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Cuquio, Jalisco

Cuquio, Jalisco, is a small rural farming pueblo (town) located approximately 70 miles northeast of Guadalajara in the high mountains. There are 124 smaller ranchos (villages) associated with Cuquio in the outlying areas of the countryside. The picturesque beauty of the town and surrounding oak and pine covered hills are interrupted by the presence of the severe, grinding poverty afflicting many local farmers and their families. Children in the region are especially adversely affected. Many experience mal- and undernutrition with few educational opportunities that can end the cycle of poverty in their families.

• Coats for Rancho Nuevo
• Piñata Parties for the Poorest Villages in the region of Cuquio
• Education for Juana Espinoza’s Children (Rancho Ojo de Agua Colorado)
• A Van to Transport Children from the Village of Los Sauces de Perez to Nearby Cuquio
• The Advent of Sustainable Agriculture in Cuquio with a Community-Supported Agriculture Program for Guadalajara, Jalisco
• Ecotourism for Cuquio

Tuxcueca, Jalisco
Tuxcueca, Jalisco, is located on the southern border of Mexico’s largest lake, Lake Chapala. About three-quarters of Lake Chapala’s shore are in the state of Jalisco; the other fourth is in Michoacán. The lake is the source of 60 percent of the water flowing into the second largest city in Mexico, Guadalajara. Dam construction on the rivers and streams feeding the lake has reduced the flow of water, causing the lake’s volume to decrease over time. In addition, the governments of four of the states near the lake — México, Querétaro, Guanajuato and Michoacán — support nearby industrial and agrarian interests that demand and expect cheap water from the lake to maintain their endeavors.

Lake Chapala is home to hundreds of plant and animal species and hosts a variety of migrating birds every winter. Several of the fish species living in the lake are endemic (found nowhere else in the world). However, industrial, residential and agricultural pollution levels are extreme, and fish species are disappearing.

The families living in Tuxcueca have historically depended on both corn farming and fishing for a livelihood. However, a combination NAFTA’s impact on the corn market and a severely depleted fishery have left many residents, without family in the United States, impoverished and on the edge of survival. Local doctors recommend that people in the region NOT eat fish from the lake due to heavy metal contamination. Thus, even those fishermen who could support families with fish caught from the lake are often unable to sell their catch because of local doctors’ warnings and consumer wariness.

• Shoes for Shoeless Residents of Tuxcueca, Jalisco

Huancito, Michoacan
Huancito, Michoacán, is located in the mountains outside of the agricultural city of Zamora. It is one of a group of villages inhabited primarily by Purépecha Indians, referred to collectively as the once pueblos (eleven villages). The beautiful indigenous people living in these mountains are some of the poorest of Mexico’s poor. Services, infrastructure of all types, and even housing are of the poorest quality we’ve seen in travels to Mexico. Some dwellings are constructed of plastic sheeting, rocks, discarded boards and signs, all cobbled together into flimsy structures that are no match for the intense rains of summer and freezing cold of winter.

Some of the village inhabitants are so poor that they can’t even afford a pair of shoes, and are forced to live through each cold winter barefoot. Children dress in anything available to cover their bodies.

When I first visited the village in 1998, there were cholera warnings in the village near the river flowing through the village. I did not see these warnings in any other region of the west central Mexico countryside. On a recent trip, the local health clinic posted a warning for Dengue fever in the area.

NAFTA’s undermining of the corn economy of the region has impacted the Purépecha especially hard, and forced them into an ever-accelerating downward spiral of poverty. In spite of this bleak picture, the Purépecha daily dress in their very colorful, artful traditional attire, produced by master seamstresses. Most of their interactions with people outside of the villages occur in the local Zamora markets where they sell herbs and other products. They are unwavering in their commitment to preserve their traditional lifestyle, including their traditions and customs.

• Shoes for Shoeless Residents of Huancito, Michoacán
• The Possibility of Export Blackberry Production
• A Pottery Studio and Display Room for Huancito, Michoacán
  

The Center for Farmworker Families currently has several projects in progress that are designed to improve the lives of farm family members, both financially and educationally. Improved lives will allow these family members to stay at home with their families in Mexico and forego the unwelcome prospect of undocumented immigration to the United States.