Thread: Oaxacan activists want to reduce migration

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2008/04 ... 7bc974.txt


Oaxacan activists Socorro Zurita Vazquez, left, and Centelia Maldonado spoke with fellow Oaxacans on Wednesday about the difficulties many face after coming north to find work.


Oaxacan activists Jose Gonzalez, left, Bernardo Ramirez and Centelia Maldonado talk to a fellow Oaxacan at a day-laborer site in Rancho Bernardo on Wednesday. The Oaxacan activists toured migrant camps to gather information about the hardships many migrants face after crossing the U.S. border.

Oaxacan activists visit local migrant workers
Group wants to reduce migration, boost jobs at home

NORTH COUNTY ---- Centelia Maldonado saw firsthand the toll that migrant work takes on a person.

Her father was a migrant farmworker most of his life and suffered many health problems later in life that she said stemmed from the often backbreaking work he performed.

Now, the 40-year-old activist from the impoverished Mexican state of Oaxaca said she wants to prevent her countrymen from having to migrate to the U.S. by helping create jobs at home.

Maldonado was one of a small group of activists from the impoverished state of Oaxaca that visited day labor sites and migrant camps in the Rancho Penasquitos area Wednesday.

She said the group wanted to see the migrants' living and working conditions to take back their experiences and help dispel some myths about migration.

When migrants return to their communities with American clothes, cars and money, people see the benefit of coming to the U.S., but they don't realize the dangers and hardships that migrants face, she said.

"We want to let people know the suffering people go through and to look for alternatives" to migration, Maldonado said.

At a day-labor site the group visited Wednesday afternoon, a group of about 30 men milled around under the hot sun waiting for a job. Ramiro Santiago, a 60-year-old Oaxacan man, said he had been waiting since about 6 a.m. without any luck.

"There's very little work," Santiago said.

The old man, who was leaning against a utility box wearing a dark baseball cap to protect his face against the sun's rays, said he's been in the country for three months. He said he gets work mowing lawns and pulling weeds for homeowners about two days a week.

Socorro Zurita Vazquez, one of the activists, said there is a better way for Oaxacans to make a living.

"Their sons are left behind and they come here to suffer," she said.

Vazquez said she hopes her visit will spark interest in a plan to create jobs at home by starting small companies that produce Oaxacan crafts, textiles and traditional food for export to the U.S.

"We may be poor in economic terms, but we are rich in culture and natural resources," Vazquez said.

Maldonado said her father began working as a migrant farmworker in northern Mexico and California when she was 2 years old. She said economic trade agreements and policies in Mexico that favor industrial farmers have forced people to search for work in the U.S.

"All these kids will be sent back to us when they are no longer able to work," Maldonado said looking at the group of predominantly young day laborers.

Oaxaca is one of the more economically depressed states in Mexico. It is inhabited predominantly by indigenous people, many of whom speak native Mexican languages and little Spanish.

Political turmoil, environmental devastation and economic problems have conspired to keep indigenous people largely undereducated and unable to continue their traditional farming way of life, said Jose Gonzalez, a spokesman for the Frente Indigena Binacional Oaxaqueno, the Oaxacan Indian rights group that organized the visit.

As many as 25,000 Oaxacan immigrants are estimated to live in North County, Gonzalez said.

In recent months, Oaxaca continues to simmer with protests and calls for the ouster of the state's governor, Ulises Ruiz, whom activists blame for political unrest and human rights abuses.

Oaxaca City was the site of sometimes-violent demonstrations in 2006, when protesters seized the city's center for months and accused the governor of electoral fraud. The federal government eventually sent in police to clear the city of protesters, and Ruiz remains in office.

The conflict began as a teachers' strike in May, 2006, but quickly mushroomed into a broad protest against centuries of social and economic injustices.

Now, the 40-year-old activist from the impoverished Mexican state of Oaxaca said she wants to prevent her countrymen from having to migrate to the U.S. by helping create jobs at home.

I give this lady credit & respect for trying & hope she succeeds.

One of he best ways to seed a self development program is to have immigrants here pay for the delivery of locally raised eggs and chickens to their families back home.

Finally, someone in Mexico who is looking for solutions.

Perhaps the American educated people being deported from the US could help teach the children to read and write. The villages could donate a little money to pay the teacher. Maybe a book drive. Have the schools in America donate old textbooks. Especially books with maps to teach that Mexico and the U.S. are not one country......
Learning from mistakes and trying new solutions are the only way to improve problems that have festered for generations.
I like these ladies.

Not to argue with my fellow alipac friends and members . But i see this a different way . Will the time come when they partition the Fed's for U.S company's in their own land , all on the premise of "Jobs down there ,we no come up here ?"
Course i hope i'm wrong , lord knows nafta was and is . They may just be people doing a Godly service for their country men . I hope

Originally Posted by Populist

Now, the 40-year-old activist from the impoverished Mexican state of Oaxaca said she wants to prevent her countrymen from having to migrate to the U.S. by helping create jobs at home.

I give this lady credit & respect for trying & hope she succeeds.

So do I! It's people like this that will make Mexico a better place to live and work in. I think it would be nice to talk to them myself.

They would make more money with crafts & textiles from Oaxaca, than working for American manufacturers who move to Mexico. Will they realize this before it's too late?

This is one company in the US that buys their products and sells them in the US:

http://www.tenthousandvillages.com/cata ... ntry_id=49

Ten Thousand Villages.

She said economic trade agreements and policies in Mexico that favor industrial farmers have forced people to search for work in the U.S.

Sounds like Nafta to me.

Yes, this is an encouraging story. Sincerely hope they can help their people in their homeland.