The “Chilaquiles” Team: the heart of IAM Community in Mexico
According to the dictionary…
Chilaquiles /Noun/:
a. Delicious Mexican dish of fried corn tortilla pieces simmered in salsa and typically topped with cheese and other accompaniments.
b. Team of a very dedicated IAM community members that since late 2018 have been collaborating and having GREAT time from Guadalajara. 😂
To place us on the map, Guadalajara is the capital of the Jalisco state. It is known for being the birthplace of tequila and mariachis. Guadalajara’s historic center is dotted with colonial plazas and landmarks such as the neoclassical Teatro Degollado and a cathedral with twin gold spires. However, above all, it is the heart of our community in Mexico.
Last Thursday I had the honor of being invited to their Chilaquiles Meetup, which they have been holding every two weeks for some time now to meet for breakfast and talk during these times when they don’t see each other in the office every day.
And I had the opportunity to be told in their own words the history of the team.
While all eleven of them are a solid group of friends now structured into three specialized teams (two Java development teams and a Data Science team), it hasn’t been like that from the scratch. At the very beginning the team was composed by only Jonathan and Ezdraz who, when approached by our community decided to embark into the challenge.
Even though the project didn’t start out as a remote management project because sensitive data protection required an office space, the decision to embrace In All Media’s geo-dispersed Community was not necessarily easy for them. “It was a tough choice since there are not many companies that offer remote jobs [in Mexico], it was a leap of faith.” Jonathan said. Mistrust comes from real concerns since “there are many companies here with no good intentions”, he added.
How the story started
However, once Jonathan received the news that he was part of In All Media after the initial interview, he decided to meet Ezdraz in person, the second half of the initial project team. The funny thing is it turned out they had each other as friends on Facebook, even though they had never spoken or met in real life.
They agreed to see each other in WeWork Midtown Jalisco, where the office was intended to be, but it got late and eventually decided to meet halfway at a Burger King which was okay for Ezdraz since he had to bring his kids with him.
When they got together they began to discuss anything and everything about how embarking in such an interesting Fintech project would change their lives.
And the project kicked off. Now it was time to form the team.
Jonathan and Ezdraz began their quest to look for the future members after meeting the client in Austin, Texas. They both showed deep commitment to make the difference.
After a while of setting up the basis and dynamics for the project in the office, Jonathan and Ezdraz were ready to welcome two new members to the community, Mario Rasgado and Luis Cerritos. They were able to shift their solid experience in backend to quality frontend development and have grown as a team ever since.
Soon after Rodrigo (aka “Ocho”) joined the office, shaping what was the beginning of the data team. At that time he did not have a “baby face as today”, they laughed.
Eduardo Fauchey and Alberto Beltran joined forces with Ocho (now Alberto is on a different project but he is still there!). Finally they completed the “Chilaquiles” team with Andres and Eduardo, followed by Ivan, Alan and Juan Carlos (“Jimmy” for friends), who went to college with Ocho. Last but not least, Valentin comes in.
Old fashion Games
Having an office space does have some perks for the team as they have bonded through board games at lunch time, particularly the “exploding kittens” card game which as it names suggests consists of avoiding to pick the card with the CAT! Like in every Sunday family plan there’s always someone who’s unlucky at cards… well, in this family Mario owns the “bad luck card”. Lunchtime for the Chilaquiles team transformed into “face-to face games” at the office: Mind, Dixit, Pandemic, Tortuga, Pit… each weirder and funner than the previous one.
Not only games bring them closer but when they hang out it also has an effect on how well they get along with each other. They specifically remember one time they organized a “carne asada” in Eduardo’s house and Jimmy couldn’t go. He had plans to visit Europe but he missed the first flight due to protests in France. He had 2 tragedies 😰 : He had to pay for his tickets twice and he missed a barbecue (of course this barbecue incident was much more important!!🤣).
Another epic story was when they went racing to the Go Cars. Jimmy was winning and Ezdraz was following behind…. but at the last minute Ezdraz won. Nobody knows how or what happened, some people say that the project manager was “allowed” to win, we will never know, it will be an unsolved mystery. 😏
The Chilaquiles team loves teasing each other so much that they have even organized a biweekly “chilaquiles breakfast”. The only thing missing is an online board game zoom.
All of us make the IAM Community what it is, not only to work but as part of our life. Following our passion makes us the best while having fun and working hard… and this team is a great example.
