Chapter 58 How to Do Business with Mexicans
“What are you talking about, Alex? You’re restoring the car your grandfather left behind?”
“Exactly what I said. I want Grandma to ride in it at least once before her dementia gets any worse.”
Prescott, a small city about an hour and a half north of Phoenix.
Inside the study of Alex’s family home, father and son raised their voices at each other.
“Nonsense! Listen carefully, Alex. That car isn’t some precious family memory. If anything, it’s a nightmare.”
“But… when Grandpa passed the car on to me, he clearly said it was precious to him…”
“Ha! What would you know? Anyway, it’s your car now, so I don’t care what you do with it. Just don’t let me see it. I can’t stand the sight of that thing.”
“Father…”
“That’s enough. Get out.”
Click.
After his son Alex closed the study door and left, Benjamin roughly tossed off his glasses and pressed his thumb and forefinger against the space between his brows.
“Why did Father have to leave that car to Alex…?”
To him, that blue automobile was a memory he never wanted to revisit and the culprit that had completely changed his father’s life.
When Benjamin was still a young child, his father had worked as a lineman, a technician who maintained transmission equipment for a telephone company.
At the time, the United States was rapidly laying telephone and electrical lines across the entire country in the years following World War II, so linemen enjoyed relatively high pay and job security among blue-collar workers.
Then, less than a year after his father had scraped together enough money to buy a new car, the family was involved in an accident during a road trip.
To be honest, Benjamin’s memories of that day were somewhat hazy.
He had been very young, and both the physical and psychological shock had been severe.
However, the sight of his father bleeding inside the completely overturned car remained vivid in his mind even now.
“Damn it… What kind of ‘Blue Tank’ was that supposed to be…?”
Benjamin bit his lip hard.
The more he thought about it, the more furious he became.
He and his mother had escaped the accident with only minor injuries, but his father had been badly hurt.
The injuries left lasting damage in his arms and legs, making it impossible for him to continue working at a job that required climbing tall transmission towers.
Naturally, the family’s finances rapidly deteriorated.
His father dragged his impaired body from job to job, taking whatever work he could find, but securing another stable position like his old one proved difficult.
He should have sold it long ago…
His father could no longer drive, and his mother did not even have a license.
Benjamin could not understand why his father had carefully kept a car no one drove inside the garage, only to leave it as an inheritance not to him, but to Alex.
“Whew… He’s a clever boy. He must be planning to restore it, show it to Mother, and then sell it for a proper price. Yes. That must be it.”
Benjamin struggled to calm himself with that thought, then picked up the glasses lying across his desk.
Over the weekend, Noah, Dusty, and I took I-10 East toward Lordsburg.
We had finished all the basic maintenance on the PV544 by Friday, just as promised.
Jingle—
After driving for about an hour and a half, we opened the door to Old Soul Upholstery, and the familiar smell of leather and adhesive filled my nose.
After visiting several times, I had finally learned an appropriate greeting for entering the shop.
“¡Hola, Mateo! Ya llegué. Hello, Mateo! I’m here.”
“Hola, Jason! You’re perfectly punctual again.”
Mateo, who had been seated at a sewing machine farther inside the workshop, stood and waved one thick hand at me.
“Woof! Woof!”
Dusty ran into the area closed to customers and placed his front paws against Mateo’s shin.
Apart from Noah and me, he seemed especially fond of Mateo.
“Hahaha, Polvito!”
Apparently finding Dusty just as adorable, Mateo had even given him the Spanish nickname “Little Dust” and took out a treat for him.
He had actually bought them in preparation for Dusty’s visits.
Chomp, chomp, chomp—
After finishing his reunion with Dusty, Mateo strode over to greet Noah for the first time.
Both arms were covered in tattoos, and half his face was hidden beneath his beard, so I worried Noah might be startled.
But my concern proved completely unnecessary.
“Hola, Mateo! I’m Noah.”
Noah greeted him in a voice full of excitement, like a fan meeting his favorite celebrity.
“Hola, Noah! It’s good to meet you.”
“Yes, it’s great to meet you! The interior you did on the Metropolitan was incredible. Pink isn’t really my taste, but the quality was amazing.”
“Wow! Is that so? You have a pretty good eye for someone so young.”
The creases between Mateo’s brows softened, and white teeth flashed through his beard.
“To be honest, I’ve also been enjoying my work lately because Jason keeps bringing me such distinctive cars.”
“Haha, I’m glad to hear that. Then let’s look at this one and discuss it in person.”
Jingle—
We went outside and showed him the vehicle loaded on the trailer.
Mateo’s eyes immediately narrowed.
“Wow… Now this is something. It looks even better in person. Jason, where do you keep finding treasures like these?”
“I know. I seem to keep ending up with unusual cars. As I mentioned earlier, this job is a restoration, not a custom build. The seats and all the other materials need to be preserved as they are.”
Mateo carefully examined every corner of the interior for quite some time.
He sat in the seats and pressed the dashboard joints with his thumb.
“Hmm. Restoring the seats and dashboard shouldn’t be too difficult. Finding material that matches this original headliner as closely as possible will take some work. But don’t worry. I won’t disappoint you this time either.”
This was why visiting his workshop always put me in a good mood.
Mateo possessed a confidence backed by genuine ability.
“Then the scope of work, price, and schedule all look acceptable?”
I handed him the completed work order.
“Yes, Jason. ¡Exacto! You’ve completely figured out how upholstery work operates now.”
At first, this process had taken a long time because I did not properly understand the interior-restoration workflow.
Now I had a general understanding not only of the work itself, but also of what Mateo valued and what he would never compromise on.
As a result, the unnecessary conversation between us had steadily diminished.
I liked that very much.
“If you haven’t eaten yet, shall we continue talking over lunch?”
When doing business with Mexican partners, the most important thing was properly blending business discussion with personal relationships.
Approaching everything solely as a transaction was the worst possible strategy.
Become friends first, and the work will naturally follow.
That was the disposition and business philosophy of Mexicans.
When Mateo first accepted my partnership proposal and called me amigo, it had also come from that cultural background.
“Hmm, lunch. What should we eat…?”
Just as Mateo, who took food seriously, began considering the question—
“I want Mexican food!”
Noah interrupted.
“Noah, can you handle Mexican food?”
“Of course! I actually ate some incredible food in Mexico not long ago, and I haven’t found anything that good since…”
Mateo’s eyes flashed open at the boy’s words.
Mexicans not only placed great importance on meals, but also took enormous pride in the excellent restaurants they knew.
What Noah had said was like pouring oil onto a blazing Mexican passion.
There’s no way Noah said that deliberately… right?
“Oh? Hoho, is that so…? Hmm. Then wait here for a moment.”
As expected, Mateo’s expression became extremely serious.
Rattle—
He followed us outside and pulled down the shop shutter as though declaring the business closed for the day.
“Uh… Mateo?”
“There is nowhere nearby worth eating. Follow me. My mother didn’t come in today, so I don’t have a packed lunch either.”
“Yes!”
Noah shouted brightly.
“Is this really a restaurant? It looks like an ordinary house…”
Noah asked suspiciously as he climbed out of the car.
“Trust me. If you want the cooking of real Mexican mamas, places like this are the best.”
Mateo smiled and opened the front door.
Creak—
Inside was literally the living room of a private home.
Instead of a sofa, several old, creaking wooden tables stood around the room.
There was even a graduation photograph on the wall that appeared to belong to a student from the owner’s family.
“Sit here. Make yourselves comfortable. Think of it as your own home.”
Mateo familiarly opened a white household refrigerator and brought out three bottles of cola.
“¡Bienvenidos!”
A generously built woman wearing an apron recognized Mateo from the kitchen and greeted him.
A short while later, before we had even ordered, an enormous plate was placed on the table.
“Is this meat pizza?”
“Of course not. This is a tlayuda. Americans call it ‘Mexican pizza,’ but it’s completely different.”
The plate held a round tortilla topped with grilled beef and cheese.
Visually, it was understandable that Noah had mistaken it for pizza.
However—
“Oh, this is really good! It tastes completely new!”
The flavor was entirely different.
The combination of charcoal-scented meat, salty cheese, and a rich sauce made from black beans was especially excellent.
To my eyes, it still looked like bulgogi pizza.
As Noah and I blew on the hot food and expressed our admiration, Mateo’s expression visibly softened.
“Jason, can you bring me here again the next time we come to this town? I want to try other things too…”
“That sounds excellent. Next time, I’ll let you taste the mole sauce my mother makes. You can only call yourself a true brother after eating that.”
(Translator’s Note: Mole — A family of Mexican sauces combining chilies with spices, seeds, nuts, fruits, herbs, and other ingredients. Mexico has dozens of regional forms; Oaxaca is especially known for seven major varieties, while Puebla is associated with mole poblano.)
Mateo cut in before I could answer.
A brother…
It seemed Noah and Dusty were contributing more than I was to advancing my business relationship with Mateo.
“Hahahaha!”
“Hehehe!”
The two clasped hands over the middle of the tlayuda as though sealing an alliance.
Watching Noah devour Mexican food put Mateo in such a good mood that he not only paid for lunch, but also lowered the price of the upholstery work slightly.
Is this what social talent looks like…?
On the drive back to Arizona, I looked at Noah dozing in the passenger seat with his stomach swollen from overeating.
Bzzzt—
At that moment, the phone I had tossed into the truck’s cup holder began vibrating.
“Hello?”
“Hi, Jason. Do you have a moment to talk?”
The high, bright voice belonged to Hailey.
“Yeah, but I’m driving, so keep it brief.”
I switched the phone to speaker mode.
“Okay! It’s nothing major, but are you free tomorrow or Monday? My father says he wants to meet you…”
“Your father?”
Hailey’s father was Richard Sterling, the founder and current owner of Sterling Selection.
Why would someone like that want to see me?
“Yeah. Apparently, the M5 restoration left a good impression on him. He only said that he wanted to discuss business, so I don’t know the details either.”
Hmm…
There was no reason to reject a meeting with one of the greatest figures in the industry.
“But neither of those days works for me. I’m working on another car right now.”
Entrusting part of a job to an outside specialist did not always mean I had free time.
The PV544 in particular used an enormous amount of chrome on its front and rear bumpers, grille, and headlight trim rings.
Some parts had developed pitting—tiny holes in the surface—and needed to be sent out for stripping and replating.
The pieces still in good condition, however, would require a great deal of polishing by Noah and me.
“You already accepted another car? My goodness… Jason, maybe you secretly have a talent for sales too. Then when are you free?”
“Haha, hardly. Hmm. Next Wednesday or Thursday should be good.”
“Really? Wait a moment… Robert? Do you know Dad’s schedule for next week? Yes, not Monday. Wednesday or Thursday.”
For a moment, I heard Hailey discussing various details with her assistant, Robert, on the other end.
“Hello? He’s available during lunch on Wednesday. How does that sound?”
Lunch…
I generally preferred to avoid meals during first meetings, but I could not refuse twice.
Especially considering who the other person was.
“All right. Just to make sure—this isn’t something where I need to wear a suit, is it?”
“Hehe. Nothing like that, so come dressed comfortably. My father always dresses casually too.”
“Okay. Then I’ll see you that day…”
After I ended the call, Noah, who had overheard the conversation, glanced at me and asked cautiously,
“Jason… Sterling Selection is an enormous company, isn’t it? They have branches all over the country, and they run television commercials.”
“That’s right.”
“And the top boss of that company just said he wants to meet you, correct?”
“Yeah. Apparently.”
“…Wow.”
Noah pushed out his lips and murmured in amazement.
“…I’ll work even harder from now on. Of course, I’ve already been working hard! But even, even, even harder.”
“Why all of a sudden?”
Noah clenched his fist and delivered something resembling a declaration of ambition as my assistant.