Houses made with wooden sticks are nestled in the mountains of Chiapas. They are surrounded by pines, sunflowers, and purple flowers as well as coffee and corn plantations. There are also some tangerine and banana trees. Many women walk barefoot, with bundles of firewood on their backs and surrounded by four or five kids. Men look at visitors with distrust while they touch their machetes. Children climb atop the stones to watch the passing trucks from above. A few cows graze and the many starving dogs do not bark; only hens interrupt the silence that prevails on the way from San Juan Cancúc to Chancolom, where Antonio López Velasco lives, a 78-year-old Tzeltal man that had 29 children.
This sanctuary of bucolic beauty is also one of the poorest communities in Chiapas: 80.5% of the population of San Juan Cancúc lives in extreme poverty and 16.8% are moderately poor. Less than 3% of the inhabitants live above the poverty line.
According to 2010 statistics of the National Council for the Evaluation of the Social Development Policy (Coneval), four out of every 10 inhabitants of San Juan Cancúc are illiterate. Three out of every 10 men and six in every 10 women can not read or write. Most of the population speaks tzeltal only. Few make it to high school and in the last two years, only around 20 people have obtained a university degree in nearby cities such as Tuxtla Gutiérrez, San Cristóbal de las Casas or Ocosingo.
Also, 99% of the homes are not connected to drainage, 55% have a dirt floor and no one has a refrigerator or washing machine.
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In order to get to the house of Antonio López Velasco one has to walk for half an hour downhill through the cornfields.
The facade of the house, made with adobe, has some holes. The tin roof is supported by trunks, and inside the 16-square-meter room there are two wooden beds where four people sleep. On the opposite corner there is another room of similar dimensions with a recorder, speakers and a TV. There are no beds, just blankets. This is the room of the older children. There is also a kitchen that becomes the girls' dormitory at night.
Antonio walks slowly with the help of a rod-cane. He has been sick lately, but he has recovered thanks to the serum and vitamins that he obtained from a nearby health center.
He had 10 children with his first wife, 10 with the second and nine with the third. In total he fathered 29 children in five decades, even though he “started late," when he was 30. His oldest son is 50 and his youngest daughter, 6. Eight of his children died, and he is twice widowed.
Other inhabitants have less children: five. Some families fear losing the subsidy they receive from Prospera program: 1,160 pesos (US$66.5) every two months.
Antonio still works every day in his cornfield, from which he obtains tortillas and pozol (drink made with fermented corn dough) for himself and his family. They also eat beans and, sometimes, purslane and chili and once every three weeks, chicken, pork or beef.
There was a time when Antonio planted coffee and chili, but rust and ants ruined his crops.
He never knew what killed some of the children that he had with his first wife, many of whom died before their first birthday.
"They coughed and had fever and would die fast. Their mother was not too young, so she did not have enough milk. When this happened I gave them atole (a traditional hot corn- and masa-based beverage). In San Juan Cancúc child mortality rate is 40 children per every 1,000, compared to an average of 23 in the rest of the state.
Antonio says he does not plan to breed more children. “My wife can not have more children,” he explains in tzetzal language.
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This story is part of the Spanish-language book “Los doce mexicanos más pobres: el lado B de la lista de millonarios” (The twelve poorest Mexicans: the side B of the millionaires list) published by Editorial Planeta and coordinated by El Universal journalist Salvador Frausto.
The online version of the project, with the participation of 35 reporters, editors, photographers, filmmakers and programmers, is available at http://cuadernosdobleraya.com/
The book will be presented at Mexico City's Interactive Economy Museum (MIDE – Tacuba 17, Centro) on April 14 at 18:00 hrs.
