Relatives in Mexico can only pray for miners - Los Angeles Times

The American mining industry has long had historical ties to immigrant labor. The current international coverage being afforded to this tragedy is shedding some much needed light on this complicated immigrant labor issue. Mexican labor is increasingly found in many parts of rural America, on the fields and underneath them.

For these Americanos, toiling underneath the Utah landscape often brings little recognition in the mainstream media, where Mexicans are constantly scapegoated and blamed for economic woes and cultural dilution.

See the attached LA Times article, which does a good job of addressing this cross-cultural phenomenon: Mexico and the United States.

"Zapotillo is a village with unpaved and unnamed roads, surrounded by corn and tomato fields withering under an unrelenting sun. Farmers in the region often make as little as $20 per week. In Utah's coal mines, immigrant workers earn more than that for just an hour's work."

"As elsewhere in Mexico, the pull of such wages has caused Zapotillo to slowly empty. The village is populated mostly by women, children and the elderly."

"They leave looking for better fortune, in search of the green bills," said Payan Carrillo, a dark-skinned man of weathered features. "But it's very risky work. People don't think about the risk."

For days, Mexicans have been riveted by the story of the three compatriots trapped in the U.S. mine.

Relatives in Mexico can only pray for miners - Los Angeles Times