Special envoy to Comachuen
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 (black beans, squash and corn) and the cutting of trees.
While smoke escapes from the houses and stings the bottom of the gorge, the villagers are busy preparing for the patronal festival in honor of Our Lady of Candlemas.
For part of the population, this festival is the last of the year.
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.
These temporary workers are hired on large American farms.
They form a docile workforce…
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