Frida Kahlo, then I would say, oh, you like art, right? Or you would have mentioned a boxer like Julio César Chavez, who was out there and did a great sportsman then, oh, like boxing, like sports. Fernando Valenzuela in baseball. So there are many characters from Mexico that they have a different vision that, if you would talk to me about those visions, those artists, singers, comedians, actors, engineers, scientists, Mexico has all that. But you always, or you try to focus on cartels, drug dealers, then maybe that’s the area. That’s what you, what you like to be involved in. And Mexico has so many things to offer and so many things out there that usually they get undervalued.

Matías Martínez Abeijón [01:18:32] Thank you. In the current political situation, the presence of the Mexican flag in the U.S. has been in the news for the last few weeks. What symbolism do you associate with the Mexican flag? As somebody who comes from Mexico, lives here in the States, can you talk us a little bit about what symbolism do you associate with the Mexican flag?

Rey Esparza [01:18:56] There is just probably like every country there is. And unfortunately, I don’t remember. You know, there’s a song that goes with that flag, right? But to me especially, it’s a very special symbol, the Mexican flag. It, it- When I see it, it makes me remember where I come from, the culture that’s behind me, the colors that they represent, you know, red, white, green. That eagle, the eagle on top of the cactus in this or biting this snake. I mean, it’s a symbol that goes all the way back to our ancestors, the Aztecs, the Mayas, how Mexico was founded in Lago de Chapultepec, which is why they saw this eagle with this snake on top of the cactus. So the freedom and all the great things and memories that I have from Mexico. The green and red colors that they have in a flag, you know, it’s the white of pureness, of freedom. Usually that’s how I relate it. The red one. Usually the blood that was- I remember it as the blood that was- What’s the word? The blood that was- I forgot what the word- But basically the blood that was from our ancestors that fought for freedom during the wars against the French back then. And the green, it’s just green reflects nature. Mexico has big, big resources with nature. And I love being out there in the southern parts of Mexico because in those areas, that’s where you have more mountains, more forest. And it’s just like the freedom that it also represents.

Matías Martínez Abeijón [01:21:23] Thank you. The Mexican community has been present in Northeast Ohio for a long time. Can you tell us a little bit about the historical connections between Mexican communities in Cleveland, Lorain, Painesville?

Rey Esparza [01:21:40] Yes. [laughs] I laugh because when we first moved here, I started where, I started, you know, getting involved or going out, let’s say, into the community, it was Lorain. It was Lorain. One of the first organizations that I participated in, me and my wife participated. It was with CHIP, which is Coalition for Hispanic Issues and Progress in Lorain. That organization has been out there for more than 25 years. We started participating with them. They usually have a conference, an annual conference in Lorain, and they usually address topics that relate to the Mexican, Mexican-American community, Hispanic community with regard to immigration, labor, all those type of situations. When I started working with them, sorry, when I started working in that community, getting involved with the community, because we actually also got involved with church, Sacred Heart in Lorain, which is visited by a vast majority of Hispanic people, Puerto Ricans and Mexicans. So we started getting, you know, connecting with people here, people there. Once my wife started working in Cleveland, then we started doing some other connections over here, networking in Cleveland. So at one point I was like, why are we - because I saw it - why are we distant? Why does the leaders of Lorain - because I met some of the leaders in Lorain - it seems like once you touch the topic of why don’t we get someone from Cleveland or why don’t we do a collaboration with some of these people, they kind of isolated, not isolated, but they would kind of change the topic. They would try to not involve them. And a similar situation I saw with like Cleveland community, Cleveland leaders, it’s that now it’s like Cleveland, we’re working in this Cuyahoga County in Cleveland, Clark-Fulton area, Denison, or Shoreway. So they- Most of the leaders in this area, they just- They just want to focus here. They don’t want to go beyond to other communities. And I had some conversations and I personally, me and my wife, we tried to make a bridge. Let’s try and, you know, do something here, do something over there. But it’s been very complicated. We’re still- I would say we’re still working on it because we do get some support from people from Lorain. When we want to do something in Cleveland, we have some of them. They support our activities in Cleveland from Lorain. So. But we need to work more and make that bridge stronger. With Painesville, it’s farther away for us, so it’s even a little bit harder. We know there’s a big representation over there of Mexican community and there is a- At least I know one organization, HOLA, that’s over there in Painesville. But that takes me into another point where some organizations are so not willing to collaborate. They don’t want to collaborate. And I’m not saying at all, I’m saying that they don’t want to collaborate with other Hispanic, Latino, or Mexican organizations. I’ve seen that in our organization. There are some organizations that I don’t know if they’re scared that, you know, they’ve been here for some time and they’re afraid they’re gonna lose some power, some followers, some volunteers, I don’t know, once they start doing collaborations with other organizations that are coming up. There are other organizations that I’ve experienced with that, you know, they’ve worked with us, but once they got what they wanted, they kind of start pushing us away. Like, no, we don’t want to work. Not tell you we don’t want to work with you, but they don’t include you in other plans. So I think even though we have we know that Cleveland is inclusive to many, many backgrounds, many cultures, we ourselves, we are still lacking that welcoming between, like I said I would speak with us, with the Mexican, with the Latino community, we’re still see a fighting within each other, see ourselves of being competition. Like, if I support you, then that means you’re going to be applied. Let’s put it this way. Let’s say there’s a grant. If I tell you about this grant, then you’re going to apply and that other organization is going to apply. So that can make it harder for me to get it, right? But I think that if we come together, maybe we can come up with a better idea with a better proposal in which we can work together, collaborate, and share that grant. So coming in, in other words, becoming stronger rather than being two or three organizations separate and we are weaker compared to maybe another one that’s coming in. It’s like that example of what’s easier to break, one pencil or 100 pencils together, right? So we, Comité, we have collaborated, we have networking, we have connections with people from Painesville, we have connections and networking with people from Lorain, from Akron. One thing that helps us a lot, I think it’s a fact that me and my wife, we are Catholic, so we, we actually work in programs. We have right now the leadership of one program with the Diocese of Cleveland. So that program, we touch all the Hispanic churches that are in the Diocese of Cleveland. So in that aspect, we have, at least, we have an entryway to different communities through the church. So I know that has helped a little bit to reach out to other leaders to go to fairs and continue our networking, because we usually also have networking with people the way from Canton, North Canton. So our- And honestly, when I was talking right now about our bridge between- At least right now they’re working on Lorain and Cleveland, eventually our goal is farther than that. It’s having stronger connections, networking with other organizations from the different cities because we do get- Just at the beginning of this year, I was talking to a leader from Akron and he’s like, I’ve seen some of other events and we like to know, how can we get you to come to Akron and host some of these events? The same question that I get from Lorain, not just from leaders, from community members that we know they’ve asked us, when are you going to be doing that event here in Lorain? And I say sometimes that, you know, there’s this kind of like, I’m from Cleveland, you’re from Lorain, or vice versa. But one thing that I had not thought myself is that, for example, the community members in Lorain, most of them driving to Cleveland, it’s a long distance, especially with the situation we’re living right now. So they don’t want to go out and risk themselves driving all the way to Cleveland or the same thing from our community in Painesville. That’s the reason why also they- There’s this- I don’t want- It’s kind of like a barrier for them. It’s too far away. And I don’t want to risk me driving all the way over there and driving back. So like I said, with the tension that we have right now, everything is happening with the immigrant communities. That’s if it was hard before, now it made it worse. So that’s, that’s what I see. There’s these communities that they are wanting to work and do something and do this networking, these connections. But there are other aspects that limits them.

Matías Martínez Abeijón [01:32:21] The Club Azteca used to be a hub for so many things associated with the Mexican community in Cleveland. Can you talk us a little bit about what wars, some of the reasons that led to its closing? Also, I have read that Comité Mexicano is going to partner with the Young Latino Network for the preservation of club materials. Will those be accessible for researchers, community members?

Rey Esparza [01:32:47] Yes. So Club Azteca. Back when I mentioned, as I mentioned right now, when we started doing, when we did our first Independence Day celebration, the year before we had already done some activities and Ruth, which is the person you guys have interviewed before, she actually reached out to us, to Comité Mexicano. I had a conversation with her. When I was talking to her for the first time that I met her, I was not aware of Club Azteca. I didn’t know what they’ve done before, what they were doing, what was their current situation, nothing. So she did provide some articles. She had some papers, some articles showing me going way back, many years back and what were they have been doing. Right? So I know they’ve been working with the community as providing similar things that we were doing. Arts and culture. They would do some events and do some of these special dates for Mexico. They would have a dance, they would have a presentation, folkloric groups and all that. But at the same time they would also provide services related to translation of documents. I don’t know if they went all the way to having notary on site to help them out with some documentations, applications. They provide some documentation service or some minimal legal services. After times they were able to get this building that they started using before. Unfortunately it turned out not so great after several years because of the direction I guess they took with the building as well. At first I recalled that I was told that, you know, they started having like family events like for the weekend, you know, gatherings as family-oriented. But after a while those turned into more nightclub rather than not anymore family-oriented reunions. So from there on, you know, they started having more like a nightclub dance, and it went a different direction, which I don’t know the whole details. But after that, you know, later they were fighting over the building, who should have ownership, who’s gonna be running now this and that. And some were more focused on the arts and culture. Another one was more focused on the political aspect of helping people, which I believe there needed to be a balance. I mean both of them needed to be- They were needed. One, your arts and culture, because we don’t want to forget what we, where we come from, our history, our arts, our heritage. But on the other hand, we’re here and there are processes, applications, documents that we need to either translate or to fill out. And we need that support as well. So the two, what I understand there was like mainly two parties. One of them focused strongly in one direction, the other party focused more in the other direction. They could not do a combination or an agreement and work together. I heard stories about some of the members complaining about members not being Mexican because he wanted all the members to be, I guess, 100 percent Mexican, Mexican-born, not Mexican-American. And because those issues, you know, problems kept coming up, kept coming up until- So, you know, I guess someone just didn’t manage correctly the Club Azteca or the building, and it deteriorated and it was to a very bad point. Going back to when I met Ruth, so we were about to have our first September Independence Day celebration. We had a conversation. She wanted us- I remember she wanted us to join Club Azteca to be, us to be part of Club Azteca. At that point, what I told her was, you know, if you would have come earlier, maybe a year back, or somehow you would have reached to us, reached out to us, maybe it could have been easier. But now, Comité Mexicano, the wheels have started rolling. We already have commitments, we already have members, we already have a board. We’re already doing collaborations with other organizations. So I cannot move our organization into your organization and kill it. But let’s put it the other way around. Why don’t you guys join us? And she was like, well, no. And I think at that moment, I mean, Ruth and like two or three other people were the only ones committed to Club Azteca. And I’m why don’t you guys join us, be part of Comité Mexicano? And I understand her answer was no, because the history that Club Azteca has, and we even offered further on to support them on maintaining Club Azteca. So after that meeting, we could not agree, so we parted our ways. She continued working on trying to rescue or what she could do with Club Azteca because I think again, you see no communication between the groups. The day we were hosting our Independence Day celebration, she was also hosting a dance or fundraising event to get funds so they could fix the roof of Club Azteca. So I remember that day. It rained a little bit. But our event actually ended probably at sunset, maybe an hour after sunset. Her event would have started just around 10 PM, I think. So I didn’t even know about her event. She never mentioned it to me in that meeting. So I’m like, Ruth, if you would have told me, maybe I could have announced it in our event and have people move, go to your event. Because it turns out later I found out that it was a disaster, that event. It was like, no, almost no people showed up. She couldn’t- She couldn’t even get back what she invested in putting that event together. So at that point I was like, well, Ruth, we didn’t continue the conversation. I found out that later, months later. But we tried supporting Ruth when she was working on this project. When she reached out again to us months later when they were about to lose the building to this builder, she wanted to see if we could because we were already working with the foundations, trying to get funding for this, for that, we had already been approved as a nonprofit organization and she saw that we were doing many things and she reached out to us for support. That’s when this group was built with Young Latino Network, I want to say Young Latino Network, HOLA from Painesville, Comité Mexicano and Club Azteca, of course. So she first reached out to us because she wanted to see if we can help her find out how can she manage this situation about the building, going to the facility, going to this builder. She explained to us that at that point there was no turnaround. I mean the Club Azteca the building was already so many taxes behind, there was debt, so many expenses that she couldn’t afford rescuing the building. Now, the group was formed such that Young Latino Network, HOLA, Cleveland Foundation was involved, Comité Mexicano, and her from - she was on the sidelines - from Club Azteca. So this group was formed because we wanted to rescue as a historical building. But the story from her, like I said, it was gonna be hard because I think she had already signed some papers. So, interesting point here, turnaround on the story with the group that was formed, was that when Verónica from HOLA, she asked for, you know, to continue working on this group with rescuing the building. We suggested, when she asked, you know, opinions on what should we do with the building. When we suggested that, you know, the building belongs to Club Azteca. So we suggest, why don’t we just keep it how it is. It belongs to Club Azteca and with the help of this group we’ll manage it and will help them bring it back to life. And, and- But it would stay still under Club Azteca. She didn’t like the idea. So that’s when the group, it didn’t basically tear it apart because then after that she didn’t want it to get involved. And now we were left with Young Latino Network, Cleveland Foundation, Comité Mexicano to work and help see if we can rescue this building. But like I said, we were told it was not rescuable. They were already- The papers were way too ahead of us. I think the builders have already paid off all the back taxes. They had already paid off loans. They had already probably provided all the payments. They had paid off everything, with the intention of getting the building. So at the end what we ended up doing was suggesting in this case to Ruth, look, you’re gonna give the building to them, so why don’t you ask for some things in exchange? So that’s how the endowment that it’s available right now with Cleveland Foundation. Cleveland Foundation offered to manage this endowment in which the builders were gonna be given, I believe it’s $50,000. And Cleveland Foundation was going to give another $50,000 to make it $100,000 endowment. In the new building that they were going to be putting together, there was going to be a space and office for Club Azteca. And at that point they were also going to be offering, I think they were gonna put a patio like in the middle of the building and they were gonna allow one or two performances or activities to be done related to Club Azteca. They were also gonna help because at that point when you asked about Comité Mexicano and Club Azteca, the idea was to also do a merge between Club Azteca and Comité Mexicano. But Ruth wanted to totally change our name because what we offered in order to preserve the history, preserve some items that we rescued. I was there in the building pulling- Actually I was the one who found a piece of Club Azteca which was buried underground under other pieces of wood, dirt and everything. I pulled that out. And I don’t know if they were able to find the other part of it. We found a flag that was there, Mexican flag, and other artifacts. So we were gonna be doing a collaboration. We were going to try to come together with Club Azteca. But what I had offered to Ruth was I’m not gonna change our name, but what we can do is take you under our umbrella. I mean you can be your own Club Azteca under Comité Mexicano, be your own project, have your own finances, everything. Like if you would appear to the audience you are a separate organization, but you’re not because actually they have never applied for to become a nonprofit, a 501(c)3. So. And we were. So it’s basically see it as our- We are your fiscal sponsor basically. But. And we can- You can have your own members, you can do everything they want and- But you would be under us, under the name Comité Mexicano. She didn’t like that. She wanted to be like even or even like I said, change the name to something else. So we never came to an agreement. The endowment is still in there. Also the agreement was to have a representative from Comité Mexicano and representatives from Club Azteca in the board to manage that endowment. I think right now she has already pulled out everyone from Comité Mexicano. I’ve tried reaching out for the past two years to Cleveland Foundation and her such that I can be added. But it doesn’t seem like they’re moving forward that because even Eduardo, which was our representation there since he moved away into Pennsylvania and he’s no longer active with Comité Mexicano. They did send an email asking that he was gonna be removed because he’s no longer in Cleveland. And they asked Eduardo if there was someone else he recommend. Obviously he recommended me, but after that nothing came out. So. But we’re out there. We’re looking forward to see we can continue working with Ruth and Club Azteca. And that’s the other thing. If you recall, we have two strong groups. I know that the other group doesn’t really want to work with us, with Comité Mexicano, because we supported Ruth on this activity. So, going back to people from Painesville, Lorain, and Cleveland and you see how everything that even though we’re inclusive, we’re a little bit limiting ourselves into having that inclusion, a real inclusion among everyone.

Matías Martínez Abeijón [01:50:12] Thank you. You mentioned earlier that the current political situation made communication difficult between different communities in the state. I was wondering if you can expand a little bit about the impact of the current situation in the Mexican and Mexican-American communities in Northeast Ohio.

Rey Esparza [01:50:31] Well, we can talk about Northeast Ohio, but in general, yeah, in general, I mean the current situation- There are many points that many people don’t see how the situation is causing a domino effect on just the pockets and the economy overall in the United States. One of the things that I’ve seen, and we go back to that vision that most people have that Mexicans work in the fields, work mainly in the fields. But you know, there are also many restaurants. I’ve seen Mexicans working in the kitchens of Italian restaurants, good Italian restaurants, Chinese, Japanese restaurants. So Mexicans, Latinos in general, immigrants are all over the place. Let’s just go one route, let’s say in the fields, you know, working in the farms. So what’s going to happen with that? What we’re seeing, the effect that we’re seeing, is that we’re going to be losing so many immigrants working out there that even if we were to get us, let’s say U.S. citizens working in those areas, I’m for sure it’s going to be more expensive and I say domino effect because what’s going to happen. Most, a lot of things are going to become more expensive. I’ve seen videos of construction workers, roofers, carpenters, you know, they’re moved away. The work that is going to be done by other people, it’s going to be slower. And I’ve seen that slower, more expensive to the company where the cost is going to be transferred to whoever’s buying the product or the house or the service. If it’s a company, that company, the product would come to the store. He would have to raise the cost of that. So with the money that we have right now is we’re going to be buying less stuff, less items. So it all reflects on the economy. And I would say that that would cause many businesses to and I’ve seen it here in Cleveland, Northeast Ohio, a lot of businesses are in a critical situation. There are businesses that are closing down. We’ve seen restaurants closing down. So that’s going to cause more people to be without a job, which according to the federal government and that is one of the things they keep points they look at in order, you know, to see how the economy is doing if you’re gonna go into recession or not so but in the community, many people going into losing their jobs, what’s their next step? If they’re legal U.S. citizens, they’re gonna apply for some help, either through unemployment, through, I don’t know if they still call it food stamps. So that is now on the side of the government to support that. So, it’s a difficult situation. But many immigrants here in the United States, I believe the number that I heard was were about 18 billion, 18 million people, immigrants, that are in the United States working. So are we gonna be out so many jobs? Are we go gonna be able to get all that amount of people taking over all these jobs? One of the ideas that I’ve heard is we want to make everything here in North America, but do we have the capacity to bring all those companies into the United States to pay those salaries? Are we gonna be able to buy those items again? Because those items are gonna go up in price because now it takes more money to make them, build them, produce them. Now what’s gonna be our relationship with the outside of United States, other countries, we’re not, for example, we were for steel, I believe there are other countries that they provide steel. So other countries are gonna start to move away from the United States to buy those resources. So it’s a very complicated topic. It’s a very, very difficult situation. But right now, I could say the situation that we have right now, we have a lot of families scared. We have many, many people not wanting to even send kids to school. Schools are changing protocols. It is affecting every aspect. Either if you’re immigrant, legal, U.S. citizen, it is also changing or affecting you in some way. So we are all getting affected by the situation.

Matías Martínez Abeijón [01:57:04] Thank you. I was wondering, are you currently working on something new either by yourself or with organizations you are involved - I know that you have Revy Fair Trade - either through your work with Comité Mexicano or by yourself. Is there something new that you are involved with or you are working on that you’d like to share with us?

Rey Esparza [01:57:28] I guess, yeah. The new, as you mentioned, the new project that I’m working on personally, aside from my work, aside from Comité Mexicano, is Revy, Revy Fair Trade. Why did I came in into that area of entrepreneurship? I know you mentioned earlier Estrellita Hispana. I don’t know if my previous life I was entrepreneurship. I like business or I had a business. What? But a few years back, just before pandemic also in 2019, we decided, well, it was my crazy idea of starting this, this store. And we went ahead and decided to start this because Eduardo Rodríguez, which was also working us with Comité Mexicano, which he initiated that project. He was also starting his project as a coffee shop. Hispanic Business Center, at that point, they had this building and they were doing [an] incubator program. So they had the Café Social, which was the coffee shop for Eduardo. They had this other person from Puerto Rico, doing- I don’t remember what was the name of her business, but she would prepare sandwiches, Puerto Rican food. And there was Ortiz, the drafting company, in there as well, which they have succeeded. They actually have now their own business down in Parma. And they were looking for someone with us [inaudible] had the idea of a store. Eduardo gave us information. We, me and my wife, we had the idea of more like a souvenir store, more like gift shop. But they were looking for someone, you know, a store. But they were focused more on having kind of like a grocery store because the building where they were at, actually there was a grocery store there. So we said, okay, we’ll give it a try. So we started that journey. We did not succeed for different reasons. While it’s- I realize it takes more time than just putting items on the shelf and being there, selling, trying to sell the items, but it takes a lot more time. The area where we were located within the building, it wasn’t the best one. And of course there was also limited in space. So we had to be very selective on what we wanted to have there. It was hard to expand into the other areas. So it was really complicated for a grocery store to be there. So we decided not to move forward. Once towards the end of the incubation program, we just shot it down. We didn’t continue with that. But later on, a few years later, I always had this idea of bringing artisan artifacts or artisan products from Mexico. And I did start bringing some of those items and actually selling at wholesale price to some stores locally, La Plaza being one of them. So with Comité Mexicano and some of our members, one of our members, she was- It was some sort of chain of networks that led to Mary Ober, which was the owner of Revy Fair Trade. So, long story short, she makes the connection with us. I met with Mary because she wanted to know what was I doing, what was my interest in the store and this and that. So we talked and I explained to her some of the activities, what we do with Comité Mexicano and what was my ideas, what I said that I was working already. I’m bringing some items from Mexico and doing wholesale with some of the local stores. But that time, and you mentioned it as well, Fruti, Fruti of Ohio is another company that I have a partner in and with that business, I was already aware of many local stores because we distribute that product all across from Cleveland, Lorain, we used to go to Painesville, and all the way down to Massillon. So those, in this area, there’s about 50 stores, mainly Hispanic stores, that we visit and we distribute our product. So back to the artisan products from Mexico. So my idea as wholesale was to start bringing some items and going as I was distributing to those stores the popsicles, the Fruti popsicles, I would offer these products as well. So then I had this conversation with Mary. She really liked my way of thinking and the connection that I have with the network. I learned from her and her store and her products. I was introduced, to me was new, fair trade, which I was not aware of that what was behind fair trade. And so that made me be more interested in the store. That built my interest. Why? Because basically fair trade is working directly with the artisans. Most of the times, most the products that we work with, it’s with a group of, group that is in a marginal community. It’s a group of women that have been through a domestic violence situation. And this is one way of them helping themselves come out from this situation or the way of thinking come out. It’s like a therapy for them building these arts artifacts and at the same time being able to sell those items and for that be some way of sustaining their families. So those are the main reasons why I felt more and I would like to be part of this project. So since I have was already bringing products from Mexico and I had, I was already thinking of looking for a physical location. So actually that story that Mary had, it was basically what I was looking for. And after working, talking to her, she did like what I had to offer, what were my plans and what I was going to be doing. So she agreed to sell me the business. And from there on, which basically this month it’s one year that I’ve taken over the store and I’ve started introducing products from Mexico and I’ve gotten to learn more about fair trade. I’ve been going to fairs around here in Northeast Ohio. And I just see that there is a lot of people that are aware of fair trade. The fact that, you know, we buy the products directly from the artisans. There’s no middleman. We pay upfront for the products such that as I mentioned, it’s a way of them to sustain their families as well. And the other fact or the other information that I learned is that just because you put up a store, you cannot call it fair trade just because you want to. You have to go. The store has to be certified. It hosts to a certification process. What does that certification consist of? Basically in our situation with Revy, it’s that we work or Mary and her husband, they started working with the community of El Salvador. The product that they got from El Salvador with this community was upcycled. They did upcycled wallets, purses, bags from inner tubes of motorcycles, from trucks. So even better, I mean, it was a product that you’re helping the community and you’re helping the environment by giving it reusing those inner tubes. And not because they’re my products, but they are really durable. They are really high quality, high quality products. And then, like I said, those- In order for you to get certified, another thing has to happen. You have to go to or when they got certified, they had to go to El Salvador, see the working conditions make sure it’s appropriate working conditions. They’re not using or doing or taking advantage of children or child labor. The same thing with elder people. They’re not taking advantage of elder people, having them work. And like I said, work conditions are good. They’re paying a fair salary to whoever’s working for them. So those are other things that, in order for you to get certified, you need to confirm that. And for that they had to travel to El Salvador, which I’m hoping- And in order to renew your certification, of course you have to continue checking on that. So hopefully I’ll be traveling to El Salvador, hopefully sometime the next year or so. And I need to in order the products that they started bringing from Mexico. I need to go into Mexico to make sure the same condition exists for those suppliers. And I mean from in the store we have products from 16 other countries, more or less. It doesn’t mean that I have to go- Wonderful if I can visit all those different countries. Right? But some of those products, I go back to the point that I get those from another certified store, just like Revy. So there’s like these quilting cards, which I love to call them like three-dimensional gift cards or three-dimensional postcards. They are done in Vietnam by a group of women that have been to, like I said, a domestic violence situation. So I don’t have to go to Vietnam, but the company or the store that I get them from, they already did that. So usually what we say is the artisan either works directly with you or has a representative. In this case, this company is representative for them. So I can buy the products directly from them as well. So we reduce the amount of middlemen.

Matías Martínez Abeijón [02:09:32] Thank you. What advice would you give to younger people who are interested either in engineering, community leadership, entrepreneurship, some of the things in which you have had success in your career. What would you have for younger people that might be in a position in which you were years ago?

Rey Esparza [02:09:54] It as I mentioned earlier, if you recall, when I transitioned from electrical engineer to computer science. So basically it’s, my answer is around there. You, you need to focus on what you like, what fulfills your life, fulfills your goals. As I mentioned, I was going towards one direction because that’s what my thoughts at that moment were. I wanted to, like I said, I wanted to work with computers, but I wasn’t exactly sure what I was going to be working with computers. At first, I was like, okay, maybe I want to fix computers, right? So because of when I read the description of the career, I went into electrical engineering, computer option because the computer word was there. And I think that’s what took me to that direction. But later I learned, you know, programming language, which got me more interested. I’m still working with computers. Not fixing the computers, but I’m building programs. And not just for computers, for devices, other electronic devices, engine. I mean that’s the story about engineering, but entrepreneurship, community building. I mean, I’m doing all that so you don’t have to stop and do one thing. You can do more than one thing at a time or sequential like assembler language. You can start one area and then grow into a different area, learn something from another area where ex some of myself right now you’re going to say you’re crazy. I don’t know where you get the time. But right now I’m trying to develop my skills in artificial intelligence, which is related, I’d like to call it related into my engineering experience because not just artificial intelligence in the aspect of ChatGPT, DALL-E, or some those other programs, but I’m looking also more specifically into prompt engineering, which it’s a field that would help me actually in my work as a computer science engineer, as a software engineer, but just AI is gonna be here. Well, it’s already here and it’s not gonna go away. Many people are scared about artificial intelligence. But if you sit down and read about artificial intelligence, artificial intelligence has been here for years back, many years back. The fact is that right now they have figured out with microprocessors how they process information and how faster processing information that now it is easier to make a lot more calculations that you know, you can make a lot more things with artificial intelligence. But just want to say that artificial intelligence is gonna be here to stay and it’s not gonna- It might replace some jobs. But artificial intelligence is just based on data. It’s gonna be learning from data. We as humans, we have the capacity to think by ourselves. We are the ones teaching the artificial intelligence by the data that we have. If you understand [inaudible] artificial intelligence, it’s just going. It’s like a Google in steroids, taking steroids because it’s just that it’s just going into the web and pulling all this information. And that’s why it ask you do you like the answer? Because if you like the answer, then its memory is gonna be storing all that. It’s just that it’s just a device that can think faster or it can process more data faster than we can. But it’s just the data that’s out there that humans have been putting out there. What can I say? Entrepreneurship community. It’s always a community. It’s always nice to be out there in your community helping others. Like I said, for me, I could not be here if I could not meet. Not being helped by so many people out there. One of them, I mean, the support that I had from my family, my wife, my parents, the support that I mentioned about my friend Alex, where I met and play baseball with him. Right? He was a key. I would say he was key in me going into college, finding out how to apply, how to get funding so I could continue, you know, my school. So even though he was not a community person out there, but if you’re out with the community and you have the ability to and the willingness to help others in little things like this on how to apply for college, how to be of reference, if you can help someone, where to go to get a doctor appointment or where to get if they’re in need of food, if you can direct them to the food bank. So also right now, I mean, if you can help someone with a situation with some sort of directing them to the correct place for to get counseling, to get therapy. So community, it’s just that it’s just been out there. Be supportive of your neighbors, of the community because you might not think of it, but what you know might help someone else as well and might make its situation less harder.

Matías Martínez Abeijón [02:17:02] Thank you. For those who would like to be more involved with Comité Mexicano de Cleveland, what’s the best way to reach out?

Rey Esparza [02:17:11] I’ll say the best way they can reach out to Comité Mexicano is they can find us on Facebook. Just search Comité Mexicano de Cleveland. The webpage should come out there. And we have our website, which is www.comitemexicanodecleveland.org. So we have the information, we have information there. There’s a link to send us an email, our phone number. It’s also on our website and I think it’s also on the Facebook page. But it’s 440–420–6219. And like I said, even though we’re focused a lot on arts, culture and activities that our Mexican community does or we break from Mexico, but it’s open for all participants. Down, I know this is going to be stored. But right now at this moment, we have other activities coming up. For example, we have our September 16th Independence Day celebration which we’re, we’re a little bit late, but we’re starting our planning we also this year we have you mentioned, asked me earlier if there is something new. So on the side of Comité Mexicano, we have this project that already got a little bit of funding. We’re hoping to get a little bit more. But on the same weekend of Día de Muertos this year, the project that we’re working on is we’re gonna be looking and we’re going to be asking applicants or we’re going to be looking for applicants to submit a proposal to create a altar for Día de los Muertos, or what we call ofrenda, which is better known in Mexico as ofrenda. This is a project that we’re going to be working with the Cleveland Museum of Art Community Center. What we want to do, the gist of it is we want to create four to six altars, ofrendas, inside the museum and have them on exhibition for around two weeks, which is around the Día de Muertos. Maybe have them ready by the last week of or even two weeks before November 2nd and having on display until one week after November 2nd at the museum. Like I said, we’re going to be doing a request from the community. Anyone who wants to reach out and is interested in creating their own ofrenda, we’re gonna be providing the supplies. It’s just what you want to do is we want to hear from you, from those that have done ofrendas or are doing ofrendas at their home. Because it’s not just Mexico. I think I know also in Guatemala, they do ofrendas and these altar kind of things. So we want to get four to six families or a group of individuals to express how they celebrate the Día de Muertos, how they create their ofrendas. Because even though it’s something that should be done one way, but it could be, it could have different representations depending on the state of Mexico where you are. So that’s the new project that we’re working on and hopefully that would grow up. Like I said, Cleveland Museum of Art, it’s onboard and there’s other [inaudible] Héctor Castellanos is on board. And there’s another organization that it’s thinking about it and wants to be part of it as well. So that’s the latest that we have right now. And again, we have this space at the Cultural Gardens down Martin Luther King Boulevard in which we’re also looking. You know, anyone that wants to work with the garden. We’re looking into forming a committee and get started with that brainstorming ideas. The first thing that we have to do is come up with a design so we can present it. So this is the opportunity for people who want to be part because I know these gardens are unique around the world. So this would be a good opportunity for outdoors enthusiasts, people that love nature to pitch in on this design for the Mexican Garden and be part of the history of Cleveland and its cultural gardens.

Matías Martínez Abeijón [02:22:28] For those who might want to reach you for your fair trade dimension, what is the best way to reach you about Revy Fair Trade?

Rey Esparza [02:22:37] Revy Fair Trade, we have our store also online. Actually the website is revydirect.com and that one we have our Shopify and we also have a page on Facebook but I think we do more on Shopify than on Facebook on this occasion. But that’s another thing that, you know, I’m working on trying to get more media content because nowadays if you’re not out there with the media content, it’s hard for you to get noticed, especially younger people.

Matías Martínez Abeijón [02:23:16] Very good. Is there something else that you want to add before we wrap up the interview?

Rey Esparza [02:23:23] I just want to appreciate the opportunity to talk a little bit about myself and how I’ve gone, you know, from my life from coming in into born in Ciudad Juárez all the way here to Cleveland and how, you know, it’s just one story of many stories that are out there from immigrants, from other Latinos, Hispanics that have been able to, I would say succeed here in the United States and that it is possible. I don’t like to call it the American dream. I just want to say that there are. This country offers so many opportunities that are not taken advantage of, not even from many U.S. citizens because that’s another thing that I came across as I came into the United States. Just the fact about the education. So don’t give up. Keep, keep living towards your dream and hope to meet some of you. Hope that this small story that I’m sharing with you would also encourage others to continue moving forward and become. Not become a rich person but basically meet your goals and your dreams.

Matías Martínez Abeijón [02:25:09] Mark, is there something you’d like to add or to ask?

Mark Souther [02:25:14] I did want to ask about Revy Fair Trade. You mentioned including Mexican artisans’ work. Do you see that as a larger focus for the store in the future, or will it always have a wide range of countries represented?

Rey Esparza [02:25:32] It’s always going to have representation from different countries. Of course, like many items, some items it’s a hit, some items are not. But I actually, I don’t stick to the same items. Always if there’s a site where we can go and check out other items from other fair trade stores, so. Or if I come across from products recommendations because I’ve already been reached out from people from Brazil, from Argentina, from other other countries and where they say well, we have these items, I’m willing to give the opportunity to those artisans to send me or if I can buy your products and that’s what I tell them, I can get your products. I’ll put them in my store. If they sell, you’ll be hearing more from me. If they don’t, then we can work on probably some different type of products or different products that you might have. But the store is gonna have some products that are gonna be there year after year. There’s gonna be new products because just like I’ve been given opportunities, I want to offer that as well to other, other artists to an opportunity to show their products, have them at my store and see if they succeed. If they succeed, good for them. It’s smart sales for them. On the Mexican side, I’ve been going through some Mexican products and there’s a big- There’s so many products, let’s put it this way, that I am looking into building a little bit more on the Mexican Mexican side. And it’s because that’s my country and maybe I love everything that’s not in Mexico and I would like to have everything from Mexico at my store, but it is not. It is not possible. So majority and I’m not saying that 50 percent or 30 percent, but you’ll find a bigger amount of products from Mexico in my store than from any other country. But there’s going to be a variety from many countries.

Mark Souther [02:28:18] Thank you. And just for the record, I wanted to mention that you’re located in the 5th Street Arcades since that didn’t come up thus far for anyone who is not familiar with Revy Fair Trade. I had one question going back, from earlier, and this is just a small question, I guess, but you mentioned the primaria, the elementary schools, that had the - similar to what in the U.S. sometimes is called the relay system, where students went in the morning or they went in the afternoon. I wondered if it was for a similar reason. The context that I’ve been aware of in the United States, it was often because schools were terribly overcrowded and they could only fit about half the student population in the building at a time and they had to cut the day short. What was the reason in the Mexican context for having the half-day school days?

Rey Esparza [02:29:17] I want to say that probably it was the same situation as you mentioned that schools were getting overcrowded and probably there weren’t as many teachers as well. So in order to get more students and smaller classroom, the size of the classroom for them to be more, a little bit smaller. I believe that’s why they also cut it into two different sessions. Because eventually at the school it was the same professor and it was just the students. Some students would go in the morning and then by noon, usually I think it was noon or 1 PM they were heading home. And then at the same time you were start seeing the next group of students going into the primaria, the elementary school grounds. But the professors were the same ones staying there. And actually I don’t remember exactly, but I like when there were activities. I don’t remember if they would combine all the students in teachers having one big event or they had two different events. That’s the only thing I don’t remember.

Mark Souther [02:30:42] Thank you. And then my final question is if you could say a little bit more about Día de Muertos in Cleveland context. When did it start? Whose sort of brainchild was this?

Rey Esparza [02:30:56] Oh, when did it start? I know I’ve seen the number. I don’t remember when did it started. But basically the Día de Muertos, the parade that they do down by, is it no. Gordon Square, right? Yes, yes. So a couple years back Héctor Castellanos was given the opportunity to take the lead on, on that parade. So it, I know it started many years back. Honestly, I don’t remember when did it started. But talking about Día de Muertos, so my impression of the Día de Muertos, the first time I saw it and I mean I’ve been here - I think I didn’t mention this, but I moved here back in 2011 that I was hired by Bendix. So I’ve been here actually this month, around this day, it’s my anniversary. Fourteen years here in Northeast Ohio and working with this company, Bendix. I don’t remember if it was exactly on that year. I don’t think it was maybe a year later, two years later that I heard about the parade. I heard about this event, the Día de Muertos, and I went to see, what is it they celebrate? So my first impression was okay, yes, it’s the Día de Muertos. There’s some skeletons, there’s gravestones of pets, pet cemetery basically, right outside, they have some events, they have some vendors and the ofrendas, that’s what I remember the most. The ofrendas they had inside. And I know they are artists and there were different artists, different visions, but some of the ofrendas they were more representative of an artistic display. Not. I would not say it was an ofrenda. Why? Because my as from my culture an ofrenda is Día de Muertos is something that you dedicate to those who have passed away, those that you remember, family members, close friends. And it’s a day that according to our traditions, it’s a day that you commemorate and their spiritual presence, it’s with you by putting that ofrenda for that person. And one of the things that we explain about Día de Muertos is that Día de Muertos, it’s not just November 2nd, the others, I believe it starts all the way back, starting October 28th, several days back. Why? Because every single day represents more like a type of death, like those that were. And I don’t remember exactly which they represent what, but those that committed suicide are. It’s a specific day where you that it’s given to them. Those that died, drowned in rivers, oceans, even I guess by accident, maybe in a shower, bathtub or something, but they were drowned. There’s a specific day. There’s a specific day for children, the passed away, there’s, there is a specific day for pets as well. But November 2nd, it’s the one that is remembered the most because that’s the day that people died under normal circumstances. And I believe that’s why that’s the day that we remember the most. Because in history, most, most. Most of the people die of normal situation, normal causes. Right? But yeah, the Día de Muertos, it just- It’s not just one day, it’s several days. Several things happened throughout the day. There’s a significance on your ofrenda. Usually families would set up the ofrenda with the foods, the drinks that the person that passed away liked, the salt, the crosses, the flowers, the water that you put there, the incense. All those things have a significance. They mean something in that ofrenda. So when I first came into this event and I saw ofrendas filled with old radios, old TVs, no pictures of someone. I mean, if they could had a picture of someone there, I would have said, oh, probably he loved radios, probably he loved tvs. But no, it was not that there were. I’m not saying all of them, but there were ofrendas that yes, they had some of the, some of the items that are supposed to be there. They had pictures, they had candies they had food, so some of them were. They were traditional ofrendas, but most of them were not. So that was the disappointing part of it. Overall, I believe it’s a good event. I don’t recall if they have ever. Because I’ve never been inside where they have all the activities, the performances, the mariachi, the vendors. I have never been the whole period of time. So I don’t know if they actually explain what the Día de Muertos means or what’s the reason of doing. Día de Muertos so it’s a tradition, it’s an event. I want to say that it is well-received by many people. There are some that are not so happy, especially from Mexico, because I’ve been there and I don’t know if this lady. There was this situation one time where this lady approached me. I don’t know if she somehow figured out that or they told him that was part of this event. Because we have helped Héctor. We have been collaborators of the event as Comité Mexicano and this lady [inaudible] was drove from out of town. I don’t remember if she drove from. She said she was driving from Detroit or Toledo, but it was in that area. And she was. She was mad because she was saying to me that how can you call this Día de Muertos? This is not even close to the other mar. The person was from Mexico. Like I said, Día de Muertos in Mexico, it’s a very- It’s another activity or another cultural thing that they are. It’s taken into their hearts because you’re talking about family members, close friends that have passed away and they are remembering these persons. In Mexico, the Muertos goes all the way to visiting the graveyard around this weekend of the Día de Muertos. In the day of the Día de Muertos, November 2, and some of those days around it, graveyards in Mexico are flooded. There’s people having dinner. Well, some are having dinner, lunch, breakfast with the loved one that passed away, right there in their graveyard. They have people take mariachi, take bands, and some make a big party at the graveyard. One thing that I like to mention in comparison to Halloween here in the United States is that Halloween, I’ve experienced it as an activity of trying to scare people. It’s an activity that you’re working towards scaring someone, scaring kids making horror movies, making, you know, these terrors and just trying to scare you. Día de Muertos, it’s not that. Día de Muertos is a day of celebration, a day where you’re remembering loved ones, a day where you actually, yeah, you can sit down and have lunch next to your- Or dinner next, next to that ofrenda or like I said, in Mexico, they go to the graveyards. Many people prefer to go a day before or two days before because they know it’s gonna be crowded and if they don’t get there early, they’re not gonna be able to get to their graveyard where they’re gonna have a hard time getting to the graveyard of the loved one. Like I said, people go to graveyards with mariachis, with bands, with food, beers, alcohol. They make it a party out of it. So it’s kind of a celebration opposite from Halloween, which is about caring people.

Mark Souther [02:41:31] Do you think maybe that, in the Cleveland context, that the woman that you mentioned from either Detroit or Toledo, was she perhaps concerned because there wasn’t this more family-centered or very personal connection with the dead that is traditional and it’s more of a festival, sort of a public event like so many others that may be cultural in its origins, but yet it’s more of a community, I don’t think tourist attraction, though it could become that too?

Rey Esparza [02:42:06] I do have that impression that probably that lady, she was very deep into its roots about what Día de Muertos is to her. More family, more, like I said, more traditional than what is done here in Cleveland. Here in Cleveland, it is, has an aspect of that, right? But it also. It’s an event that brings a lot of people, the community, to come out and experience folkloric dancers, the parade with the different skeletons and skulls, you know, But- But yes, I mean, for sure. I know probably every year there might be some people that are coming for the first time, and they’re gonna be like, okay, this is Día de Muertos for them? Okay. And I see that, that it’s also- That’s why I said about artists, because many artists are involved. So. So it’s- It’s a representation, more artistic representation. And for me, and probably many people, Día de Muertos, it’s a cultural activity. It’s a cultural tradition. Not too artistic. I mean, there’s some, like I said, some components that go into the ofrendas. They have a meaning. There’s a reason when you prepare an ofrenda. Also, the levels that you put into an ofrenda, there’s something meaning. Each level means something. And that’s how you put each level might not have the same components. Some have some components, like the water, like the food. They might be in different levels.

Mark Souther [02:44:03] Thank you. That’s all my questions.

Matías Martínez Abeijón [02:44:07] Thank you very much. We are so grateful that you came, shared your story. The time is now 2:03 PM. We are going to stop the recorder completing the interview with Rey Esparza. Once again, thank you very much.

Rey Esparza [02:44:23] Oh, thank you. Thank you for the time and I appreciate what you’re doing and hopefully there’s going to be many more stories.

Mark Souther [02:44:32] Yes, we hope so.

Matías Martínez Abeijón [02:44:33] Hope so.

Mark Souther [02:44:33] Thank you very much.

Matías Martínez Abeijón [02:44:34] Thank you very much.

Rey Esparza [02:44:35] Thank you.

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