Mexico's Challenges

This is an incredibly prosperous and productive country, home to millions of ambitious and energetic people. We've seen enormous growth since the last time we were here in the early '90s. New cars, new buses, new roads, new housing developments, new businesses, and best of all a spirit of optimism. It's obvious that the Mexican government is putting a lot of money into infrastructre. There are many new highways in Mexico that are as good or better than those in the USA. We've seen sewer projects, ambitious shopping complexes, housing projects of all kinds being built. Yet at the same time there are things that hold Mexico back.

In spite of its excellent climate and its cheerful industrious people, Mexico seems to feel a sense of being less than. Its placement next the the powerful USA is part of this, but there are other factors. For many years the political power was held by PRI, a bunch of backroom boys who milked the country dry. Things are gradually moving forward and the government is working hard to improve the lot of its citizens, but much has yet to be done. The problems here appear to be different from those to the north. We don't see overt drug use in the city, but we do see a huge class gap between working people and the indigenous people who often survive by begging or selling trinkets. This takes place everywhere we have traveled. Often it is women with children of all ages and we wonder how much education available for these kids.

The other serious problem of course is the country's contaminated ground water. Everyone knows that you can't drink the water here or eat the produce without treating it to kill bacteria. But the repercussions of this are huge—in spite of its excellent climate for growing fruits and vegetables, much of what is grown cannot be eaten fresh. When we were coming to visit our friends in San Juan we bought some fresh strawberries and apricots at the side of the road to bring to them. As it turned out, this family will not eat these fruits fresh, even with the iodine treatment. Dr. Reyes says that nothing except boiling will make these fruits safe. He told us that we should never eat lettuce or cilantro or strawberries or celery or anything that doesn't have a smooth skin. He himself, although he loves cilantro, will only eat it in the USA or Canada.

I asked him about the fruits and vegetables that are exported to the north and he informed me that these are grown in areas where the American companies have instituted practices to make the produce clean. But this produce is not available for purchase in Mexico except in a few gourmet stores at a very high price. This means that most people are eating food that is contaminated. Harry asked why there were so many pharmacies in Mexico (we see one or two on every block in very town or city). Natalia's answer was, “Because of cilantro.” Apparently most Mexican people suffer continually from food-borne bacteria and take heavy duty medications to function day to day. This was an eye-opener for us.

It's a huge problem and one that cannot be easily fixed, although Mexico is trying. This photo is from a mural painted on a wall in San Juan del Rio. It says: “If you don't take care of the water, you don't take care of me.” We see that a lot of work is being done to replace antiquated sewer and water systems here but it's a task that will take decades and enormous amounts of money.