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| Tuesday, Apr 3 2007 10:20 PM
Last Updated: Tuesday, Apr 3 2007 10:25 PM
What kind of hobby is good for a retired sheet metal worker and welder? Why, sewing, of course.
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Guillermo Fonseca talks about a folklorico costume that he has sewn.
Guillermo Fonseca sews material together in his garage. He has been in the U.S. for about 38 years. Originally a sheet metal worker, Fonseca now spends his time sewing folklorico dance costumes for his twin sons, Manuel and Dario.
Guillermo Fonseca
Well, maybe not for all such retired menfolk -- but it works for Guillermo Fonseca.
The 69 year-old father of four and grandfather of two enjoys sewing colorful Mexicanfolkloricodance costumes for the SoLuna Mexican Folk Ballet Company, founded by his twin sons, Manuel and Dario, in 2005.
Working in the garage of his home in southwest Bakersfield, Fonseca just needs an idea, usually from Manuel, measurements, a bit of time and material to create stageworthy designs.
Sewing is not new to the Fonseca family patriarch. In fact, he learned the craft when he was around 7, growing up in his native city of Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, in northeast Mexico.
"There has always been a sewing machine in my family," Fonseca, the youngest of eight children, said in soft-spoken Spanish. "My sister was a seamstress and my brother was a tailor and I would watch them work on the sewing machine. They showed me how to thread it and how to work the pedal. Sewing machines weren't electric then."
Matilde, 25 years his elder, and Santos, a decade older than him, would give him scraps of material on which to practice, Fonseca said. To him, it was always a game: He never sewed for a living. But this acquired skill stayed with him throughout his life.
Having only a sixth-grade education, he eventually found a job helping build frames for buses in Mexico. But low wages made him want to come to the United States.
Practicing what he preaches
Years before his children were born, Fonseca was already applying to his own life the advice he would eventually give them: "Always plan what you're going to do way ahead of time so you don't get caught in a bind."
He submitted all the paperwork and fees required of him by the American consulate and immigrated to Texas in 1969. While there, he met Maria de la Luz, his wife of 34 years, who was living on the other side of the border from Laredo, Texas. They married after having known each other for only six months and he petitioned for residency on her behalf and brought her to live with him. All their children are U.S.-born.
When the Fonseca kids were growing up, "Papi" not only made all the adjustments on the hems and waists of their garments: His wife said he would make matching clothes for the twins and dresses for daughter Laura.
"He would make curtains for the house," said Maria de la Luz. "'It's really easy,' he would tell me.
"He does all the sewing," she said. "Many people tell me I've won the lottery by having a husband who likes to sew."
Now he sometimes makes skirts for Dario's two daughters.
Fonseca's youngest son, Victor, 23, said his father has been sewing "all my life."
The language of math
When his kids were younger, Fonseca worked long work hours for little more than minimum wage to feed his family. His busy schedule prevented him from attending night school and learning English fluently. But he always liked math, the universal language, and eventually even learned to read blueprints.
"Why do I like math?" Fonseca asked rhetorically. "Because I go to the store and see a pair of pants or a suit that's so much percent off. If you can't do the math, you can't know how much you'll save when you buy it.
"In my job, you use numbers a lot," Fonseca said about sheet metal work, whose principles he applies to sewing: He pictures a skirt as a cone with the tip cut off and is able to fashion it accordingly using pieces of fabric.
When he was a seasoned metalworker, he would teach his younger, less experienced colleagues how to solder and cut using scraps of metal, just like his brother and sister showed him how to sew using bits of fabric.
Sheet metal. Cloth. Patterns. Measurements. Scissors. Shears. Solder. Thread.
Fonseca has always been comfortable using the tools of very different trades. The motivating force behind all his hard work and versatility was a special hope: "My concern as a parent was that my kids didn't end up working in minimum-wage jobs," he said.
Now he is proud of what his children have achieved: All of them are high school graduates and three of them have gone to college.
And now that he is resting from a lifetime of labor, just how long does this jack of various trades plan to keep sewing?
"Until I can't see anymore," he said.
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