Only 10% of women in the team that takes on the challenge of delivering the mail

Carolina Gomez Mena

La Jornada Newspaper
Thursday, January 2, 2025, p. 11

Arlene Astorga Flores and Inés Monsalvo Nocedal have been portfolio workers for just over three decades and point out that, although they had not set out to develop that job, now they would not change it for another. They both love their work, but they recognize that it is not easy, since it is physically demanding.

If I had the opportunity to choose, I would choose to be a wallet, because you are outside, it is not monotonous, every day is different, and you also exercisesays Arlene, who distributes mail on the way to the National Palace.

The two deliver their mail on tricycles, which hold about 80 kilos of mail, and point out that not because they are women do they carry less weight, but they do the same work.

I feel very proud to belong to the post office. I like my job even though it is hard. It wasn’t my idea to be a wallet, but I really like it. I enjoy my work. It looks easy, but not everyone joins the cast, it is challenging, especially when it rains, is very cold or hot.explains Monsalvo.

In separate interviews with The Daypoint out that a plus of their work is the contact with people, the vast majority of whom are kind people and help, even to take a look to your transportation.

In the Mexican Postal Service (Sepomex) they represent 10 percent of the people who deliver correspondence, receipts, magazines and packages. There are 6,288 male postmen and only 615 women.

Violeta Abreu González, director of Sepomex, details that for just over 75 years in the institution portfolios begin to be formally received. They are still few, but we are already breaking those gender boundaries, even in this work and added that there are also postal employees, who work in the offices.

Experiences that they treasure

Arlene has seen several presidents of the Republic, but she treasures the opportunity she had to greet former president Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

My hands were very dirty from carrying the bags with the correspondence from the National Palace, because the tricycle was left outside, and I delivered the letters little by little. I saw former President López Obrador in the garden area. I was able to get closer, he hugged me and shook my hand, he was embarrassed because they were dirty, but he didn’t care. Unfortunately it didn’t come with a way to take a photo. It was something unforgettable. I had seen other presidents before, but only from afar: Enrique Peña Nieto and his then wife and Felipe Calderón.

Monsalvo has 17 years of experience and details that one of the benefits is that he remains in shape at 50 years of age. She remembers that when she entered the service, with the help of her now ex-mother-in-law, who also worked at the Post Office, she was overweight, but when she started working she quickly lost 10 kilos, and now she tries to keep up.

He says that at first he delivered on foot and sometimes carried up to 40 kilos of mail in a shopping cart, then, when they gave him a tricycle at Sepomex, it was better, although also challenging. When I finished my legs were shakinghe mentioned.

The two assure that they have never suffered discrimination, harassment or mistreatment for being women, and they emphasize that they are capable of carrying many kilos of mail just like their colleagues.

Inés, who also covers the Zócalo route, says that there are usually demonstrations on her route (Donceles Street and Eje Central), situations have forced her to change her delivery routes. He adds that once his tricycle overturned and warns that you have to be very careful when it rains because you can’t see the potholes. He even once had a passenger truck push his tricycle when it reversed. Nothing happened to her because she got off in time.

The two agree that one of the best times is January and early February, when they bring the answers of the Three Wise Men to the children, and on this eve they called boys and girls to write to Melchior, Gaspar and Baltazar.