Bluefields: my perspective

You don’t have to be in Bluefields for long to see that the socioeconomic structure of the community is struggling. The streets are a collection of cement slabs, rocky concrete, and hexagon bricks. The sidewalks, where they do exist, are narrow, layered with mud and so bumpy that you trip every few steps if your eyes are not glued to the pavement. On the streets and sidewalks, trash fills every pot hole and spills over into the ditches and gutters. The smell is mostly bad, of either rotting trash or burning trash. The housing in Bluefields seems to be a complete hodge-podge mix of economic status. The concept of environmental racism and economic status based housing values do not exist here. Relatively large and well kept homes are side by side with falling in dumpy tin huts. Every neighborhood is the same, big houses, little shacks, nice architecture, and scraps from a garbage pit can all be found on any given street. The people here don’t notice they just go about their business, selling whatever they can off of their porch or kitchen. Every family has a business in Bluefields. Every one sells something, mostly clothing, baked goods, groceries, pharmacy, produce, and on and on. There are so many stores and shops and homes with their doors open, hoping someone will come in to buy, the I don’t see how anyone would ever have to go farther than one block, if that, to get any item they may ever need. I also wonder how any one shop could get any business if everyone is so poor, but as I sit in Marvin’s shop for a few minutes I see that there is a steady flow of costumers, which he individually waits on and fetches their groceries for them as they request each item. Nobody ever buys more than four or five items, and usually just one or two, but still they come and come, and one Cordoba at a time (about 5 cents) Marvin makes his living. This makes me wonder even more how this family, which seems to be one of the better off ones, makes it on such a meager business. Then I discover (which basically I already knew) the economy of the entire town is funded by the cruise ships. Almost all of the young people of the town are working or have worked for a ship. All three of Marvin’s sons are working in the industry and most likely the family is largely surviving on remittances. The shops are merely a way to pass the time in this town, to have something to invest yourself and your family into, even if it doesn’t turn much profit.