Guamúchil, Sinaloa.- Living conditions for people who work in the countryside are difficult due to the high temperatures that exist in the agricultural zone of Sinaloa, a climate to which they must be exposed to get their family’s daily livelihood.
Luis Alfredo Contreras Raudales, who for more than five years has been dedicated to agricultural work, said it is heavy work, and men have to know what they’re doing out there in the fields.
Luis Alfredo comes from the state of Zacatecas, from a community called Calera, and to go working in Sinaloa he has to take a 12-hour ride.
I left my family in Zacatecas, my parents, my brothers and my wife, it is very difficult, but we have to eat. ”Luis Alfredo lives in a little room he rents as his provisional home, he leaves everyday at 6:00 a.m., and returns at 8:00 p.m.
He noted that they are paid by “bundle”, the payment depends on production.
“The sun has not come out yet and we are out there working already”, Luis Alfredo said. The he added that in a good day he can make up to one thousand pesos, and around 500 pesos in a slow day.
Another paisano from Zacatecas is Guillermo Velázquez Martínez. He had long thought about having a better home, of having a safe job, because in his homeland things started getting “a little rough around the edges”.
Guillermo has been invited by acquaintances to work as day laborer in the state of Sinaloa and without thinking it twice, he accepted, because there are no job opportunities where he comes from.
The group rented a small house on a monthly fee, and all members cooperate to cover the rent.
They also hired a person to cook for them at home, in order to save some money (that they need so much to send to their families).
Guillermo explained that working in the onion fields, he can make about 20 sacks a day.
Some of these men travel great distances across the agricultural fields of Sinaloa, from Culiacan to Los Mochis and many other municipalities.
The Mazatlan Post
