Doesn't sound like Ms. Mondragon really wants amnesty--does it?
http://ocregister.com/ocregister/mon...le_1152655.php

Building homes in Mexico
Immigrant workers in U.S. are fueling the housing market south of the border.

By CINDY CARCAMO
The Orange County Register

GUANAJUATO, MEXICO – Scrawny dogs and scraggly trees overrun Maria del Carmen Móndragon's black-earthed land.

Her grandson, Gerardo, drives her weekly to the spot about a half hour from the town center because the rickety municipal buses don't go that far on the nearly impassable roads studded with volcanic rock.

It's not the most desirable piece of real estate, but for the 62-year-old woman it's a paradise awaiting, one that she financed with money earned baby-sitting on the other side of the border in Santa Ana.

Móndragon, who paid $1,200 for the land on the hills overlooking her hometown in Cortazar, is one of thousands of immigrants who fuel the local economies in their Mexican hometowns.

The money they earn in the United States buys wood, concrete and labor in Mexico – and the dream of owning a home there.

In 2003, Mexico received a little more than $13.3 billion in remittances, the Bank of Mexico reported. That same year, immigrants in the United States sent about $1.2 billion back to Guanajuato state.

Close to a quarter of Mexicans who receive remittances use the money for homebuilding or improvements.

Thinking toward retirement, some buy land. Others add on or remodel an existing home. Some buy large lots in planned communities and build earth-toned mansions.

Just west of Cortazar, in Cuerámaro, Fraccionamiento California is one of the newest subdivisions that caters mostly to immigrants who work and live in states such as Florida, Illinois, and California. The planned community set below a mountain range was once fertile agricultural land, now replaced with newly paved sidewalks and roads.

Some of the homes in this 10-year-old neighborhood feature domed ceilings, ironwork wrapped in vines with vibrant violet flowers, and bright blues and reds that are traditional of colonial Mexico.

Many immigrants, however, adopt the styles of the places where they have visited and worked.

They roof their homes with Mediterranean-style tiles popular on the West Coast. They plant palm trees reminiscent of Florida. Some even construct large pools in their back yards and boast nicely manicured, front lawns regularly watered by sprinklers – a novelty in the dry climate of Mexico's heartland.

In a place where it seems anything can be found, only one thing is missing: people.

Most homes sit empty. The owners are making a living in the United States to fund their new additions or improvements, said Cesar Torres, a real estate agent who sells the lots in Cuerámaro for about $12,000 a piece.

"A farmer here in Mexico won't ever be able to afford to live here," Torres explained.

Those who can pay are immigrants who work the agricultural fields in California or landscape in Dallas or bus or run restaurants in Chicago, said Torres, who also works as the city's director of immigrant support.

"What you get in one full day of work here you earn with an hour's worth of work over there," Torres said. "That's why people leave, but they still think of buying their land, constructing their home here when they return some day."

Torres pointed to a beige-colored stucco home that resembles a castle.

"You see there," Torres said. "The owner is my friend. He works in New York. He always dreamed of having a home here, and he accomplished it. He even has a pool, Jacuzzi, fireplace, but he doesn't enjoy it. He only gets two weeks of vacation."

Most of the year, houses are padlocked. An eerie silence is sometimes broken by a chorus of hammers and saws, from a new house going up.

A few return to these homes starting in November when most immigrants journey to visit family during the holiday season.

Agents Estela Flores and María Guadalupe Gutiérrez Lapios, who sell land in a 2-year-old planned community, explained their presence at Leon Airport on one December afternoon as simple economics.

"Migrants bring lots of money," said Flores, cradling a stack of red and white fliers. Flores pitched the new community with a running list of amenities: an already built chapel, a barbecue area for carne asadas, and a playground for the kids.

Rather than approaching the anxious immigrants – some of whom haven't seen their families for several years – she targets the excited families waiting impatiently for their loved ones

Torres has been selling to immigrants for more than a decade in Cuerámaro – a town of 12,000 with a more than 100-year-old tradition of immigration to the United States.

Agriculture – mainly the corn harvest – is still the main source of jobs. Women, children and older people make up most of the population because nearly all of the men have left to go north. About 25,000 of Cuerámaro's residents have left for the U.S. or Canada, Torres said.

"They say there are 10 ladies and two widows to every man," Torres said, letting out a hearty laugh.

Such immigration has heavily influenced Cuerámaro.

Teenage boys listen to thumping English rap music in their monstrous trucks with U.S. license plates as they drive around the town plaza, flirting with girls.

"Now the girls just jump into the boys' pickup trucks," Torres added. "Instead of asking for tortas, now they ask for hamburgers. It's not the culture of here nor there, it's a mixture."

Torres estimates that about $250,000 is received from the U.S. every three days in Cuerámaro and that 64 cents of every dollar in town comes from immigrants.

Nearly half of Cuerámaro's immigrants buy land in the area, Torres said.

From November to about March, Torres is busy seeking out immigrants at their homes, offering land.

"The first day they come here with their families, they visit and pray to the Virgin for their safe journey, and then they invest," Torres said. "These people have better buying power. A person who comes from the U.S. can bring with them about $10,000 dollars in cash."

In December, he sold five lots, considerably less than in past years.

He blames the decline on beefed-up border security, making it more difficult for undocumented immigrants to return to their jobs in the United States.

As time goes by, some immigrants become more invested in their lives in the United States than in Mexico. They work in the United States, find spouses there, have children. Only about 2,000 immigrants returned this past year to Cuerámaro compared to the 5,000 from the previous year.

Torres pointed to an abandoned half-built cement house overgrown with weeds. Sometimes plans change and immigrants decide to sell their parcels or simply abandon their plans halfway.

Móndragon is about the only immigrant in her family to invest in Mexican land. Unlike their mother, her four sons and two daughters who immigrated to the U.S. years ago have no aspirations to buy land in Mexico after forging roots on U.S. soil.

One son owns a home in Las Vegas. Three sons and two daughters rent homes in Santa Ana, but their sights are set on owning, despite the unaffordable California buying climate.

"They don't plan on returning," Móndragon said. "Their lives are in Santa Ana now."

They urge Móndragon to do the same.

She resists.

"Well, I don't want to die over there. I want to die in my country," she says. "What if I do sell and decide to return. Where would I stay? I don't want to stay at someone else's home. I want to stay in my house."

Móndragon stood on her land stroking the leaves of a lush tree. She gazed at the farmland that surrounded her.

"That's tomato, corn, jicama, cucumber," she explained. "I like this place. You can see all around you."

She figures she'll inevitably have to return to Santa Ana, baby-sit some more, and save.

"I'd like to build a country house for the weekend, but there's no money for that right now," she said.



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