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Future Events |
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.
The campesinos living in one of the most remote villages near Cuquio enjoy some of the most spectacular scenery in Mexico. They live on the edge of a deep gorge that defines the boundary between the state of Zacatecas and Jalisco. The green hillsides of summer, sprinkled here and there with a milpa, are truly a site to behold. Fifty-eight year old José Palafox is the village representative, and he and his family have continued the cultivation of a pristine milpa of uncontaminated maíz criollo next to their home for generations. José claims that his village is so remote that no agrochemical or GMO seed representatives have ever visited the village. Since there are no nearby villages, and the gorge acts as a formidable barrier for the entrance of foreign corn pollen into the village, he claims that the village corn is pure. The Center for Farmworker Families has brought back some of his delicious, nutritionally-rich corn to distribute to members of a Community Supported Agriculture project in San José.
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. |
