1000 Americans: Roberto and family, Metepec, Mexico

Roberto, his wife Laura and son Beto (Roberto) live in Metepec, a small place under the smoke of bigger cities Toluca and Mexico City. Roberto has worked for the government for several decades, riding 2 buses every day to get to work.

They sold part of the family land, thus creating a new modern ‘barrio’, a neighbourhood, but they still enjoy their vegetable garden in the back of the house.

1000 Americans: Family Mendez, Uruapan

This friendly couple sells fertilizer for the many avocado farmers in Uruapan, Mexico. The area is the ‘aguacate’ capital of the world: the fruits -known as ‘a(d)vocado’ or ‘palta’ elsewhere- grow on all the hills, timed to perfection when all the other avocado producers in the world have no fruit to sell.

1000 Americans: Armando & Mariana, Mexico

Armando & Mariana live in a grand house near Manzanillo, Mexico. They had lived in the US for a long time before and was highly appreciated by his US boss, who wanted to keep him for the company by helping with the necessary papers. Just before his papers were ready, Armando had to return to Mexico to take care of his parents, so it took a while before he could come back to the States.

Now all is arranged and regularly they visit their friends and relatives in the US, but always return to their native grounds, Mexico, to enjoy their mango trees, the outside kitchen and the chilli pepper-eating parrot.

1000 Americans: Shopkeeper in Mexico

Mexico is filled with little ‘Abarrotes’: tiny shops, usually containing with food, water and all kinds or useful and less useful articles. Mostly the shops are connected to the house of the owner, so if there is nobody, just shout and somebody will come out to assist.

This friendly lady was a single mom, but with many plans, to extend and re-paint her shop, so she could keep her kids in school. She helped us with free water and we bought some great sweet bread and bananas to support the education of Mexico’s future.

1000 Americans: Orlando, 80-year old gasoline seller, Mexico

We got to chat with Orlando, an 80-year old Mexican that had great knowledge about geography and mountains all over the world. He was clearly very well educated, but now he just waited in the shade for his next customers: in exchange for free food and lodging, he sold gasoline for a local lady. Using his mouth and a hose he transferred the fuel into the expensive cars that stopped by, realizing that fuel stations were a rarity on this road.

We saw his eyes gleam when we told him about our trip, but our heart broke every time he spent minutes coughing and spitting after every filling-up of yet another car filled with rude people. It was a sad sight, especially with the wrongly spelled ‘Cevende Gasolina’ sign on the road behind him (‘Se vende Gasolina = Gas for sale).

1000 Americans: Mexican family, Pacific Coast route, Mexico

While father never escaped the attraction of the TV–screen in the living room and never even acknowledged our presence, Mother is showing that she is proud of her children who live with her in a small dusty town near the Pacific coast, but go to school and college inland.

1000 Americans: flower grower in Mexico

South of Mexico City, a lot of flowers are grown, many for export, this is one of the growers/farmers we met on the way.

1000 Americans: Coconut cutter in Mexico

Hiding under a tarp for protection against the strong sun, Deolinda slowly cut her way through the pile of thousands of brown coconuts in front of her using a big axe.

The juice was thrown away, as only the coconut oil in the meat is interesting for the cosmetics companies that ultimately are responsible for hiring and underpaying her.

1000 Americans: Mauricio & Maricruz, Puerto Vallarta

Mauricio and his wife Maricruz develop land in the Puerto Vallarta area where they live. They met while diving and still enjoy seeing the world from under water.

1000 Americans: Michael & Deborah Gallagher, Good News

Michael & Deborah have traded their home for a trip around the world on a small boat, the Good News.

They will try to help out local communities where they can in an evangelistically way. Firm believers, they put their faith in their God to take them safe across the open seas, but they are practical enough to keep a close eye on the autopilot…

Their irregularly updated blog can be found here.

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