Comachuen is a village perched on a high plateau in northern Michoacan, a mountainous state in western Mexico. Its 10,000 inhabitants devote themselves mainly to agriculture with the traditional cultivation of milpa.
At the end of March, nearly 400 men will leave for a long journey to Arkansas in the United States, Colorado or, for a majority of them, Elba, a town in New York State located near Buffalo. There, they grow onions, squash and cucumbers, ten hours a day, six days a week for eight to nine months.