On Sunday, a small group of us went to Piaxtla and another small town
Boqueron about five hours from Mexico City.

Floriberta Var Campos, an elder in Piaxtla who works with the town's
women and the elderly, is worried. "Here there isn't work or resources
especially for single women," she says.

So single women go north. And increasingly grandparents are being left
behind with grandchildren to take care of. The elders do what elders
do: they grow older, they start to lose their hearing, they need
someone to take care of them. But that generation is up north. Women
like Floriberta are left to take care of the elders…to the degree that
they can.

The people who spoke to us are clear that the forced migrations have
brought their towns economic benefits but a devastating disintegration
of families.

In Boqueron, I was struck by how empty the town is of traditional
families. There are elders of both genders and younger women with
their babies but very few men and women in their twenties and
thirties.

Boqueron is a bit special. They have been able to organize themselves
and use the money their family members send back home to continue work
on a well that would give the town more water…but also to build a
basketball court and baseball field.

Standing on the basketball court with an awesome view of the town and
surrounding hills and countryside the challenges felt clear to me: how
to turn the money coming from up north into viable businesses in
Mexico so the cycle of forced migrations can be stopped.