Fernando Martinez remembers accompanying his grandmother when she pawned the family's jewels. Now he brings his own son along when he hocks their DVDs. Founded in , Monte de Piedad - which roughly translates as Bank of Compassion - is experiencing a thoroughly modern boom.
The rest of it includes everything from old bicycles to iPods, chipped coffee cups to cars, kitchen tables to screwdrivers. A tiny fraction consists of art and antiques that over the years has reputedly included Diego Rivera paintings and Napoleon Bonaparte's desk, which was stolen from the Louvre during the second world war.
The drill is always the same. Stony-faced valuers examine the item and write out a chit for half of its total worth. A gold ring, for example, is appraised according to the quality of the metal and its weight alone.
At Monte de Piedad, design is considered as frivolous a quality as sentimental value. Ms Medellin has pawned and redeemed countless objects in her time, but last year lost her wedding ring and sewing machine when her mother fell ill and needed medicines she could afford no other way.
Sitting beside her in the queue arranged along rows of purple plastic chairs, year-old Ruben Correa fiddles with a plastic bag containing a saw and other basic tools.
