Henri Signoret has settled in Mexico before the war, following in the footsteps of many others before him. Since 1821 they have been leaving their tiny impoverished valley in the French Alps, the Barcelonnette Valley and almost 50 000 of their descendants live in Mexico today - they are known as “the Barcelonnettes”. Their business was cloth. First selling it from door-to-door, then quickly building up an empire that was to turn Mexico into the foremost textile producer in Latin America. Each immigrant started to work in a Barcelonnette department store, climbing the ladder from the bottom. Although Spanish has replaced their French education, their roots remain in France and their valley.