From afar, cash wired to moms on their day
On Mother's Day, José Carlos Martino can't let down the three women in his life.
The undocumented migrant can't be back home in Brazil in person for Sunday, but says he'll make his regular stop this week at Millennium Communications on Hollis Street to send a little something.
As in cash.
''I can't fail sending my wife, mother, and mother-in-law a little something they deserve," said Martino, 33, last week as he wired home $400 for his daughter's nasal surgery.
It's people like Martino, whose love -- or guilt -- has fueled a rush of preholiday, money-wiring customers at convenience stores catering to the area's sizable Brazilian community.
In the '80s, imported American products represented every mother's perfect gift. Nowadays, sending money is easier. ''I expect a 20 percent increase on money transfers the days leading to Mother's Day," says Mayra Ventura, a Dominican whose store's clientele is half Brazilian.
Eliete Dias, from Brasileirinho Supermarket in Marlborough, estimates a 40 percent jump, while Roberto Aragão projects 35 percent more business in his 200 remittance-a-day Western Union agency on Concord Street. The two proprietors, both Brazilian, say the money transfer system has proven popular with undocumented customers who cannot risk travel because they might not be allowed back into the United States.
Shop owners appreciate why Martino doesn't even consider bringing his two children to Framingham. ''I don't want to see them hiding like myself," said Martino, a construction worker.
Recent immigration crackdowns have forced workers to hold back on ''their feelings" for their moms, keeping people from Michelle's Market in Peabody, said Célia Azevedo of Michelle's Market in Peabody. ''They avoid coming here, suspecting they've been followed. That's awful for business," added owner Antonio Oliveira.
Another setback for regular money transfers: the falling value of the dollar against the Brazilian currency, the real.
''I've had 500 daily transfers when one dollar was valued at $4.04 reals," said Aragão. These days, immigrants get $2.04 worth of the Brazilian currency for each buck.
Still, Latin Americans' remittances are a $53 billion-a-year market. According to Inter-
Western Union and South Exchange dominate the market. Western Union charges more but is faster.
''The community here has assumed only Western Union is reliable. Therefore, we have slow business," said Célio Souza, owner of Casa de Carnes, a butcher shop in Peabody that has grown to a minimarket and offers South Exchange services. That's not the case in Somerville, where the headquarters for Gilberto Yoshida's four travel agencies is located. Yoshida charges $5 for a South Exchange remittance, no matter how much is wired. Western Union charges $9.99 for a $300 transfer and more for higher values.
To honor his annual routine, this Mother's Day Eve, Cléber de Miranda, 38, said he will double the money sent to his mom. ''She loves to be well-dressed. She'll certainly buy clothes with it," he said.
In previous years, the housecleaner from Marlborough paid for a bedroom set for the new house in Brazil, which his sister, a legal resident living in Aspen, Colo., bought for their mother.
''She is better off staying there," said de Miranda of his mother, who he has not seen for eight years because of his immigration status. ''As long as I am capable of working hard I will give her the same comfortable life I have here."
