Rufina y Darío

La Cumbre, Texcatepec, Veracruz

“It’s good to talk about labor rights, but it’s not enough because in the end, what can one do to defend themself? The only option up until now is to travel and make demands in a group.” This was the comment of a woman who attended a community assembly with 55 other people, all native Otomí. The assembly was held on October 5, 2022, and organized by Fomento Cultural y Educativo as part of the Ambulantes project.

In general, those that attended were not aware of their labor rights and did not consider themselves to be subjects of those rights.

While they are aware of many of the problems associated with migration, above all disappearances and drug consumption, they had not spoken about internal migration as a community problem. The subject of drugs was heavily discussed: “In Cerro Gordo there is already a distributor who has threatened anyone who denounces him, saying that he will get his suppliers involved.”

Internal migration had not been a priority for the Municipal Agent either.

In the assembly, attendants received printed materials about labor rights and COVID-19 prevention. They discussed their worries, centered around the poor labor conditions on the “contracts,” the disappearances, the presence of violence related to organized crime and the pressure to consume drugs: “Some people go to harvest and consume green pills called “pericos,” their stimulating effect lasts all day and people who take them don’t get hungry.”

Another person commented: “The main thing is that each family discusses what they are going to do the next time there is a group that goes to the harvest. I think in Santiago Tolman (the tunas) there is less risk because the bosses already know the people well, but they say that in Sinaloa it is difficult.”

After the community assembly, with this acquired knowledge, people felt better prepared knowing that the municipal agent has the same information and should demand security protocols in the contracting of internal migrants: “It was good that they shared the information with the municipal agent. He is laid back, but with the assembly we can remind him to demand that the youth at least inform where they are going.”

Rufina closed with an important reflection: “This is the first time we have heard about the rights we have as workers… When someone migrates, they don’t think about the rights they have. As the woman in the assembly said, it’s difficult to know how to demand our rights when we are not respected.”

With the assembly, people were able to see that these were larger scale problems that are occurring in many more communities. These issues involve not only those who migrate, but also their family, friends, colleagues, and the community generally.

Dario, one of the assembly participants, was surprised by the number of people that attended. What he heard led him to think that it is important to learn to take care of yourself and to expose problems that persist in the community. “I thought that people wouldn’t attend [the assembly], but the subject is important, so they came. The most important thing is learning to take care of ourselves, here people are going to look for work outside because it is what’s needed. In the community we already know that our neighbors sell drugs. It is a problem that people don’t talk about because they don’t want problems – but the problem is already here.”

Rufina, another person who attended, commented on what she heard in the assembly: “It’s important to know where is a a good place to work and where is not. Here there are people worried because their children are lost and have not appeared.”

On learning the results of the interviews carried out by Fomento as part of Ambulantes in different communities of the state, people who attended the assembly could confirm that is was less risky to migrate to the tuna (prickly pear) harvest, a historical harvest in the region: “I think that with this information it is clear that we should continue working in the tuna harvest because in other places there is more danger and the salary is not higher.”