"Information is the most important part of change."
I spent time with local business owner Nadia Martinez, discussing her shop, La Semilla.
It is located on the main drag in Cinco de Diciembre, known as 5D, on Av México 1130. For those unfamiliar with the area, La Semilla is half a block from Casa Ley on the same side and across the street from the Portnovia Hotel. In many ways,
La Semilla has been the epitome of environmentally friendly business practices for nearly 50 years. Amongst the multitude of products, you will find dozens of open bins and large jars with every possible herb, spice, remedy, hand-made dairy, and fermented product. I asked Nadia about the store’s history, how it came to be, and what it is now. Nadia was nine years old when the store opened in 5D (Cinco de Diciembre) 30 years ago.
Question: Is La Semilla a family business?
Nadia
Before, it was a bigger family business, grandparents and parents, and now it belongs to my family, my husband and I, and our children. The business has been open since 1981, forty-three years. Originally, it started in front of the Parque Hidalgo in a smaller location, and it’s been here maybe some 30 years. The business 1st started in 1981 when a friend of the family who had a similar business in Guadalajara suggested we open one in Puerto Vallarta.
Question: What was the street like when you moved here 30 years ago compared to now?
Nadia
There still were more local businesses, and basically only local people in the neighborhood. The buses drove on our street, the sidewalks were narrower and there was parking on both sides of the street. Also, there were no permits needed for the businesses to have anything outside, like tables and chairs, signs or merchandise.
Question: How would you categorize your goods?
Nadia
It’s been complicated to find a category because it began as only the bulk products, grains and spices and seeds and the dried chilies and all that. And my mom also had many foods for animals, for chickens and all that, and we don’t have that anymore. It’s changed a little bit. Now we have other things like the all these supplements, like vitamins and herbal supplements. And we have the live fermented food, and hand made dairy products.
Question: What are the rules for the store’s refuse handling?
Nadia
For this area downtown, it’s not on the main street. You have to go one or two streets below. There’s a couple of bins, like going towards the beach, they come twice a day.
Question: What do you think would help with all the huge piles of garbage we see in the neighborhood?
Nadia
I think it will have to be different aspects of the problem to be dealt in different ways. Education being the first, I would think. Yeah. If people were more educated about what to do with their garbage. If the city, came up with a public information drive telling owners where to put their garbage and when. There was this one time that they tried to put this program to separate your garbage. Organic and non-organic. It didn’t work out, I’m not sure why. Well, but they’ve tried.
Question: Does the store recycle? And do you personally recycle?
Nadia
We try to recycle many things, like we separate glass jars that we can reuse here. We separate the cardboard and take it separately. So at least the people that collect the trash, they can take it, because even sometimes they are the ones that can do something about it.
Question: Do you know of any programs or individuals working on the garbage problem?
NADIA
There’s this girl that was collecting, compost from other places. I’m not sure exactly how it works, but she would go to your place and pick up your compost. There is a business in San Sebastian, they recycle cooking oil, and they make it into soap. My daughter’s school will take compost and re-use it.
Question: Finally, I asked Nadia about La Semilla’s future goals.
Nadia
We are looking forward to increasing our line of products, especially the local, regional, artisan, and organic ones, with the goal of supporting our local economy.
We finished the interview with Nadia, saying, “Information is the most important part of change.”
