Rodolpho Jr. The brother at work in a poultry factory in Kansas.
Poultry factory where the father Rodolpho works in Athens, Georgia.
Pictures brough out by Silvia to show me the members of her family.As I wrote earlier Josephina lives with three of her girls, Karina, Rosita and Silvia. Her four other daughters come back on weekends as they either work or study in Rancho Nuevo. Her husband and her son are “al Norte” as they told me. During one of our morning conversations, I asked Silvia how often their father called them. Rodolpho, their father, calls every week at the least and sometimes twice a week, but Silvia told me that he mainly talks to Josefina. Their father has not been back for the past 8 years. He lives in Athens, Georgia where he works in “con pollos” in a poultry processing factory. Rodolpho Jr., their only brother also left to the United States. He left when he was 15 and he has not been home to Tamaula since, he is now 22. Silvia told me he called on Mondays. I asked if they had any family pictures and Karina their youngest one quickly brought out about six photo albums of their family. As she was flipping the pages of the photo albums, Karina would point out all the family members she knew the names of in each one of the photographs. There were two entire albums of their father within the six we went through! The lack of work and opportunities to follow an education here in Tamaula pushes families to migrate al Norte in order to sustain their families and to earn their living. Of course a push never goes without a pull. This out-migration leaves broken up families, some with no men, who have to struggle to survive and care for their families. Women like Josefina are very strong as they take on more responsibilities once the husband and son have left. Josefina is one of two parent representatives of the school board of the “Escuela Primaria Federal Gral. Lazaro Cardenas,” the school Sandra Karina attends. She has to endure survival keeping the pride of her husband’s picture and her son’s middle school diploma on the wall in the living room. She works hard every day and I can say living amongst them I admire the strength she has to get up each day when the sun rises and fulfills her daily tasks as an “ama de casa”. Her husband and son send back remittances but I do not know how much and how often. Anyhow when money comes to be rare Josefina kills her pigs to sell either the raw meat or the prepared meat down in Cuchicuato, a town situated 20 minutes away by car from Tamaula. One has to cross through Cuchicuato in order to access Tamaula.
Rodolpho Laguna Lias has 5 brothers whom currently live in Tamaula. Below is their genealogical tree.
(im having problems pasting the tree...I will figure it out another day...)
In orange are all of the Laguna family members who have migrated to the United States. They left when they were “chiquillos” as Josefina told me, when they were about 15 or 16 years old. They all left “sin papeles”, without papers and risked being caught by “la migra”, the border patrol. The ones in orange settled in the United States and built families in the U.S.. It needs to be pointed out that the children of Predo Laguna and Maria de la Luz who migrated are not only the men of the family. Out of nine of their kids that left to the United States (they have 14 children) three of them are women. This shows that not only the men Tamaula leave al Norte searching for new opportunities. Of course the image the United States has on the young is a land of opportunities, where one can accomplish his/her dreams; the land where everyone is granted equal opportunities and where people are equal. This is what Juan Manuel told me when we were at the party in Tamahula, and I can presume that he is not the only one that has these preconceptions of the United States. The United States giving of this image to the youth and the fact that it is hard to and depressing to see that there are very ways one can earn a living in Tamaula, the youth wants to migrate.
Through the fundacion del Bajio, this summer several groups are helping to develop Tamaula. I will describe the different projects in my next post!
