The Mexicans and one Columbian

The owner had a soft spot for immigrants, especially the illegal ones.  The cellar that ran the length of the store below the main floor was staffed with a team of Mexicans and one Colombian.  Most of them knew each other or were related in some way.  Quite a few came and went, but their job was tireless.  They were a minimum 12 hour day.  In the mornings they cleaned the store, accepted deliveries and made local customer deliveries.  During the day they packed orders for shipping, fulfilled orders for customers in the store and made more local deliveries.  At night, they changed over to chef coats and staffed the events by coat checking, cleaning, busing and serving.  I don’t know how they did it day after day. 

Most of them spoke little English, but they really helped me with my Spanish.  You’d think that after 8 years of taking Spanish in school from middle school to college, I would have been fluent.  I could barely grasp the basics, but in turn, I helped them with English and before you knew it, everyone was bilingual. 

I always had a problem with a couple of the guys.  Most of them would flirt with me, but a few took it too far.  One guy who wasn’t there that long, gave me roses, but there was one guy who resorted to touching and constantly telling me how beautiful I was.  At first it was flattering, but after time, it became harassment.  Every day I would tell him in Spanish about mi esposo or my husband. He hated it.  He also wasn’t even 21 yet and I was pushing my late 30's. Mrs. Robinson I am not.

The ring leader of the group is still there to this day.  He runs the whole operation down below with an iron fist.  He makes sure all the orders are picked, packed and shipped properly and on time.  He also makes sure all the deliveries in the city get done fast every morning.  When I order wine from there now, he writes me notes on the outside of my packages.  When I visited recently, he took me around to make sure I was able to say hi to everyone I had worked with and show me the new offices.  He was the only one happy to see me.

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