Tamaula in the news!

Here is an online article that I found surfing on the web. I will be staying with Adriana and I am very excited and honored to be her guest at her house.

CBS News, Small Mexican Towns Try To Stop Emigration: Rural Communities Try To Create Jobs And Make Staying Home A Brighter Prospect. Oct 29, 2007

The same article was also published in The Christian Science Monitor.

About Tamaula

Tamaula is a community of about 300 people in the municipality of Irapuato, Guanajuato. The community was founded in the 1970s by several brothers who worked in agriculture but did not own any land of their own. They staked claim to the community and built homes there, although at the time there was no road, water, electricity, schools, or other amenities. The community is located on top of an extinct volcano, about 4 miles up an unpaved road that was cut about 8 years ago. The community members built the first elementary school themselves. The primary economic activity is farming and raising livestock, mostly goats. Corn is not sold but used for their local consumption. Most of the families depend for their livelihood on money sent back by relatives working in the United States (“remittances” or “remesas” in Spanish). The primary destination to which people from Tamaula emigrate is Athens, GA, although there are also people from Tamaula living in Kansas City, MO; Texas; and Washington, among other places. Most who live in the United States work in the poultry industry.

The community got electricity about three years ago but still has no telephone. There is no running water in Tamaula. A water truck known as a “pipa” brings water to the community once a week. This water is allocated on a per household basis and is used for drinking, cooking and bathing. The town has two reservoirs which provide the water for livestock and washing clothes. Some of the homes have catchment basins for rain water. There is no sewer system. While some homes have toilets, most have outhouses. There is now a pre-school, elementary school, and secondary school in the community. There is a high school program that is all internet based with no teacher. The community has one church. A health clinic was built several years ago but was never staffed due to the remote location. None of the roads are paved and most are very rough and rocky. There is no central plaza, jardin, market, or gathering space in the community.