Casting aluminum and transforming a lump of it into a unique object is an art that requires dexterity and precision. You do not often see a woman managing a foundry, but Francisca Cabrera is a very special one. She has taken over this business, run by her family for 40 years in the Dominican region of Los Alcarrizos, in West Santo Domingo.
She has modernized the small factory, improving the day-to-day working processes, acquired a polishing drum to polish and shine up the pieces and has also begun using casts for the fastest-selling products. Now eight employees are working there, one of them Francisca’s son.
Aluminum articles fabricated in Francisca Cabrera’s foundry
They produce all sorts of items: ladles of various sizes, lemon squeezers… not forgetting, naturally, mashers for potatoes and to make the traditional Dominican tostones… an essential feature in all kitchens throughout the country. Her best customers are the residents of the Villa Consuelo (Villacón) area, where several distributors sell the pieces she manufactures.
With the loan she has received, she has bought raw materials for the business and has been able to create a small inventory of the most popular products.
Francisca has been a client of Banco Adopem, BBVA Microfinance Foundation’s institution in the Dominican Republic, since 2017. With the loan she has received she has bought raw materials for the business and has been able to create a small inventory of the most popular products.
The foundry generates gross revenues of DOP 50,000 per week (around EUR 900) which has enabled her to buy five homes, of which she rents out four.
Foundry worker makes spoons using a cast
This young mother, who has forged a life for herself, dreams of continuing to grow, together with her four children, aged 19, 17 and the 11-year old twins. Before managing the foundry, she had a beauty salon, and she is now thinking of reopening it. She will succeed because she has hung on to that tenacity that enabled her to hammer out her own future, just like in the foundry, where they turn a lump of aluminum, heated to 1,200 degrees Celsius, into an everyday object.
