Transcript of interview.
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What is your name?
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Jose Armando
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What is your work?
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I work in electronics, repairing devices, radios, DVDs, laptops. Everything that has to do with electronic appliances.
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How long have you been here?
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Since I was 14.
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I began by taking apart everything at home, repairing the toys I'd get, all those things.
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And what was the first thing that you fixed?
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The first thing I un-fixed you mean?
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I remember my mother gave me a little red car, a little toy,
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and I started to look inside to see what was there.
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So with a screw-driver I started taking it apart to see what was inside.
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When christmas arrived my mother told me, "your presents in the closet, go get it".
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And I had already taken it all apart. The car was already in pieces.
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I spent that christmas with a car toy that had already been taken apart.
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That's my first memory of wanting to do those things.
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Then I started to work - to study rather. I studied in the Lacamor institute, and began repairing this on a higher level.
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Then I began working in transportation, at a car company installing HD, satelite-TV, audio-video systems.
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All those things that they don't do or know about here.
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Then I came here as a rest, to take a break.
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You are from Lima?
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Yes. My father is from Tarma, Cusco.
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What do you prefer repairing?
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DVDs
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DVDs are versatile.
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Those are my fans, they are my clients.
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Those are the things that I repair, DVDs, little devices, like these.
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What is that?
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Bluetooth, and those little things.
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What is it that you prefer about DVDs?
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Well, because people really adore them. You can watch your own movies.
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It's something new, because if we used to be in Antiquity with cassettes, now we've progressed to discs, MP3s, which we can compress.
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Now Blu-Ray is coming out.
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In your opinion, what is the difference between recycling, dismantling, and repairing?
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Here in Peru we are mainly recyclers.
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We recycle everything, because in this country everything has value.
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For example, if you drop something, we will pick it up, clean it up, repair it and put it back on the market so someone else can use it.
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So someone else takes it, and so on.
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On the contrary, in more advanced countries, things are not the same.
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Things are used once, and then abandoned.
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And the models change constantly.
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You get Playstation 1, then Playstation 2, then Playstation 3. The models change, and people improve.
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Here we are now at Playstation 3, and a new one is soon to be out.
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Do you receive many devices from other countries?
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Yes. From China. They're all little Chinese devices, from Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore.
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We get some "Made in USA", but those are only the best ones.
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We get some devices from Canada, but there's not much commerce here.
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It'd be good that there be more imported products, so that people could have access to those things.
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Why did you decide to repair electronics as opposed to recycling them?
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It all started when I was a little kid.
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My mother took me to this place where there was a house that had burnt down completely.
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As we were walking, my mother told me to go into the house.
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So I went up the stairs, and everything was calcinated, completely burnt.
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As I was looking around I spotted a nice lamp, that was in one piece.
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I asked my mother what it was. "A lamp" she said. "And what is it for?" I asked.
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"It serves to illuminate" she said.
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So she let me take it home.
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And my brother came over, he rolled a wire around it, connected it to a battery, and the light bulb turned on.
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Wow, I was so impressed. What is this? How does it work?
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And there's were as a kid I was already curious to take things apart.
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That's how it all began, that's my story.
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Then I started to work and all.
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Most people who work here do it out of love for the job, not for the money.
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And when I get home, I continue repairing.
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Do you fix things for friends or family?
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Yes, they all show up at home and bring things.
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When I get home the devices are all piled up there waiting for me.
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And when you go to a friend's place they also request repairs?
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Yes, there's always something to fix, be it a broken TV or whatever.
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I think repairing is part of life.
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I think we all fix in one way or another. Some people are like screw-drivers, we are all like that.
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One friend of mine, he's a construction worker, but he's always wanted to repair electronic devices, but he can't because he's busy in construction. It's a question of professions.
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I'm happy that I've done what I like, working in electronics.
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Other people can't do what they'd like. Sometimes drivers, engineers, they'd prefer doing something else, but their mother or father have inculcated it in them, that you have to study one thing or the other.
I'm happy that I've done what I like, working in electronics.
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Other people can't do what they'd like. Sometimes drivers, engineers, they'd prefer doing something else, but their mother or father have inculcated it in them, that you have to study one thing or the other.
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Not me, at least I've continued doing what I like to do.
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How do you update your knowledge?
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We participate in small courses.
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Here in Paruro, there's a place with a studio, and we pay for a class to update ourselves.
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For example, they organize a course on something new, like 3-D.
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We pay a certain amount of money, and get 4 or 5 classes.
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Each time there's a new model, or more modern devices, that's how we stay up to date.
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How often?
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About every year.
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When a new model comes out every year, like 3-D or whatever.
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Organized by people here?
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Everyone takes the classes, everyone is well up-to-date here, learning new things.
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This is very modern, no?
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This is 6 years old.
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If you forget it here I'll take it apart quickly.
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Why is it important to repair as opposed to throwing away appliances?
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When someone throws something away, we decide to repair it, because sometimes the person wants to hold on to it.
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The device comes alive. For example, people tell me: "My father gave me this radio and it reminds me of him.
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So please fix it Mr. Technician, no matter what it costs.
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My son gave me a more modern device, but it doesn't matter. Do what you can to fix it".
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So we grant the person their dream, we make people's dream reality in bringing life back to their appliance.
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And for us, it's also part of our dream, because when you see a person is happy with what you've done that brings you happiness too; it goes around.
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Money comes and goes. But what stays is the satisfaction of having achieved it.
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That's what I think, I hope others think the same.
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Well thank you very much. Is there anything you'd like to add?
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No one has ever interviewed me before, this is the first.
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And how does it feel?
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I can die happy now.
