By Anne Stuhldreher
…Unless, that is, you’re friends with someone like Maria del Carmen Torres. In between serving up pupusas and plantain chips at local farmers’ markets, she runs an informal lending circle with 12 friends. Every Saturday and Sunday, they stop by her Folsom Street apartment to drop off $200 in cash. And on Mondays the whole pot – $2,600 – goes to one person until everyone has their turn…
Cesta participant Ingrid Orellana isn’t going to wait for that. She got the 12 women in her group to let her put twice as much money into the cesta so she will get paid out twice as much and move her toward her goal of opening a fruit and vegetable stand off Geary Boulevard. “I’m tired of cleaning houses,” she said.
Continue reading Traditional Lending Goes Mainstream