Developing a developed country
As we have almost reached the top of the hill plateau north of Albuquerque, New Mexico, a water truck passes spraying water on the road to keep the dust down.
A few minutes later we can overlook the Pajarito Mesa, a settlement of 1.400 people, most of them Mexicans, who live here without any of the blessings a life in a developed country normally provides.
450 families live on this devastated piece of land in mobile homes or trailers – some of them have been on the Mesa for more that twenty years and in third generation. Sandra is the community speaker and shows us around. There is no electricity, no water supply, no medical care, no public service of any kind. At least the community has managed – after years of struggling – that the school bus regularly picks up their children at the entrance of the Mesa each morning and brings them back in the afternoon. Some of the kids have to walk about three miles till they approach their homes each day in the morning and in the afternoon, because the Mesa is a vast community. On their way they have to fear encounters with rattle snakes and coyotes. But the bus stops right at the end of the public road as if it wouldn’t dare to move on. It’s exactly the spot where the concrete road turns into a dirt road the community built on their own initiative.
Even the police seem to avoid the Mesa Pajarito. So there is no security and a lot of vandalism is giving the inhabitants a hard time. A woman about 60 years old gets off her car to say hello to us. She is simply happy that someone is visiting the Mesa. She lost her home twice because of strangers dropping by destroying every part of her house and taking away the few things the family with a disabled father and five children possessed.
Most of the adults at the Mesa go to work every day. They have to drive to Albuquerque so a car is crucial to sustain daily life for a variety of reasons. On each trip they visit the local gas stations, shops or restaurants to beg for water. And if not too many Mesa neighbours have exhausted the patience of the donors there might be a chance to bring back some gallons of water that keep up the family life for another day or two.
It was a community initiative that turned a page: When New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson declared that he would be running for presidency Sandra organized a joined agitation. “How will you be representing the people of New Mexico if you can’t even supply our small community with running water?” she asked the Governor. That finally helped. They will start to build a well soon right next to the entrance of the Mesa.
Only a few yards from that spot your view can follow a major power line going down to Texas. There is enough electricity but the people of the community don’t have access to the grid. The problem of electricity will stay unsolved meanwhile.
What we experience and observe at this spot in New Mexico is really thought-provoking. The living conditions, the shortages of supply for basic daily needs, the way of constipating legal immigrants at some benighted place – that all reminds of a developing country. It’s so called ‘third world’ alike. Remember: We are in the U.S. in the year 2008. It takes time and effort to merge observations and knowledge.
As we leave the mesa going back to Albuquerque we pass the water truck again. It atomized the water desperately needed in the community so that it binds the dust on the street. At second glance that almost seems like a cynical citation of what we have just experienced.
Letzte Kommentare