Written by: James Jones
Meeting Gustavo for me was a big surprise, a very pleasant one. I knew of Gustavo because of the amazing design work he does with both Enderly and Torrent.
Backstory: Tony worked with Torrent Consulting for the 13 months after quitting teaching in 2014. This 13 months was critical in the young stages of growth for our company. Torrent also launched Tony at the end of 13 months with a generous loan and services support (including design support).
Gustavo is a native resident of Guatemala and currently resides in the Antigua area. He is the Head of Design for Torrent Consulting and works in their Antigua Hub, alongside nearly 30 other amazing people. As part of the Torrent/Enderly partnership, Gustavo has worked hand in hand with Tony to help develop and design all of Enderly’s brand and materials. What you see of our company is all through Gustavo’s hands. If you want to learn about a business out there making impacts around our world, check out Torrent ;).
Though I had met him briefly while he was here in the states, during a short visit to our coffee shop, this time in Guatemala was different. Maybe I was just at peace or inspired by the trip, but my conversation with Gustavo was amazing. We skipped a lot of the small talk like weather, animals, and work. The setting was amazing. We were at a brewery on the outskirts of Antigua. We were both relaxing, me with a pineapple cider in hand. There was conversation, music, kids, and laughter.
I asked him about the culture of living in Guatemala City and he didn’t shy away from any of my questions. What was your neighborhood like? High crime? Opportunity? Do young kids generally make it out? What is life like? What kinds of things did you do growing up?
His responses were very familiar to experiences here in the states, but in some ways they seemed worse. High crime, gang activity, not a ton of hope or opportunity, sports keep you occupied, etc. I quickly learned that the chances of Gustavo coming from where he came from to where he is now are very slim. So proud to be working with him and even more proud to get to know him. This was a very unexpected connection, but reminds us that we are more alike than we all think.
