The Washington Post front page, "If they don't send money, the town can't keep going."
For decades, the young people in this hillside village (Mexico) had only two choices: to harvest corn or to go north (to the United States). The reduction in remittances is affecting employment, and many houses in Mexico are left unfinished. There is a plaque at the entrance that honors "the valuable help of our compatriots working abroad." Many Mexican workers have left this place to work as gardeners and chefs in southern California, and the money they send back has driven economic transformation.
In this Zapotec community in Mexico with about 2,500 people, small adobe houses have been replaced by two-story concrete houses with iron gates. Roads have been paved with asphalt. A basketball court has been built near the center of the town. However, with the Trump administration sending many children of the Kiarana in Mexico back to Mexico, and encouraging many who remained in the United States to reduce their work, most of the previously stable construction in the village has stalled.
Now, the walls of a "California style" facade remain unfinished behind the gate.
Money sent back by immigrants created construction jobs and helped start some small businesses. In March this year, local leaders erected a pink welcome arch at the entrance of the town.
Photos show Tomasa Pérez Sánchez planting corn on her Mexican land. Her husband bought about seven acres of land with income from his gardening job in the United States. Rosa Gómez Hernández, 37, started a small embroidery business using money sent back by her father and an uncle. But as they gradually lose their jobs in the United States, everything has changed.
Original: www.toutiao.com/article/1841233869598796/
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