| Here is a little bit of what is happening in Mexico every day:My brother in law is a civil engineer, 36 years old and has had his own construction company in Oaxaca for a couple of years. He has done quite a bit of the reconstruction you see around the historic center of Oaxaca, a few projects in rural areas (road building) and has done some private houses.
He has been working very hard over the last years and I know him as a person of integrity. He is family oriented, involved in the church at his barrio, helping out family and friends where he can.
With the last change in administration here in Oaxaca (state and city) his luck changed. The new authorities being even more corrupt than the ones before don’t give him any jobs without him paying a “mordida”. He refuses to be part of the corruption, does not pay the kick-back. So he is out. He is still trying: he is bidding on public projects and putting in a lot of time there. Only to be thrown out on “technical reasons”. He is hoping that friends that are technicians in the city government can help him. But it’s politics that decide – not the opinion of the technician.
Also the city owes him 100.000 pesos on a completed job because some documentation is supposedly not complete. The real reason is of course – again – corruption. He will not pay them their part. So they do the “manana” play.
Private construction is down because of last years conflict.
Now here is my brother in law, with wife and kids and no money. We had to lend him money (what was very painful for him), his telephone got cut, he can hardly pay the rent and electricity.
He has got a Visa to the US that he got in better times. Three years ago he went with his wife to visit family that live in California. In the states he saw that a painter or a construction worker makes good money per hour. So now he is thinking about leaving Oaxaca and to go north to work there illegally for a time.
It just makes me so sad to see a person that could contribute so much to Oaxaca’s development leave. To see that someone who has had his own construction company, someone with a university degree, paint some Gringo’s houses at 5 Dollars/hour. To leave his family.
So next time you see some Latino working in the states think about my brother in law. |
mexfiles.net 
It makes me upset to think about the destruction of great intellects. From ranchos to cities, there exists a plethora of hardships, often due to the corruption of bureaucrats. Many of my family members came to the US, not by choice, but, of course, were driven by lack of resources: my cousin, a once successful architect, is now a carpet installer. My other cousin, an ex-Bank president, is hoping to come to the states because he suffered an accident, and has now been shunned by his employers (suing people in Mexico for discrimination is not commonplace)…immigrants come from all backgrounds, from the white-collar to the poorest, blue collar echelons, immigrants are lumped most often into the minimum-wage jobs category.