Mexican Migrants Carry H.I.V. Home

“res has spent almost half his 32 years working in the United States, in the fields of California and Texas and the factories of Chicago and New York. His wife and three children were with him some of the time. But he was alone for long spells, and it was during one of those periods that he figures he contracted H.I.V.

“I don’t know how or where or when I got it,” said Cres, who spoke on condition that he would be identified only by his nickname. He paused whenever his pregnant wife entered the darkened home, built with his paychecks from America. “I don’t have any idea who it was with. I don’t want to know. I just want to go ahead with my life.”

Migrant workers like him go to the United States with dreams of new prosperity, hoping to bring back dollars. But some are bringing back something else as well, H.I.V. and AIDS, which they are spreading in the rural parts of Mexico least prepared to handle the epidemic. “

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