Arrival and Day 1 in Maltrata, Veracruz, Mexico

Posted by Reginaldo Haslett-Marroquin on January 28, 2008

I am traveling with a group of people from Northfield on a trip to the town of Maltrata in the state of veracruz, Mexico.  This town is located about 3.5 hours East from Mexico city just 4 kilometers off the main four lane highway from Mexico City to the port of Veracruz on the golf of Mexico.

The Northfield News has written in the past about the connection to Maltrata. according to Father Dennis Dempsey at St. Dominic’s Catholic Church, over 400 people with ties to Maltrata live in Northfield.  When we visited the local middle school here in Maltrata we asked the kids ot raise their hands if they had family in maltrata and I counted over 50% of the students raising their hands. We even met students in the school who have recently returned from Northfield. The Mexican Consulate in St. Paul has activelly promoted the Clubs Veracruzanos, formed by groups from different parts of the state of Veracruz.

When the Church of St. Dominic announced that Father Dennis was leading this trip I signed up right away.  Understanding the culture specific to Maltrata and to the state of Veracruz is very important for the work that we are doing in the State of Minnesota with immigrant communities from these regions.  As we look at business development in Northfield, there is nothing more important than knowing what these individuals have been exposed to in their hometown, but most importantly, what resources are here that we can explore and build opportunities by capitalizing on the family ties and the available resources to build business opportunities.

I am here with this group but sometimes totally disconnected from them as I am concentrated in observing the local economy, and how this is affected by the migration of the young people from this town, the brick industry that 10 years ago employed over 800 people, todays is 80% gone and employs only 80 people according to estimates from local leaders.

As to the trip itself, we could not have it better, we arrived to a fully packed home where over 50 people had gathered, more than anything else, to greet Father Dennis, who has a following here large enough to fill St. Dominic’s a couple of times.

We divided up into groups to the homes of host families who have been feeding us incredible amounts of good local foods.  The next morning my roomate (Andy Kornkve) and I woke-up to the noise in the kitchen and on the street outside of our window.  In the kitchen was Hermelinda and Pablo Lazaro our hosts, waiting with “cafe con leche” for us.  Then we went outside where two different families had set up outdoor cooking stations where pork skins were being fried into crackling and tortillas stuffed with lamb meat and condiments were being deep fried in large steel kettles.  The tacos and some fresh baked sweet bread and more cafe con leche was plenty to get going for the day.

On Monday the 27th, Andy and I went down the main highway to the city of Orizaba, and stopped by a natural spring that forms a large pond and river that the local government has developed for public use.

 The water so clear, one can see the bottom of the pond in areas way over 8 feet deep.  

Every one of these towns has so much history and places to see one could spend a whole month and not get to see most of the historic sites.  In Orizaba for example, there the “steel palace”, 

The central Park was full of vendors and music, stores filled with people and all things considered, it felt like a state fair going on, but not, it was just Sunday morning in Orizaba, Veracruz.

I will provide more links when I can get to a faster connection.

Comments

2 Responses to “Arrival and Day 1 in Maltrata, Veracruz, Mexico”

1. alejandra says:

   February 11, 2008 at 12:38 pm

   you guys if you go again to maltrata, veracruz i would love to see more pictures that are really close like from people and the places … i was born there and i havent gone back for about 9 years and well i miss it so much … please if you have more pics send me some please … and if you visit try to take many pictures of different people cause i might know them.
   sincerely,
   alejandra
2. melody altamirano says:

   February 26, 2008 at 12:48 pm

   !!this is so cool that u guy went there, actually i live where there are lots of people that are from veracruz maltrata, orizaba mendosa esperanza.like how alejandra said take lots more pics in maltrata in the cometa area!!
   ~Maltrata rocks~
   de: Melody Altamirano