Where have the sidewalk bootblacks gone?

LIMPIA BOTAS. An 80-year-old Cebuano old timer in the US came home last month and the first persons he looked for were the limpia botas or bootblacks. He was one of the sidewalk bootblacks when at age 15 he was brought to the US by an uncle.

DOING GOOD. This one-time limpia botas is now making good in America where he operates a chain of laundry shops with head office in San Francisco, California. He told an Ear informer he was terribly dismayed that the limpia botas are gone. In many big US cities there are still sidewalk bootblacks, he said. "They do better jobs than those in the automated shoe shops," he shared.