Meet Waltemo, above. He is a small businessman who works on our block in Centro. His business is washing cars.

Waltemo is always friendly and happy. He has a good business keeping the cars of everyone in the neighborhood nice and clean. There are also plenty of people who park to go to the local doctors and businesses and he’ll wash their cars, too.

Waltemo works hard, mostly seven days a week. He has a wife and a young daughter who occasionally come and visit with him, his daughter in a sparkling clean school uniform.

Waltemo washes a car using only one bucket of water. I’ve watched him and I still can’t figure out how he does it so well with so little water. He washes our car every week in exchange for using our water for his business. He keeps an eye on the street and has been known to keep people from parking in front of our garage.

Every time we go by he says “Hola, Amigo, Amiga! Our neighborhood is very friendly – everyone waves and smiles and greets each other – but Waltemo is the friendliest of all. And, I guarantee that if there is anything going on in the vicinity Waltemo will know about it!

PS – Son Adam emailed me and asked if I was sure his name was Waltemo or if it could be Cuauhtémoc….and I should have explained that we only know his name spoken…and have never seen it written out….