A Mexican Hamlet Tackles Emigration

“Alberto Bautista, 30, is a rarity in Santa Cruz Mixtepec: a young adult male. Most of the sons, husbands and brothers from this poor remote hamlet of Mixtec Indians, tucked in the sierras of southern Oaxaca state, are migrant workers in the U.S. Some 60% of Santa Cruzs population of 3,000 live illegally al otro lado ”” on the other side of the U.S.-Mexico border ”” sending back almost $1 million last year.

But now Bautista is back ”” working for his uncle in a new carpentry business financed by a microcredit bank that the wives in Santa Cruz founded recently with all that remittance cash. Bautista made $6 an hour picking strawberries in Arizona, more than many laborers in Mexico earn in a day. But hes hopeful that he can comfortably support his wife and new baby by crafting doors, cabinets and coffins, products that people in Santa Cruz and surrounding villages once had to travel miles to buy. “I didnt want to start a family al otro lado,” Bautista says, as wood shavings fall to the floor of his uncles workshop. “Al otro lado isnt home.”"

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