"I was driving through La Paz, in Titerroy, and on a corner there were three old men who said to me: `Hey, now that I have a car, women drive a taxi!´". To these statements, and to some other harsher ones, María Montesdeoca faced at the wheel of her taxi fifteen years ago.
Then, on May 5, 1994, María was the first woman to drive a taxi in Arrecife. With the need to support her family, María immersed herself in a world of men with the courage of a woman who has to feed four children. Fifteen years later she has proven to have overcome all the tests.
She started in this guild because she had a job opportunity in the sector and had to take care of her four children and pay rent on her own. "The first times were very hard; at the beginning I had many problems because the woman in the world of taxi was a taboo and there was no camaraderie", María recalls. At that time, she started driving at six in the morning and finished at two in the morning, but "then all those obstacles were overcome and I no longer worked so many hours", says the protagonist.
Today María continues working with "la 94", but hopes that one of the new ten taxi licenses pending assignment will be assigned to her. "Ten people are waiting to be told who will get the licenses that have already been published in the Official Gazette, but that are being withheld. Let's hope we're lucky", she trusts.
