Franeleros are people who have as main activity guarding or keeping an eye on cars parked in several streets in certain places in large Mexican cities, getting a tip as a reward, which sometimes is established by them. The term comes from the Spanish word ''franela'', meaning flannel, which is a small piece of soft light fabric (normally washed out

red Red is the color at the long wavelength end of the visible spectrum of light, next to orange and opposite violet. It has a dominant wavelength of approximately 625–750 nanometres. It is a primary color in the RGB color model and a seconda ...

gray Grey (more frequent in British English) or gray (more frequent in American English) is an intermediate color between black and white. It is a neutral or achromatic color, meaning that it has no chroma. It is the color of a cloud-covered s ...

) which they use to wash the cars if they are asked to, or to simply wave it around to give parking indications. ''Franeleros'' are sometimes also known as ''cuida-coches'' (car keepers) or ''"viene vienes"'' (literally "come come"), which is the phrase they commonly say while giving the parking indications. In 2007, due to the criticisms around this controversial "occupation" (mainly

extortion Extortion is the practice of obtaining benefit (e.g., money or goods) through coercion. In most jurisdictions it is likely to constitute a criminal offence. Robbery is the simplest and most common form of extortion, although making unfounded ...

grand theft auto ''Grand Theft Auto'' (''GTA'') is an action-adventure video game series created by David Jones and Mike Dailly. Later titles were developed under the oversight of brothers Dan and Sam Houser, Leslie Benzies and Aaron Garbut. It is prima ...

, relation with

organized crime Organized crime is a category of transnational organized crime, transnational, national, or local group of centralized enterprises run to engage in illegal activity, most commonly for profit. While organized crime is generally thought of as a f ...

and illegal use of

public space A public space is a place that is open and accessible to the general public. Roads, pavements, public squares, parks, and beaches are typically considered public space. To a limited extent, government buildings which are open to the public, su ...

) this guarding activity became illegal in

Mexico City Mexico City is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Mexico, largest city of Mexico, as well as the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North America. It is one of the most important cultural and finan ...

, but it is still widely practiced. In areas where parking meters have been installed, franeleros no longer operate. A central tenet of ''franeleros'' is the implicit threat that they will intentionally destroy or vandalize cars if the owner does not pay them, making the activity a form of

. Franeleros will often block empty spaces with trashcans, empty jugs, flowerpots or bricks, and remove them when their "customers" park.

Location

''Franeleros'' are commonly located in big and medium size cities, especially in areas with high demand for parking spaces; they may also be present when parking lots have high fares. They are usually found around touristic places (such as

downtown and

Coyoacán Coyoacán ( ; , Otomi: ) is a borough (''demarcación territorial'') in Mexico City. The former village is now the borough's "historic center". The name comes from Nahuatl and most likely means "place of coyotes", when the Aztecs named a pre- ...

), universities and schools, business and office areas (notably Santa Fe and Polanco),

shopping mall A shopping mall (or simply mall) is a large indoor shopping center, usually Anchor tenant, anchored by department stores. The term ''mall'' originally meant pedestrian zone, a pedestrian promenade with shops along it, but in the late 1960s, i ...

s, night life areas, restaurants, banks, markets, supermarkets and commercial zones. Since many of these places in Mexico often have a poor parking infrastructure, limited offer of parking spaces, high fares in parking lots, or simply an unusually high demand for parking spaces, many drivers leave their cars in streets, which attracts ''franeleros'' who are eager to earn tips.

Tipping

Although tipping ''franeleros'' or not and the amount given should be optional for the driver as it is only a tip (optional by definition), it is often seen that ''franeleros'' ask for fixed amounts of money. The tip usually ranges from 2 to 30 Mexican pesos (0.2 - 3

USD The United States dollar (symbol: $; currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introduced the U.S. dollar at par with the Spanish silver dollar, divided it int ...

), being this quantity a function of the: *Area - ''Franeleros'' ask for bigger tips in business areas, getting up to 20 MXN (Mexican pesos) per car for the entire day. With people who use their "service" daily, they usually make a weekly arrangement which implies a 10-20% reduction; with this arrangement they sometimes save up a space for their

client Client(s) or The Client may refer to: * Client (business) * Client (computing), hardware or software that accesses a remote service on another computer * Customer or client, a recipient of goods or services in return for monetary or other valuable ...

and they might even serve as

valet parking Valet parking is a parking service offered by some restaurants, stores, and other businesses. In contrast to "self-parking", where customers find a parking space on their own, customers' vehicles are parked for them by a person called a '' va ...

. In touristic places and universities they often ask from 5 to 15 MXN for the while. In medium demand places such as supermarkets and other commercial zones people tip them with 2 to 5 MXP; these places are of the few to remain really optional to tip. The highest tips are asked around night life areas, which normally lack adequate parking spaces; in this places ''franeleros'' ask from 15 to 30 MXP. In extremely high demand situations (concerts and sports events), they may even charge 50 to 100 MXN. *Space availability - Higher demand implies a higher tip. In some areas where there is continuous and permanent high affluence of cars (like business areas and universities), there are more ''franeleros'' and the tips they ask are higher. *Time spent in the place - ''Franeleros'' sometimes ask for their tip according to the time that the car spent on "their" space. If it is really fast, the tip could be small and may even remain optional. For longer periods of time the ask for more. Sometimes they ask the driver how long will he/she delay to say an amount. *Time of the day - As explained above, ''franeleros'' ask for more money during the night, even if it is the same place. Also at peak hours where there is less availability they charge more to find a space. *Car's brand - ''Franeleros'' sometimes ask for bigger sums of money if it is an expensive car, inferring that if the driver has a good car, they might also have more money. *Presence of other ''franeleros'' and parking lots - ''Franeleros'' sometimes compete among themselves, they reserve certain parking spaces for themselves and charge less or more to generate more income. If there is a parking lot nearby, they usually charge less than its tariff to give an incentive to drivers to leave their car with them. *Presence of police in the area - As this activity became formally illegal in 2007 in some Mexican cities, sometimes ''franeleros'' incur in

bribery Bribery is the corrupt solicitation, payment, or Offer and acceptance, acceptance of a private favor (a bribe) in exchange for official action. The purpose of a bribe is to influence the actions of the recipient, a person in charge of an official ...

to be allowed to do their "work". If this is the case, they charge more money so they are able to bribe the

police The police are Law enforcement organization, a constituted body of Law enforcement officer, people empowered by a State (polity), state with the aim of Law enforcement, enforcing the law and protecting the Public order policing, public order ...

daily and still have some income. This practice has led to corruption in many police organizations.

References

{{reflist

Location

Tipping

References

See also