Economics in Ciudad Dario: The Life of a Liniero

Talking to linieros or former linieros, the stories they tend to tell fall into two categories: the tragic story; and the sleazy story.  The first is told with a heavy-heart, recounting the moral dilemma of taking money from people clearly suffering to make ends meet.  It is the story of the liniero who, after a few beers, looks down at his glass and remembers the families in houses made of sheets of zinc he visits.  The second category involves the sexual habits of linieros.  Linieros are considered by many to be seamy womanizers.  Stories of linieros with numerous different families in different parts of the country abound.  Other stories of indebt women offering themselves to the linieros as payment are also common.

Here I offer an example of each, as told to me by a friend who spent a few months working as a liniero:


Listen, I sold this gas-stove to this one woman.  I was going to charge her 900 cordobas, and I told her she could put down 150 and pay me 50 cordobas every fifteen days.  She asked if she could pay 25 per week, and I said, OK.  So, she gives me the 150 cordobas, and I give her the gas-stove.  But, let me tell you, she didn’t pay me one single time after that.  I would show up every Thursday, and she knew I would be coming on Thursday, because it was on a Thursday that she bought the gas-stove, and sure enough every Thursday the door was closed and no one would answer.  But one day I caught her, one day I see the door is left open and I go up and say, “Hello?” She comes up to the door and I tell her, Listen, I need you to make your payments, if you don’t I’m going to be in big trouble, my boss could send me to prison.  It’s not true (that whole prison business), but it’s one of those lines all linieros use, and it’s one of those tricks of the trade that the elders share with the rookies.  So, she opens the door a little wider and shows me she has no legs.  She tells me to please understand, she has diabetes and she can’t make the payments.  And I mean, I said, OK, I’ll make the payments for you.  Because, what the hell is she going to do?  She had no legs.

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I had this big thing of shampoo, and I show it to this woman, and it’s to her liking.  I said I’d give it to her for 250 cordobas, and she can just pay me fifty a week.  She agrees, but she says that her husband is gone, and that he has the money and she asks me if she could just pay me next time.  So, I say, OK, but you promise me you will pay me one hundred cordobas next time I come here?  She says, yes, yes, that she promises.  So, we write up the little bill, and I’m thinking, I am for sure going to get these 100 the next time I come here.  I felt pretty confident about it.  Then I show up a week later, and she says, I don’t have the money, my husband is gone, and she says, but maybe I can make it up to you, and she starts rubbing my arm.  And that’s how it is out there.  Linieros will tell you, Just wait, you’ll see how much ass you can get.  And the young kids that get into it, they grow up fast I tell you.