Oaxaca, too soon for some, too late for many. (Oaxaca, Mexico)

A journalist describes life in the rural villages of Oaxaca in Mexico. The state of Oaxaca ranks among the lowest in overall growth in Mexico. The competition for hand-to-mouth existence has forced most of the younger men to leave their families behind to find work elsewhere.

For centuries before the Spanish conquest of Mexico (and for a long time afterwards), the native residents of the highlands of Oaxaca lived in isolated complacency, their little villages clustered around arable plots of corn and vegetables and protected from each other - and foreign incursions - by the impa