IRVINE, Calif. — August 10, 2010 — Before it was one of Mexico’s largest tourist attractions and one of the most visited religious sites in world, the Basilica de Guadalupe was a small chapel in Mexico City built in honor of the Virgin Mary. Over the years it has become a symbol of Mexican culture and one of the most popular pilgrimages in the world, attracting more than 14 million visitors a year.
With dancers, performers, vendors and tourists filling the courtyard every day for more than 100 years, the Basilica, or La Villa, has a long tradition of generating life-changing moments and life-long memories for the people who visit. Taking part in that tradition, a group of photographers have been on-site for over 80 years, passing the family business down to their children and in doing so, have built a legacy of their own.
Juan José Burgos’ family is a part of that legacy. Starting with his grandfather nearly 80 years ago, the Burgos family has been photographing tourists at La Villa since 1934, and has passed on their knowledge from father to son for four generations. Starting with development labs, the family’s delivery techniques evolved to instant photos and recently moved up to photographic printers from Mitsubishi Digital Electronics America.
The Burgos family sampled other printing systems, but ultimately turned to Mitsubishi because of the training and service that came with the printer. Since using it, Burgos has noticed an improvement to the quality of images that has allowed him to sell more pictures.
“When my grandfather and father were doing this job, the speed of delivery and quality really limited the amount of pictures they could sell,” Burgos said. “With the Mitsubishi printers, we’ve seen a real improvement in the contrast of the colors we get. Our customers notice and appreciate it too, and come back for more.”
While the Mitsubishi printers have opened up doors to Burgos that were not available to his father or grandfather, he still has to overcome a number of modern day hurdles that they did not; along with other photographers at La Villa.
“There are a lot of problems that we have to confront today,” said Jesús Covarrubias Lozano, a photographer at La Villa who inherited the business from his father. “The economy is worse today than it has been in years; there is more space than there was before, so we need to be more mobile; and the advent of high-quality cell phone cameras decreases our sales. We need to offer something that people can’t get elsewhere, and for a low cost.”
To confront these new-age problems, Mitsubishi offers a set of new-age solutions: its printers are durable and robust and they come with paper packages – features that limit the cost of overhead and replacement; they are light in weight and easy to transport; and, perhaps most importantly, they utilize high-grade media and can deliver high- density, highly-efficient edge –to- edge printing for a variety of different sized, high quality pictures, fast.
It’s these features that have led each and every photographer who works at La Villa to use Mitsubishi printers. But while Burgos uses his for the service, and Lozano uses his for the various size options, others use it for different reasons.
Aldo García Ceja is a photographer at La Villa who inherited the business from his father and has been using a Mitsubishi printer for a year. He states the printer’s consistent quality and speed allow him to have more sales.
“I’m printing up to 150 pictures every weekend,” Ceja said. “Every picture is special to each of my customers and needs to be of high quality. It’s a souvenir, but most of all it’s a proof of their visit and a memory, and they want to have the highest quality keepsake they can get for the lowest price. With the Mitsubishi printers, that’s exactly what they get.”
About Mitsubishi Digital Electronics America’s Imaging Products Division
Headquartered in Irvine, Calif., Mitsubishi Digital Electronics America, Inc. is a subsidiary of Mitsubishi Electric Corporation of Japan, a worldwide leader in premium quality imaging and presentation products that set the standard in innovation, performance and reliability.
Mitsubishi Digital Electronics America’s Imaging Products Division has more than two decades of manufacturing experience and technology leadership. Every Mitsubishi printer, photo kiosk, and digital video recorder is backed by a network of dedicated professionals and an outstanding service and support program. Mitsubishi Digital Electronics America’s products are available to customers through a network of authorized dealers and distributors throughout North America.
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