Born in April 1965, right here in Ajijic, Marco is a man who loves his home town. This general contractor has been running the family business for 15 years since his father retired, but the business has been here for 40 years.
A tall man, with a football player physique, his passion is very obvious: Ajijic. From writing a column, the Ajijiteco in the local El Charal Spanish weekly, to organizing clean-ups at the beach, this man will do anything to help better his town, beginning at the age of 15, when he helped petition government officials to open a secondary school.
In 1990, he and a several others got together to help build the basketball courts up from the telephone company for the kids. Better playing basketball than running loose looking for trouble!
A couple of years ago, he, Hector Martinez and others, a total of 30, organized themselves to make the lower futbol field what it is today. Before they formed the Patronato de Futbol, the field was a rocky mess. Today it is a soft, grassy field that local teams vie to play on! They have a little league too, where 3 of their teams hold first place in their category.
A couple of months ago, he found a new project to throw himself into, Un Ajijic Sin Basura, (An Ajijic Without Garbage.) Juanita Reed has school children that help clean up on weekends, while Marco directs his energies towards young adults and businesses. His own workers help him clean up the beach every Saturday. Their first outing they removed nearly 2 tons of garbage between Villa Lucerna and the Club Nautico in La Floresta. Whoever would like to help, can. Some local businesses, such as the liquor stores, donate beers and sodas for the volunteers.
He is currently trying to get sponsors to put in a water purification system and bathrooms at the basket/volleyball courts on the beach.
"A couple hundred kids go to play and work out at those courts daily. They don't have anything to drink or anyplace to go to the bathroom. That isn't fair."
He also has a project going with the local AA chapter to get permission to have group presentations in schools about drugs and alcohol and how they can destroy your life.
"I want to do something better, though."
He says, "Just going on there with a bunch of adults and talking and going on about this stuff doesn't work. They need to be taught in a way they can understand, see examples, success stories and all of it done in a language they understand."He says that more needs to be done in the way to stop littering, not just cleanit up. Recently, Marco got 20 trash barrels donated and put them in place along the beach to help reduce the amounts of garbage deposited on the ground, for lack of a better place. He is also looking to push local officials into closing off the streets leading to the beach except one, at which someone should be stationed to charge 10 pesos per vehicle; the toll will help pay for cleaning up.
Marco and his volunteers need help in their campaign. You can help out by either donating your time or plastic bags, gloves, beer and/or sodas. You can get more information by calling Marco at 766-1480 or the Delegacion at 766-1760. They meet between 10-11 Saturday mornings either at the pier in Ajijic or the Delegacion.
