Every afternoon, when the clock strikes two, Jorge Pacheco from Tarme arranges a small blackboard at his post at the Route 13 bus stop in Tacna. At 83 years old, he continues to sell the breads and empanadas that he himself prepares since dawn. He says that working keeps him awake, useful and connected to what has accompanied him most since he was a child: the dough, the oven and the memory of his land.
LOOK AT THIS: Mud and stones close the road between Tarma and Chanchamayo for several hours (PHOTOS)
Before dawn, repeat the same ritual. He mixes flour, butter, sugar, eggs and two final ingredients that, he claims, come from his childhood in Tarma. One is a secret that he jealously guards; The other, he admits with a laugh, is “putting a lot of love into it.” Although he no longer remembers the names of his grandparents, he does not forget the scenes: the wooden table, the rolling pin, the bread puffing in the oven that they built themselves.
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Today, as a user of Pensión 65 del Midis, Mr. Jorge has been able to strengthen the entrepreneurship that sustains his daily life. He was a carpenter, driver, farmer and animal breeder, but he always returns to bread: the trade that connects him with his Tarman roots and that he now shares with his neighbors, offering six pieces for one sol. “If I don’t work, I get desperate,” he says while arranging his baskets. And between warm aromas and freshly made dough, it continues to honor a legacy that never stopped accompanying it.
