MEXICO: Mother’s Day

What an automobile means to the average U.S. family, a U.S.-made sewing machine means to peasant families throughout the world. Besides being a household necessity for mothers with children to clothe and yards of cloth to stitch into voluminous dresses, it is a symbol of standing in the community.

Last week, as a Mother’s Day gesture, the Mexican Government ordered the National Pawnshop to return all pawned sewing machines without repayment of loans ($160,000) for which they had been pledged.