Living in Peru : your everyday companion

She went off to Paris in love where her husband supported her in everything that she did. A decade later, they have returned to Peru. She, at the wheel of her company, is supporting him while he adapts.

She decided to come back for the sake of her children. Gretel Castro had everything in Paris: happily married, she was the right arm of Antoine Fauger, a successful entrepreneur dedicated to the import of fresh fruit and vegetables. He directed A.M.S. European when Gretel decided that her children were missing the family warmth in the midst of which she had grown up. Fauger was not willing to let her go so he proposed that they open A.M.S. Latina here in Peru and he put her in charge of the operation. She will close her second year with over a million dollars in sales.

It has been ten years since you married and moved to Paris. How has your life changed since then?
Radically. I went from being mom and dad’s little girl, a student, to a completely different life, not to mention married. I became completely independent, it was time to do it!

You fell in love with a French man and left. You abandoned your studies and your dream to live in Cusco. You took off on an adventure.
Yes, I took a Gamble on love. At the end of the day, what was more reasonable back then was to go to Paris where he had a life and a job…

He was an accountant; he had a life over there. You arrived without even knowing the language. What were your first days over there like?
It was terrible. Luckily, though, his family was charming. They are pretty close and they took me in like one of their own, but they could never replace my parents. They would say “I will be like your mother from now on,” but there is only one person like my mother. [laughs]

It must have been very frustrating.
Yes, at the beginning it was very hard. I tried not to let them notice but I was suffering a lot from all the change. To me, family is vital. I adore Peru. I’m not chauvinistic, but I do stand up for the things that, culturally speaking, are ours and I think they are wonderful.

Besides, the Internet was not as developed back then.
Of course not! There was no Facebook, and Messenger was just coming out…it was a completely different thing. I lost contact with many friends.

What did you do?
I managed to adapt, thanks to my husband. He supported me a lot. “The most important thing so you don’t get bored – he said – is that you learn French.” Four or five months later, I had a great French level and I started to look for a job.

You worked in an insurance company, in a publicity agency, but everything changed when you started working as a cell phone saleswoman.
Yes, and I loved it because I love being in constant contact with people. When I was a student, I would sell pedagogical products to earn some money.

What happened when you were selling cell phones?
I met Antoine (Fauger). He arrived trying to find the best cell phone alternative for the business that he was about to begin. He ended up buying one for himself and one for his young son and he found out I was Peruvian. The next day, he came back.

He worked as the biggest importer of dried fruit in France, but he was planning to become independent, open his own business; and he made you a job offer.
He was going to need a right arm, someone who would support him, and I said “perfect.”

And you made four million Euros in your first year.
Yes.

Coincidentally, shortly before that, you had finished a specialization course on International Finances.
Yes, it seems surreal…so many things have happened to me in life that just came naturally.

So it was your husband who economically supported your life together.
Yes. We had an apartment thanks to him.

When you began having your own business, everything changed.
Of course, it was very beneficial for me. I’m a very active person and since it was a new business, we were in charge of everything! I was in charge of finances, custom declaration and tax, South American supply, administration…it’s just that there was no one else to do it, and it was excellent!

You went from being the wife who brought some money home to the couple who…
Exactly, it was more than “some money,” even though he still made more than I did. [laughs]

Everything changed when you had your second child. You decided to come back to Peru.
There was the temptation to come back for a long time: the country’s stability was phenomenal – amongst other things [laughter] – and I wanted to come back and try to develop something within the boundaries of what I knew how to do. Over there (in Paris) things were already done for me despite the fact that we worked at a crazy pace. I was very tempted to come back and develop the fresh products industry. We were already working here (in Latin America) with a number of suppliers and I felt like I could develop the operation even more.

And what did you say to your business partner?
I said “I have to go back to Peru for my children.” It was really because of them, the first one was already 7 and I would have liked for her to have the solid family bases. I told him and he froze,  but he understood. He said: “perfect, we will open a subsidiary in Peru.” I didn’t think he was going to say that, it was so tempting! I was so happy, I convinced my husband, and we sold the house…

Not only were you coming back, like you wanted, but you were not his right arm anymore but a business partner.
Exactly, and that is what I loved the most.

You have done so well that you have made already over a million dollars in your second year.
Yes.

And what did you husband say when you said “Let's go to Peru?”
I had already talked to him about it for some years but he never gave me an answer. He loves Peru but he couldn’t see himself living here. I told him it was a great opportunity and that I already had a job, from which we could live while he found a job himself. 

The tables had turned, because when you fist moved to Paris, it was him who supported you and now it was you supporting him.
Yes, that’s life and it’s very nice-as a couple-to know that he felt the change just like I did when we first moved to Paris. Luckily though, he speaks perfect Spanish…so that was that! And yes, this year we are going to make over a million dollars and we have some interesting projects ahead.

How so?
That’s normal in this business. We transport our products by air, we have wanted to do things right. At the end of this year, we will begin to move things by sea too. I want to do much, much more.

And to think that you were a law student.
Just yesterday I had lunch with my best friend, a lawyer, and I said to her “I’m so grateful I didn’t finish!”

Then why did you study law?
I don’t like Peruvian politics but I do like political science, that’s why I studied law. Besides, my father was a politician.

Who was he?
Guillermo Castro, a leftist politician, retired from Congress. He was a political adviser, he studied political science in Russia and he always taught me to live life from a humanist perspective. Ever since I was very young, he got me involved in fund raisers for the poor, literacy campaigns, and, without realizing it, one grows up like that.

Now, as A.M.S. Latina, we support small producers in Huaral. We have agronomist engineers advising them for free on the subject of commercialization. I have also brought a couple of great Chilean friends (great avocado exporters) to help them as well; also four small producers were sent to Chile. For Christmas, we did a very beautiful thing for 250 kids in a very poor area; and all this, I think I owe to the formation that my father gave me.     

What you are doing is very important because intermediaries usually take advantage of small agricultures.
That’s what I noticed when I arrived here. Not everyone does that though, there are some very righteous people that we work with, but there is, in fact, a problem of abuse. The idea is to capacitate the producers so that they can deal directly with the exporter instead of depending on assemblers.

Otherwise, everyone benefits except the producers.
Exactly. They do very hard work, and that is why we try to support them. We cannot be indifferent.

What would have been of Gretel Castro had she graduated from law school?
I would have been a poor lawyer [laughter]…defending the people who really need it.

What’s interesting is that now, from this economic position, you can still do humanitarian work but with better results.
Supporting them. Yes! I love it.