Age and Gender in Decision-making under Changing Economic and Environmental Conditions
in an Agricultural Community in Sonora, Mexico
Stephanie Buechler
Udall Center for Studies in Public Policy
and School of Geography and Development
University of Arizona
and
América Lutz
Arid Lands Program
University of Arizona
Abstract
With rapidly changing environmental conditions such as water resource availability and climate
change, decision-making in communities highly dependent on natural resources has become
increasingly complex. Northwest Mexico and the Southwest U.S. are projected to be among the
world’s hot spots in terms of global warming with higher temperatures and more variable
precipitation regimes. Age as a variable in decision-making regarding gendered agricultural
livelihoods has been neglected in the environmental change literature. Intersectionality and
feminist political ecology frameworks both examine gender but are largely silent on the
intersections of gender with age; this study therefore addresses this lacunae. This exploratory
study uses in-depth interviews, focus group interviews, phone interviews and statistical data to
examine the environmental, socio-economic, political, and geographical factors most influential
in female and male youths’ (ages 15 to 29) livelihood-related decision-making. In addition to
the youth, parents, teachers, school principals, employers of youth and government agency staff
members were interviewed. The goal of this ongoing study is to gain a better understanding of
the future of agricultural and non-agricultural livelihood systems (and linkages between these) in
a semi-arid region.
Introduction
Age as a variable in decision-making regarding gendered agricultural livelihoods has been
neglected in the environmental change literature. Intersectionality and feminist political ecology
frameworks both examine gender but are largely silent on the intersections of gender with age;
this study therefore addresses this lacunae. This exploratory study used a multi-method approach
(Nightingale 2003) to examine the environmental, socio-economic, political, and geographical
factors most influential in female and male youths’ (ages 12 to 29) livelihood-related decision-
making. In addition to youth, parents, teachers, school principals, employers, and municipal
government officials were interviewed. The goal of this ongoing study is to gain a better
understanding of the future of agricultural and non-agricultural livelihood systems (and the
linkages between these) in a semi-arid region.
Theoretical Frameworks
Intersectionality frames in feminist research highlight the overlapping nature of class, race,
ethnicity and gender in their impacts on relations of power, on motivations to act and on
positionality in general (Crenshaw 1991; Collins et al 2009). Research on gender and the
environment using an intersectionality lens has elucidated the interactions of gender with such
factors as social class, caste and rural/urban positionings (Truelove 2011; Nightingale 2011;
Braun Forthcoming 2015) and ethnicity (Hayman Forthcoming 2015) and, more recently, race
(Mollett and Faria 2013; Moraes Forthcoming 2015). However, age has been largely ignored in
intersectionality and feminist political ecological scholarship.
Feminist political ecology and political ecology have both examined issues of access and control
over natural resources and roles and responsibilities related to natural resource management
(Rocheleau et al 1996). Feminist political ecology research has begun to better incorporate a
focus on social differences such as gender, race and class and how these differences are played
out in natural resource related social, political and economic dynamics at various different scales
from the individual to the household, community and region (Braun: Forthcoming; Truelove
2011; Radel 2009). The influence of age on these issues is significant-however, studies using
these frameworks have usually not included an examination of age at all or, if their studies have
been conducted of various age groups, the authors either have not included it in their analyses.
In this study present here on Rayón, a focus on age (in this case on youth) with the use of
intersectional and FPE analyses provided a window into the future of agriculture-based
communities which face rapid environmental and economic change.
An analysis of the
intersections of age and gender in this ongoing study helped reveal differences in current and
future options and obstacles for young women and for young men in a rural community with an
agriculture-based economy experiencing significant shifts. The study seeks to examine the
environmental, socio-economic, political, and geographical factors most influential in female and
male youths’ (ages 15 to 29) livelihood-related decision-making. This study includes an analysis
of the types of linkages that exist between agricultural and non-agricultural livelihoods because
non-agricultural activities provide a necessary complement for most households to agricultural
activities especially with the growing precarization of income based on natural resources such as
land and water. The study also included an examination of how education and migration shaped
youth’s current or future decision-making in this dynamic environmental and economic context.
Research Methods
This ongoing study1 is divided in two phases. The first phase of data collection occurred
between June and October 2014. Phase 2 of this research project will consist of field data
collection during November 2014 through March 2015 and will include a focus group with 12th
graders and additional in-depth interviews with female and male youth, parents and employers
from Rayón. This research project builds on research conducted by Buechler from January 2012
to May 2014 in Rayón which primarily focused on adaptation strategies to climate change and
1
The study in this community in Sonora, Mexico was made possible by the following grant: National Science
Foundation Dynamics of Coupled Human-Natural Systems grant (DEB-1010495) “Strengthening Resilience of Arid
Region Riparian Corridors: Ecohydrology and Decision-Making in the Sonora and San Pedro Watersheds” (2012–
2015).
water scarcity among mainly male dairy producers and predominantly female cheese makers
(Buechler forthcoming 2015). The study presented here utilized in its first stage in-depth
interviews with twelve youth, ten parents, five employers of youth and four municipal
government staff as well as four phone interviews of teachers, a high school assistant principal
and municipal government staff, one focus group interview with fifteen 9th graders and one
smaller group interview of four young male workers in a construction and welding workshop.
Pseudonyms are used to protect the identity of the interviewees. One stakeholder meeting with
ranchers and municipal and state level government officials, government statistical data
conducted before the research began (January 2014) but was part of the larger project also
informed this study.
Statistical data were obtained between 2013 and 2014 from the National Institute of Statistics
and Geography in Mexico (INEGI), Municipal Development Plans (Municipal Government of
Rayon), documents from the Mexican National Water Commission (CONAGUA) and the
Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development, Fisheries, and Food in Mexico
(SAGARPA), and the National Institute for Women in Mexico (INMUJER) regarding different
aspects of natural resources and social development in the Municipality of Rayón. Other
scientific research reports previously conducted in other communities of the San Miguel River
Basin region were also used (Sheridan, 1988; Camou, 1998).
Rayón within the San Miguel Watershed in Northwest Mexico
The San Miguel Watershed
The San Miguel Watershed (SMW) is one of the sub-sections of the Rio Sonora River Basin
System (RSRB). The RSRB is located in the central portion of Sonora State in arid northwest
Mexico. The Río Sonora receives waters from several tributaries from Cananea and Bacoachi in
the upper section, all the way down to the State’s capital, Hermosillo city in the lower basin. The
San Miguel River is an intermittent stream that flows only during rainy seasons (summer and
winter) (Sheridan, 1988) and surface runoff is restricted to certain sections. The SMW includes
in its area 6 municipalities of the central and lower section: Cucurpe, Opodepe, Rayón, San
Miguel de Horcasitas, Carbó, and Hermosillo; however the main area of drainage is mostly
located within the territories of the first four as seen in the map of the Figure 1. In particular this
study focuses on the rural municipality of Rayón.
The average annual temperature in the larger Sonora River Basin where the SMW is located is
75.9 degrees Fahrenheit, ranging from 32 degrees or below in the winter to more than 113
degrees in the summer (Comisión Estatal del Agua en Sonora, CEA 2008). The vegetation of the
SMW is a subtropical scrubland ecosystem known as the Sinaloan Thornscrub including organ
pipe cactus, mesquite, tree ocotillo, palo verde, palo blanco and whiteball acacia (Vivoni et al.
2007).
The municipality of Rayón
Rayón has an extension of 1,107 square kilometers, and is located 1,804 feet above sea level. Its
municipal head is Rayón town, which is located 70 miles to the north of Hermosillo city. Up to
2010 the total population in Rayón was 1,599 people; 53% men, and 47% women distributed in
527 households (INEGI, 2010). During the 20th century the livelihood system shifted from
subsistence agriculture, to commercial agriculture, and finally to livestock farming (Camou,
1998; Municipal Government of Rayón, 2004). Other activities related to bovine livestock are
developed in a complementary way, for example cheese and dried beef (machaca) production.
Cattle are kept in fenced areas within the rainfed scrubland, referred to locally as the monte, and
graze on the leaves of the vegetation and on wild grasses. This scrub area is expanding on both
sides of the U.S.-Mexico border as temperatures increase and rainfall declines. This land has
experienced great change with forested areas cleared, followed by grasslands predominating, and
then a conversion to scrubland. Due to the vegetation’s limited temperature range and water
requirements, the main factor impacting it today is climate change (House-Peters and Chan 2014;
Buechler forthcoming 2015).
Figure 1 The San Miguel Watershed and Rayón municipality
Land tenure in Rayón
An important event that determined much of the ecologic change in the grasslands during the
20th century was the Mexican Agrarian Reform that created different types of land ownership,
facilitating access to more rangelands for livestock by ranchers (Camou, 1998). Of particular
importance is the ejido tenure. This means that farmers have concessions (not ownership) on
land resources and the right to exploit the land plots. The ejido concessions were given on a
group basis between post-revolutionary times (1920) and up to the last decades of the 20th
century. In most cases this was coupled with access to water in communal concession to groups
of farmers or ejidatarios. The land concessioned was property of the country, and people could
benefit from it without actually owning it, so leasing or selling were prohibited until 1992 when
constitutional modifications to the National Agrarian Law set the conditions for private
ownership.
The municipality of Rayón has 60% of its land registered as ejido or communal land and 40% as
held by private landowners. In Rayón there are four ejidos: Cerro de Oro, El Ranchito de
Aguilar, Rayón, and Tres Álamos; as well as one community –Rayón-. The total number of
beneficiaries of these concessions according to the National Agrarian Registry (Registro Agrario
Nacional, or RAN) are 510 ejidatarios, and 357 comuneros (RAN, 2014). The ejido and
community land have similar rules and treatment by the government. These lands cannot be sold
or appropriated unless a special legal procedure occurs and permission from a collective
decision-making body is given for an individual farmer to make the corresponding tenure
changes. However ejido and community land have different origins: the former were created by
governmental decree, while the communal land have pre-colombian roots on communal plots
managed by specific social and ethnic groups.
Water access
Groundwater is the source of drinking water for the community. Both groundwater and surface
water are used for irrigation. Water is accessed through Federal Government permissions issued
by the National Water Commission (CONAGUA). The Public Registry of Water Rights
(REPDA) is the database where these concessions can be tracked; however not all the water titles
are systematically registered, and purchase and selling of water occurs locally without people
updating this information. In addition, there is a gap between the water that is concessioned and
the real volumes being extracted and applied since farmers do not comply with the legally
mandated metering, so it is difficult to know how much water is actually going in and out the
system. Considering the data from REPDA up to 2011 in Table 1, water rights in Rayón total
almost 12 million cubic meters of water per year. Although the majority of titles correspond to
livestock use (which reflects the livelihood system in Rayón), more than 80% of the volume is
utilized for agricultural production.
Table 1. Volume of water allocated by user sector
Use Sector
Volume in m3/year
Water titles
% of total allocations
Agriculture
61
9,829,285
84.2%
Multiple*
33
1,412,541
12.1%
Livestock
106
278,590
2.4%
Municipal
16
158,142
1.3%
217
11,678,558
100%
Total
Source: elaborated by authors after REPDA, 2011.
*Multiple use refers to titles that cover more than one single type of water use.
In recent years the availability of water for the San Miguel Watershed communities has been
decreasing. In 2007 the annual average availability of surface water in the region was published
in the Mexican Federal Official Bulletin. In all its sub-basins the RSRB was classified in deficit,
which means there is no difference, or there is a negative difference between the average annual
volume of runoff and the annual average surface volume allocated downstream. In terms of
groundwater –which represents the main source for Rayón- in 2009 a governmental study on the
availability of water at the aquifer of the San Miguel River indicated that extractions were very
close to the total recharged volume (CONAGUA, 2009). By January of 2014 (five years later the
last official study on the aquifer) ranchers reported that out of eight new wells for agriculture
drilled at the end of 2013, only one was supplying sufficient water for irrigation.
The lack of water and financial resources is a serious barrier to socio-economic development in
the municipality (Municipal Government of Rayón, 2004), let alone the challenge of adapting to
changing climatic conditions. The recent projections of the Assessment of Climate Change in the
Southern portion of the U.S. Southwest can also be used as trends for northwest Mexico. These
indicate warmer temperatures, more variable precipitation with a decreasing tendency towards
the Southern portion of the U.S. Southwest and northwest Mexico, declines in stream flow and
soil moisture, and more frequent extreme events, such as drought and flooding (Overpeck et al.
2013). Although more specific projections for Sonora State are still lacking, it is highly probable
that rural livelihoods in the watershed will be further stressed because of variable water
availability and extreme climatic events in the future.
Agricultural transitions
From subsistence to market-oriented agriculture
During the first decades of the 20th century Rayón’s main economic activity was subsistence
agriculture. According to Camou (1998) livestock rearing was a subsistence activity and having
cattle was viewed by families as a “savings account” they could use only in case of emergency,
or for family consumption during celebrations. According to a livestock census of 1937 there
was a concentration of animals in the hands of a few families with enough resources to sustain
large herds and 49% of cattle was in the hands of 3% of the population. Rayón’s farmers were
mostly poor laborers with small plots of land or none at all that had to diversify their activities in
order to make a living (Camou, 1998: 182-184).
Commercial agriculture started in the 1950s. Rayón’s farmers tried different type of cash crops
with varying levels of success, from cotton to chopsuey bean sprouts they sold to Chinese
restaurants in Mexicali, in the neighbor state of Baja California (Camou, 1998:186-187). In 1970
a second wave of land restitution provided Rayón with almost 40,000 acres of ejido rangelands
and 124 acres of farmland to distribute among 500 producers, which represented around 20% of
Rayón’s population then. The legal access to large extensions of rangelands coupled with
increasing demand for meat products in both Mexico and the U.S., were the most important
drivers of increasing sizes of herds among the ejido and communal producers. Another important
factor enhancing the shift towards the livestock system was the construction of roads connecting
these communities with Hermosillo city (ibid).
By the 1990s livestock centered livelihoods were well established and Rayón started to be
famous for beef and cheese production. During the first years of this decade the North America
Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was enacted, and together with the changes to the land tenure
legal frameworks, new impetus was given to this ranching-focused livelihood system, although
not necessarily all the producers benefitted from this in the same way. Around the 1970s and
1980s the producers of Rayón developed a cow-and-calf economy in which they fed calves up to
a certain age and then they sold them to feed lots around Hermosillo, Ciudad Obregón and other
location in Sonora and the Southwest U.S., particularly Arizona and California (Camou, 1998).
Today beef and dairy production remain the main activities in Rayón, but adaptation to climate
change and water scarcity is visible in several livestock management decisions. One example is a
switch to keeping Brangus cattle (a mixed breed) which are able to tolerate higher temperatures
while they are out in the monte and provide both beef and smaller amounts of milk (Buechler
forthcoming 2015). Another strategy is a gradual shift from these larger mixed herds, to smaller
and more specialized dairy breeds kept in stables rather than in the monte (they do not withstand
high temperatures).
Linked to this livestock economy, forage crops like grains, fodder grasses and alfalfa are
produced in Rayón for cattle. Alfalfa is a perennial (grown year-round) crop and is the most
water consuming of all of the crops. However, due to the high demand for forage and the
climatic and water requirements to produce it in sufficient quantities, the local livestock
association provides subsidized alfalfa bales during the hotter months of the year (Buechler
forthcoming 2015). In addition, crops such as vegetables (mainly zucchini, several types of
squash, and chiltepin peppers), peanuts and watermelons are produced for human consumption
for local and international markets. These crops are listed in Table 2.
Women in Rayón inherit some portion of her household’s land usually only in households with
daughters and no sons, if the land passes directly from mother to her children and in the case of
the death of a woman’s husband. Otherwise, as has been documented in many other regions of
Mexico and indeed the world (Zapata Martelo et al 1994; Rosas Vargas and Zapata Marelo 2007;
Agarwal 1994; Deere and León 2001), land is still handed down from father to sons, or, if there
are no sons interested in farming, to uncles, nephews, or cousins. This dynamic leaves a woman
more vulnerable to the decisions of men in her household and, later in her life, in the household
she joins if she marries.
Agricultural labor
In Rayón, employment related to small-scale agriculture consists of field labor done by the
owner of the fields and their family members with seasonal hired labor. For larger scale
agriculture, the major crops for which labor is hired are squash, peanuts and watermelons. In
recent years there has been some diversification of crops to include varieties of peppers (bell
peppers and chiltepin peppers) due to high market demand and prices for these crops. Both
women and men are hired for harvesting the crops, and women also work in preparing and
serving food to the seasonal agricultural laborers. Migrant labor is brought in from southern
Mexico and elsewhere for these
Table 2. Characteristics of agricultural production in the municipality of Rayón
Crop
Cultivated
surface in
hectares
Harvested
surface in
hectares
Damaged
area (not
harvested)
in hectares
Production
in tons
Yield in
tons/hect
are
Average
rural price
($ per ton)
Production
value (in
thousand
pesos)
Seasonal Crops
Forage oats
218
218
0
9,025.20
41.40
505
4,557.73
Peanuts
185
185
0
481.00
2.60
12,800.00
6,156.80
Zucchini
25
25
0
450.00
180
3,200.00
1,440.00
Squashes
39
14
25
238.00
170
3,200.00
761.6
205
205
0
7,749.00
37.80
500
3,874.50
10
10
0
13.50
1.35
12,200.00
164.7
Forage barley
Pinto Beans
Broad Beans
3
3
0
6.60
2.20
4,032.00
26.61
Grain corn
73
73
0
212.30
2.91
3,150.00
668.74
Rye grass
318
318
0
14,628.00
46.0
643.5
9,413.12
Watermelon
Forage
sorghum
20
20
0
400.00
20.0
3,000.00
1,200.00
310
310
0
15,500.00
50.0
496
7,688.00
Grain sorghum
154
154
0
422.40
2.74
2,000.00
844.8
250
1,810.00
250
1,785.00
0
25
1,386.15
5.54
2,876.77
3,987.63
40,784.23
63.75
444.00
7,359.30
Grain wheat
Perennial Crops
Forage alfalfa
260
260
0
16,575.00
Source: Adapted by the authors from OIEDRUS- SAGARPA Sonora 2010.
harvests, because only the poorest local men and women perform this work due to its nature
(hard physical labor) and low pay. However, for migrant laborers, agricultural wages in Sonora
are higher in relation to other Mexican states.
Most households with dairy cattle produce at least some cheese (either cooked or fresh) for home
consumption and for the market. The most popular type of cheese produced for sale is cooked
cheese known as Rayón cheese (queso Rayón) (Buechler, forthcoming 2015). In households that
produce cheese for the market, one young man or woman (usually a son or a daughter) remains
in Rayón after high school to work in their family cheese business. Young men are commonly
responsible for milking the cows, purchasing additional milk from other dairy producers for
cheese production in Rayón or as far as Carbó or Ures, and selling the cheese (often in
Hermosillo).
Within livestock-related remunerated activities, boys are more likely than girls to work as field
hands for landowners who are not immediate family members. Boys are hired to milk and feed
the cattle, and to assist in family food processing micro-enterprises. They sometimes assist in
non-family micro-enterprises, such as cheese production, but often are not paid for this work.
Instead, the idea is that they gain experience through an informal apprentice relationship that
would help them in their future work in agriculture. They also are hired on a temporary basis to
weed and plant during particular times of the agricultural season.
In terms of non-agricultural activities, young men find work in car mechanic shops, tire
businesses, construction related workshops, stores, the gas station, or delivering products from
trucks. Many combine work in agriculture and non-agricultural employment engaging in both at
the same time, or they add agricultural work solely during peak seasons such as at harvest time.
Young women are frequently involved in cheese production either for their family’s enterprises
or for the enterprises of neighbors. They sometimes milk cows but more commonly work in the
actual production of the cheese and in the pouring of the cheese into molds, and in wrapping,
freezing and sale of the cheese. Teenagers without relatives in cheese production can gain
experience through unpaid work in one or more steps of the production process, such as stirring
cheese as it cooks. As in the case of boys, this is a form of apprenticeship.
Non-agricultural employment for young women includes work in family enterprises such as
tortilla production, work in small stores, small eating establishments, food stalls, small-scale
food production sold from homes, babysitting, cleaning houses and outsourced, small-scale doorto-door catalog retailers who sell AVON, Fuller, Andrea shoes and other products. For all of this
work they receive low pay and with the retail trade of petty commerce they must assume the risk
of purchasing products that may not sell or of having to pay when a customer’s account with
them is delinquent.2
Demographic features of Rayón
In Mexico as a whole, 51.2 percent of the population is female and 48.8 percent is male
(CONAPO 2013 in INEGI 2013). In Sonora, which is one of only 4 states in Mexico with more
men than women, there are 1.43 males for every 1.42 females or 99 women for every 100 men;
meanwhile in Rayón there is a larger discrepancy with 852 men and only 747 women. The ratio
of women to men in the communities of the SMW has been historically impacted by the job
opportunities available to people and temporary, seasonal and permanent out-migration. Thomas
Sheridan’s study in the 1980s of Cucurpe, Sonora, the main community in the headwaters of the
2
For a detailed examination of women’s participation in this type of commerce in urban Brazil and the larger issues
such as the transfer of risk from corporations onto women in low-income communities, see Simone Buechler. 2014.
Labor in a Globalizing City: Economic Restructuring in São Paolo, Brazil. Springer.
San Miguel River basin, revealed that migration of young women was very common because
they were insufficient employment options there for them; a broader array of employment
options existed for men in the agricultural sector. As a result, after the early adulthood years (1929 years old) there were fewer women than men in the community (1988).
Figures 2 and 3 indicate the number of men and female young populations respectively, in the
period from 1990 to 2010 in Rayón. Time series data have been obtained from the National
Institute of Statistics and Geography in Mexico (INEGI) and grouped in age categories of 10year periods beginning with newborn children (0 years) up to those in young adulthood (29
years).
Figure 2 shows the distribution of boys in these three groups. The first noticeable change is the
decrease of population numbers in all the groups from 1990 to 2010, which corresponds to the
general national pattern of relative population decrease (especially in rural settings). Another
feature within the male groups is the difference between the first and the last categories, meaning
that some population was lost –some to decease, but mostly to migration- as young men grew
older. However, this difference between the third and the first groups has been decreasing
progressively: in 1990 the difference was -63, in 1995 it was -33, in 2000 -28, in 2005 -27, and
finally only -3 in 2010. This change is consistent with the peak of male migration from the
border states of Mexico to the United States during the 1990s. Migration has stabilized since
2005 (Sánchez Cohen et al. 2012).
In Figure 3, similar patterns are observed within female age groups. A general decline in the
female population between 1990 and 2010 can be seen with large differences existing between
the number of girls (first age group) and the numbers of young women (third age group). This
difference is larger than that observed among the male population in all the years considered and,
in contrast to men, the difference does not show a consistent declining trend but rather an
irregular one: in 1990 the difference was -40, in 1995 -46, in 2000 -57 (the largest difference
observed), in 2005 -33 and finally in 2010 there were 37 fewer women in the third group with
respect to the first one. This could indicate that female migration in late adolescence and early
adulthood is still more frequent than the migration of men in these age categories and that this
may be connected to the lack of job opportunities for women in these communities.
When we compare Figures 2 and 3, there are fewer females than males in all age groups during
all years considered in the time period. However, the number of children in the age category of
the youngest people from Rayón is quite similar between girls and boys, while the difference in
numbers between the men and women in the same age groups increases as they get older, with
declining numbers of women compared to men.
YEAR
Figure 2. Age distribution of the male population in relevant age groups, Rayón 1990-2010
2010
106
2005
113
2000
132
142
130
1995
103
86
153
159
1990
195
0
102
169
126
214
100
200
300
132
400
500
600
POPULATION IN THE AGE GROUP
0-9 years
10-19 years
20-29 years
Source: elaborated by the authors with data from INEGI 2014.
Figure 3 Age distribution of the female population in relevant age groups, Rayón 1990-2010
YEAR
2010
2005
2000
1995
1990
112
107
137
141
166
0
100
130
128
127
123
75
74
80
95
150
200
126
300
400
500
600
POPULATION IN THE AGE GROUP
0-9 years
10-19 years
20-29 years
Source: elaborated by authors with data from INEGI, 2014.
The Role of Education in Livelihood Decision-making
Rayón has several educational institutions, two kindergartens, three elementary schools, and a
middle school, the Agricultural Technology Middle School #33 (Escuela Secundaria Técnica
Agropecuaria #33). The middle school is devoted to teaching agricultural skills and has its own
land for demonstration plots. After middle school the most frequent high school choice for girls
and boys in Rayón is the Agricultural Technology High School #161 (Centro de Bachillerato
Tecnológico Agropecuario, CBTA, 161) located in the town of Ures, Sonora, just 26 miles to the
southeast of the town of Rayón (a 45 minute drive away). The small city of Ures had a
population of 3,764 in the municipality of Ures with 9,185 people in 2010 (SEDESOL AND
CONEVAL 2014). According to statistics provided by the assistant principal of CBTA, the
school currently has 41 students from Rayón: 12 in the first semester, 18 in the third semester,
and 11 in the fifth semester. To get there, most of the students in Rayón wait for a governmentrun bus that picks up them every day in the morning and takes them back after 3:00 pm, when
school ends. This bus also picks up high school students in the rest of the communities and ejidos
from Opodepe (to the north of Rayón) all the way down to Ures. The CBTA 161 offers common
courses and students must also select between three specialization areas when passing from the
first to the second semester: 1) Agricultural technician (Técnico Agropecuario); 2) Livestock
farming technician (Técnico en explotación ganadera); and 3) Rural entrepreneurship technician
(Técnico en emprendimiento rural).
The livestock farming specialization was just established in 2013 after a series of educational
reforms in all the educational levels of the Mexican system by federal mandate. Before the
reforms CBTA had two main specialization areas: agricultural technician that remains the same,
and rural administration and accounting technician (Técnico en administración y contabilidad
rural) that shifted to rural entrepreneurship technician but has the same curricula, according to
the assistant principal of CBTA. Right now the students are in a transition process, so those in
the 5th semester still have the old scheme, and students in the 3rd semester have chosen among
the new options. Considering all Rayón students in CBTA, around 70 percent have selected the
agricultural areas, while 30 percent of the students are in the administrative track (now called
rural entrepreneurship track). Another aspect of these specializations is that young men usually
go into the agricultural and livestock areas, while most of the girls are accepted into and enter the
administrative one, which requires a higher grade point average. Table 3 shows the number of
Rayón students in each track per semester.
Table 3. Distribution of Rayón students in the track areas of CBTA 161
Area
Number of students
Third semester
Boys
Girls
7
4
Fifth semester
Boys
Girls
4
2
Agricultural technician
Livestock farming technician (not available
3
for students in the 5th semester)
Rural entrepreneurship technician
(administration and rural entrepreneurship
2
1
for students in 5th semester)
*Students in the first semester are excluded from the table since they have not selected their track yet.
Source: elaborated by the authors from data provided by CBTA 161.
4
During the interview, the assistant principal of CBTA indicated that this year they had only 16
students from Rayón in the first semester; which is a relatively low number compared to the 3040 students they enrolled in previous years. They’re expecting around 21 Rayón teens in 2015,
and 27 in 2016. Seventy to seventy-five percent of the students who graduated from middle
school in Rayón in May 2014 were girls. For May 2015, it is projected that 75 percent of the
students will be female. Sonora State has a fertility rate of 2.3 children per woman, slightly
higher than the national average of 2.2; the national rate has declined from 2.9 in 1999. The
birthrate for females 15-19 years of age rose slightly between 1999 and 2013 from 64 births for
every 1000 girls, to 66 births for every 1000 girls in this age range (INEGI and INMUJER 2013:
11-12). The state of Sonora has one of the highest birthrates among adolescent girls (ages 10 to
19) in Mexico as one out of every five babies was born in 2012 to adolescent girls (INEGI and
INMUJER 2013: 16). This suggests that middle schools such as this one need to tailor their
curriculum more to the interests and needs of girls; in addition to improving the career
opportunities of girls as they move up to higher levels of education, this could become part of a
strategy for reducing the birthrate in this age category. Another component of the strategy would
have to be the education of parents. A municipal government staff member stated that part of the
problem lies with resistance on the part of parents, particularly, fathers, to sex education in the
middle school.
While the majority of students in their last year of middle school desire to continue their
academic studies, the economic and family conditions of some teenagers in Rayón do not
provide the possibility for them to attend high school. There are several scholarship programs
that they can apply to attend high school, such as the Esposos Roríguez Foundation, National
Program for Higher Education (PRONABE), a new scholarship program named “Yo no
abandono” (“I do not quit”), and “Prospera” (formerly known as Oportunidades, one of the
main social programs of the Federal Government). These kinds of support programs are used by
many in the rural communities of the SMW, but they are insufficient if a family has very low
income or if the child has important domestic responsibilities that are not easily filled by another
household member. If youth want to continue their studies beyond high school, scholarships are
also available for college through the National Agency for the Coordination of Scholarships for
Higher Education (CNBES) (www.prospera.gob.mx/Portal/).
Two of these scholarships are only available for high school students (PRONABE and “Yo no
abandono”). The other two programs are also available for students in elementary and middle
school. The government program Prospera run by SEDESOL (Social Development Agency)
provides scholarships for students 18 years old and younger in elementary, middle and high
school. This is a long-standing program of the federal government that has changed names
according to the administration in turn (Progresa during President Ernesto Zedillo in the 19942000; Oportunidades during Presidents Vicente Fox 2000-2006, and Felipe Calderón 2006-2012;
and Prospera in President Enrique Peña Nieto’s administration, 2012-2018). Currently, five of
Rayón’s male students and eight female students are receiving Prospera scholarships in the
CBTA 161 high school. To close the gap between boys’ and girls’ educational achievements,
girls receive more money than boys. The amount that each student gets depends on the
characteristics of the household, such as the number of children and elderly, the socio-economic
status of the family, and the location of the community they live in. The Esposos Rodríguez
foundation scholarship is designed specifically for low-income students with high academic
rankings. For the 2014-2015 academic year, only one girl from Rayón received this type of
scholarship in CBTA 161 high school. One boy from Rayón receives the PRONABE scholarship
from the federal government.
The specialization tracks of the CBTA agricultural high school reflect the broader goals for
Mexican agrarian development back in the 1970s and 1980s, but now it is not clear whether
they’re providing the type of training that is going to be required in rural communities of the San
Miguel watershed in the future. During the focus group interview with students in their last year
of middle school, when asked how many are planning to go to high school (preparatoria or
prepa for short), all of them responded positively, except one girl, who doesn’t expect to go
because of the cost of high school education. All agreed that if there was a high school in Rayón,
all would attend it. Twelve students are planning to go to the prepa (high school) in Ures
(CBTA) and two are planning to go to Hermosillo because they have relatives there. Six girls
wanted to go into the rural entrepreneurship technician track in the CBTA high school, while the
other six wanted to go into the agricultural technician track.
The boys and girls also expressed their concerns related to the difficulties of getting a job in rural
communities, and a big proportion of them wanted to migrate to the largest cities of Sonora
State, particularly to the capital city of Sonora, Hermosillo. Both girls and boys stated that they
wanted to migrate because they felt better employment opportunities could be found in cities.
Most also did not want to enter employment related to agriculture, therefore the training they
receive in Ures in the CBTA may not prepare them for urban-based, non-agricultural careers.
The girls and boys see their parents and relatives engaging in multiple livelihood activities as a
risk-reduction strategy or sometimes a necessary survival strategy, however the type of training
received may also not prepare them for diversified livelihood strategies if they stay in Rayón. In
terms of students at the high school level, the assistant director of CBTA indicated that of the 41
boys and girls from Rayón who currently attend this high school, 18 of them don’t know yet
what they’re going to do when they complete their high school education, while the rest are
planning on studying further: one wants to go to nursing school, seven want to be teachers, three
want to study gastronomy, two administration, one medicine, and only three want to be
agronomists. Very little attention has been placed by feminist scholars globally on rural girls’
education; much of the focus has been on urban areas (Pini et al 2014). In rural Sonora and in
other rural areas of Mexico, feminist research is needed on how rural girls can become better
prepared for future careers in both rural and urban areas.
Migration
Rayón has high rates of rural to urban migration. This is comparable to trends at the national
level in Mexico. For example, for women, national statistics that show that in 1970, 40.3 percent
of women lived in rural areas whereas by 2010, this figure had declined to 22.9 percent (INEGI
2014). In the state of Sonora, 13.4 percent of women live in rural areas.
Although the exact numbers of migrants from Rayón to cities like Hermosillo is unknown, many
men from Rayón living in Hermosillo work as mechanics and both men and women work in
various types of jobs in hospitals, assembly plants, service industries and offices. Women work
as maids, nannies, teachers, secretaries and lower to mid-level hospital workers. Some women
and men combine this work with the sale either from their home (women) or as street vendors
(mainly men) of cooked cheese from Rayón. Mainly men go for seasonal work such as in
agriculture or road or building construction to the U.S. especially when climate and water
stressors have been significant that year and agriculture and livestock activities in Rayón have
been deeply impacted.
During the focus group interview with the middle school students, when we asked them where
they wanted to live in the future, two boys (Armando and Adan) stated they wanted to live in
Rayón because of the ambiente (atmosphere or environment). One boy, Luis, said he doesn’t
want to come back to Rayón ever after he finishes high school. The rest of the students said they
wanted to live in a city after they finish their education. Most said they had relatives in
Hermosillo, one girl said that there were better employment opportunities in Hermosillo. Other
cities the students said they would want to migrate to included Ciudad Obregon, Guaymas and
Huatabampo. In some cases they had relatives in these places. Remarkably, none mentioned that
they wanted to migrate to the U.S. even though seasonal, temporary and permanent migration to
cities in Arizona has been a common strategy among households in Rayón (Buechler,
forthcoming 2015).
Our findings on the reasons for young people’s desire to migrate are similar to those documented
for other Mexican communities. For example, Azaola reported that in the rural community in
the state of Michoacán that she studied in 2005, there was a generational shift in the reasons for
migration: “Whereas previous generations migrated in order to offer a ‘better life’ to their
children, the teenagers’ motivation was based on pursuing their own goals and aspirations, which
demonstrates the role of agency in their decision to migrate” (2012:886). Social class is an
important indicator of the main impetus among the young to migrate: for those with fewer
resources such as the landless, the main reason is to find employment that is remunerated at a
higher rate than what is available in their home community and so that they can help support
family members in their rural community whereas for sons and daughters of more means,
migration represents a way to obtain higher education and a possible path to upward social
mobility; for rural smallholders motivations related to migration are more complex and include
income generation for the household, remittances and upward social mobility (Arizpe 2014).
The future of agriculture in Rayón is at stake with these high rates of migration. As SánchezCohen et al (2012) warn:
In Mexico in 2009, about 23 per cent of the population relied on the primary
sector for their living, but around 450 people were emigrating daily from the rural
areas, especially from drylands. The agricultural sector was losing the young and
best-trained part of its labour force. If this tendency continues, the primary sector
could collapse by 2030, seriously affecting the environmental services and food
sovereignty of the country (FAO, 2009; Oswald, 2009b in Sánchez-Cohen et al
2012: 68).
Although Rayón has irrigation which can cushion the effect of drought for a period of
time by supplying water for crops and livestock, the volumes of water available for
irrigation were declining rapidly in 2014. Rural livelihoods were deteriorating due to
declining groundwater levels (with some agricultural and drinking water wells going dry)
and declining availability of surface water from the river and streams for channeling to
the fields. Even groups in Rayón whose livelihoods do not depend directly on natural
resources are affected because a high proportion of the demand for goods and services in
Rayón come from men and women’s crop and livestock-related incomes. This
deterioration of the natural resource base and of linked income sources is mirrored in
girls and boys’ decision-making related to their futures.
Climate and water influences on labor-related decision-making
A feminist political ecology analysis helped to tease out gender related differences in
employment that is largely dependent on natural resources. Most employment in Rayón is
temporary, often tied to the agricultural cycle of the harvests. The head office of the Municipality
of Rayón sometimes offers jobs that include work after major rainfalls that cause roads to wash
out, or work cleaning up and maintaining streets, the main square, and public buildings. In July
of 2014 there were sixty people who participated who were looking for jobs and the jobs
available were only for part-time employment. For Rayón’s main fiesta, temporary employment
was also offered in assisting the police in security related activities. Employment for a few with
some education beyond high school, or for those with either relevant job or volunteer experience,
is available through the municipal government office in Rayón. However, as the case of the staff
member of the municipal government office in his twenties below reveals, connections to those
with power and prestige in the community are necessary to obtain the few permanent staff
positions that exist; even these are not really permanent—usually only lasting for the four years
that the political party and its municipal president is in office. Even with these positions, salaries
are low relative to similar positions in urban areas and with few resources available to them to
fulfill their job requirements, staff often must invest their own salaries in items such as gasoline.
Those without relatives with stable employment and businesses are at a disadvantage. This is
because often relatives serve as employers. This dynamic occurs among all social classes. For
example, a staff member who works in the municipality who is in his twenties is the son of a
large landowner and rancher whose land is next to the municipal president’s father’s
landholding. However, the sustainability of all livelihoods is at risk due to climate-water
changes. This same staff member expressed his concern thus “the young here in Rayón think
that in the near future there will not be enough water. They also fear that the value of their
family’s land will be reduced due to water scarcity”. He now divides his time between working
in the municipal government and assisting his father with his agricultural production. In
September 2015, when a new municipal president takes office, he will go back to his job as
physical education teacher in the middle school and continue his work assisting his father.
A twelve year old girl interviewed already works in her mother and aunts’ thirty year old tortilla
production business. These women produce 300-500 tortillas per day on an outdoor wood
burning clay oven; they make the tortillas mostly from purchased corn flour since not much corn
is produced in Rayón anymore. This type of tortilla production is highly labor intensive. This
twelve year old girl transports the tortillas to customers by car. She learned how to drive when
she turned twelve and then she started to help in this family business. Her uncles work as
agricultural day laborers mainly with dairy cattle. Their work had become more demanding due
to the fact that there is more frequent need to transport water to fill the water troughs for the
cattle so that they do not die of thirst with the hotter temperatures and the lack of rain. Her cousin
works in an assembly plant in Hermosillo and her female cousin is studying in the third year of
middle school (equivalent of 8th grade) and would like to become a teacher. The women each
have their small cement home around the same solar or courtyard in which they have numerous
types of fruit trees (with peaches, apricots, different types of citrus fruits, and pomegranates) for
household consumption.
Work in dairy related livelihood activities such as with dairy cattle or with cheese production has
been harmed by climate change and related water resource challenges. For example, an eighteen
year old young man who was only able to study through the eighth grade but did not go to high
school said that during the last three years he has worked 8-10 hours every day and earns 1,600
pesos (about 123 dollars) per week milking his employer’s cows. Usually, the cows are milked
with a machine that milks two cows at once but this machine regularly breaks down so the cows
must all be milked by hand. He works with another hired laborer and with his employer’s son.
He also produces both fresh and cooked cheese for his employer. In 2010 his employer’s
household owned 80 dairy cattle but due to the drought in 2013 they only owned 32 dairy cattle.
In 2011 they were still purchasing 1,200 liters of additional milk to produce cheese, now they do
not purchase any milk to make the cheese they only use the milk from their own (reduced
number) of dairy cattle. This may mean less stable employment in the future for this young man
and for others like him since there are ever-fewer cattle and lower cheese production.
One twenty-two year old young man works for his mother in her cheese business. He purchases
the milk in Carbó, a 45 minute drive away on a road that is very poorly maintained. He also sells
the cheese in Hermosillo mainly to the municipal market. He is now trying to obtain funding
from two government sources (one is SAGARPA the national agency for agriculture, livestock
and fishing and the other he could not remember but thought it was CONAFOR or the national
forestry agency) to develop two projects, one is an organic egg business with the purchase of
hens and then other is a chiltepin pepper cultivation on his own land. At present he grows
chiltepin peppers with an older man on that man’s land; that man’s son is in the U.S. and it is not
clear what will happen if the son returns. Chiltepin peppers require less water than other crops,
which is why he said he was hopeful that this type of production would do well.
In the focus group with middle school students, the future of agriculture activities in Rayón was
discussed. In general terms, some of the students stated that it would be difficult to find a job in
the agriculture sector. Mariana said it won’t be easy to find a job after finishing high school
because she wanted to study the agricultural specialization. Sonia mentioned that due to the lack
of peanuts, her mother is not making “garapiñados” anymore (a candy made with peanuts
covered with brown toasted sugar). Her family also did not make cheese for one month this
summer due to the drought. Gender and age, then, impact the types and the conditions of
employment experienced by youth. The sustainability of the employment into the future depends
in large part on environmental processes such as linked climate-water challenges.
Employers of Youth in Rayón
One employer discussed the types of work he offers young men and the challenges he has
encountered working with youth. In addition to growing crops such as soya beans, he owns and
manages a peanut processing plant that is connected to the family enterprise that his wife mainly
runs, that is, a small peanut candy factory. He explained that he prefers to hire youth because
they work harder than older people. He said that they help haul bags of peanuts to the processor
machine for example. The teenagers mainly work after school and on weekends and are mainly
either middle school or high school students. He complained, though, that their mothers often
tell him to pay their child more. He emphasized that if he paid more to his workers then he
would not have any profits. He also said that the teenagers come for a short time (about three
hours) on weekdays and just offer some “help”. Children’s work is often referred to as help even
when the number of hours and the physical and other requirements of the work are equal to that
of adult’s work. This often justifies low valuation of the work in terms of recognition and pay.
The peanut processor’s wife’s work making candy used to be just with family labor: the husband
and wife and their son and some help from their handicapped daughter. However, now their son
is in nursing school in Hermosillo. For one year he returned on weekends to participate in the
family business but now he took a job in a natural foods/supplements store in Hermosillo. Due
to this current lack of labor in their immediate family, the wife has help from her niece who
participates in the candy production during the peak peanut production season. The niece earns
irregular payments, almost like a tip for helping her aunt rather than a fixed wage for that
specific job. This type of arrangement functions, again, in the same way as an apprenticeship.
Another employer in his late thirties has a construction and security bar and security door
welding workshop. His father started this workshop because his income from agriculture was
insufficient. His father died a year ago so now he also helps his mother run their family ranch.
He rents out forage land he inherited because, as he explains, “the inputs are just too expensive”.
He employs six young men ranging in age from nineteen years old to age 30. These men work in
the construction workshop but also work on the ranch with this same employer. The employer
explained that there is insufficient work for the men and for himself in the workshop even with a
few orders for window security bars from clients he knows in Hermosillo. Therefore, to be able
to employ his workers full time and to be able to run the ranch, he utilizes their labor in both
types of work. Five of the six workers grew up assisting their parents with their work milking
cows for others, helping their mother raise calves and donkeys, or on their family ranch or in
agriculture therefore most already knew how to milk cows, for example. The others had to learn
from their employer how to do this and the other work they are now required to do. This
employer’s one brother lives and works in Hermosillo but comes to Rayón every other weekend
to help on the ranch. Their other two brothers and one sister live and work in the U.S. in Arizona
and California. This employer said with pride that his one and only child, a 14 year-old daughter,
was in middle school and was going to go to high school. About his own ambitions he said sadly
“the time has passed me by to study in the university so now it’s just work, work, work”.
When asked about the advantages of living in Rayón over Hermosillo, where most of their
friends migrated to, they stated that they are closer to family, that life is more expensive there,
and that one can afford beans here but not there [in the city]. But even in Rayón, they said, the
cost of everything is rising and many said they are often tempted to migrate. One out of six of
the workers had finished high school in addition to six more months of training in Hermosillo as
a mechanic but he had dropped out “because he got bored”. Most of the workers had not finished
high school. One young worker said that his father has pasture land but that recently, due to the
economy, he sold his cows. He said that he would spend more time with his father working in
agriculture “if there was more water”, and another worker chimed in saying “in agriculture, what
we are seeing is that it isn’t raining enough”.
Diversification Strategies in Youth’s Current and Future Plans
Combining of agriculture and non-agricultural livelihood activities is common among workers of
all ages in Rayón. Many parents emphasize this for their children, stating they make sure that
they are trained in a variety of activities because “in case something happens, then they will be
able to support themselves”. This is also why parents encourage apprenticeships in cheesemaking, candy-making, blacksmith activities, as well as newer types of activities related to
technology and services. The case of Adan, a 14 year old boy, is not unusual. He learned from
an adult he knows how to fix cell phones. He now fixes cell phones for community members for
a fee-usually about 150 pesos.
In addition to that non-agricultural economic activity, Adan is also involved in agriculturerelated activities. He has learned how to make cheese by working for short periods of time for
his neighbor, a woman who is one of the largest cheese producers in Rayón. He stirs the cheese
while it is cooking, working along with his aunt. His aunt explained that this work is not paid
but it is important for him, so that in the future, no matter what happens, “he will know how to
defend himself” [i.e. how to make a living]. He has also learned about agriculture and livestock
rearing through helping his uncles on their plots of land where they plant vegetables. He works
in the squash harvest on his uncles’ land and occasionally in planting seeds and earns 200 when
he works part of the day and 250 pesos if he works the whole day. Since they earn insufficient
income on their own land, his uncles also make bales of alfalfa as paid labor for larger
landholders who cultivate this for their cattle. In the future he envisions studying to be an
electrician and opening up his own business in Rayón. He got the idea because the father of one
of his friends is an electrician. But his plans also include purchasing a plot of land of his own
and practicing agriculture. He exclaimed: “I do not like being far from Rayón”. He expressed
optimism about the prospects of agriculture in Rayón through a short-term perspective “it rained
very well in the past few weeks so agriculture is doing well. The water levels in the wells have
risen…the water levels in the river are also high”. He will finish middle school in May 2015 and
then go on to high school. He receives a scholarship with the highest amount of funding possible
from the Esposos Rodríguez fund due to his very good grade point average. He needs this
because he lives with his grandparents and his aunt and her family; his single mother lives with
his younger half-brother in Hermosillo. He receives support from his grandfather who is at
present the school bus driver for the high school students who attend high school in Ures.
Adan’s grandfather may go back to being a truck driver for companies that transport crops to
Hermosillo and to the border after the current municipal president leaves office since, like many
positions in Rayón that are related to employment for the municipal government, this is a
political appointment. Adan would like to continue to study after high school to become an
electrician. He lives with his cousins, including Rosa, who is fifteen years old in the same
middle school class with him. Rosa babysits her neighbor’s three children every day after
school. She also stirs cheese every once in a while with her mother for her cheese maker
neighbor. She would like to go on after high school to study to be a police woman. She would
like to live and work in Hermosillo she told us because: “I like it better there because there is
more work there”. She said she has no interest in working in agriculture on her father’s fields or
working in cheese production.
Another young boy, Benito, who is 16 and attends high school, works in a mechanic workshop
after school, on weekends and during the summer. His uncle also works there but they do not
own the workshop.
His uncle combines this with work on his 74 year-old father’s land.
However, Benito had not begun working on that land yet and seemed unsure as to whether or not
he would in the future. He seemed disinterested in agriculture and also did not have a clear
vision of what he wanted to do when he finished high school. His single mother and grandmother
make tortillas to sell and they live in a one-room home with practically nothing but a bed and an
old t.v. on a chest of drawers.
An eighteen-year-old young woman from Rayón who graduated from high school in May 2014
is in her first year of studying to be a chef in Hermosillo. Even when she resided at home, her
cheese maker mother said that her daughter did not like working in her mother’s cheese
production business and only rarely helped. She said that in her graduating high school class in
the CBTA in Ures, 11 out of 22 students were going to go on for further studies that included
studying to become, for example, a primary school teacher, a chef and a nurse.
Nancy, a fourteen year old girl who is in her last year of middle school in Rayón, wants to
become a kinder garden teacher. She currently receives a scholarship from the government to be
able to attend middle school. However, she said that she will most likely not be able to attend
high school due to the costs even if she receives a scholarship. Currently, after school, she is
responsible for taking care of her younger brothers aged 9 and 3 while her single mother works
making food for the owner of a cafeteria frequented by agricultural migrant workers. Nancy
sometimes helps her mother serve the tortillas but she is not paid in cash for this work.
However, she is allowed to eat there. Her mother, who told us that it is hard to find enough work
in Rayón, also works as a day laborer in the fields during the squash, chiltepin pepper and
peanuts harvests, as a maid cleaning houses and as a street sweeper and occasional highway
worker to clear landslide material from the roads. Her mother (Nancy’s grandmother) owns some
land that he late husband farmed but recently they had to sell her cows due to insufficient water
and money to maintain them. Her uncle has land in Rayón where he had a brick-making
business but he migrated in October of 2013 to the coastal port Sonoran city of Guaymas to be a
contractor for a construction business to earn more money. For a while he returned every
weekend to manage his business where he employed some workers but the oven for the
brickmaking business burned down recently and he closed the business. For Nancy, the main
obstacle to attending high school is that the family would forego income that she would be able
to earn and she would be away from home more because she would have to leave earlier and
return home later in the day during the week due to the location of the high school in Ures, 45
minutes away. This schedule would impinge upon her ability to care for her younger siblings
while her mother is at work. Nancy’s story underscores the importance of examining the
interactions between age and gender in rural livelihoods; the type of obstacle to further education
she faces is more of an issue for girls in general in Rayón (and in rural communities globally)
than for boys because girls are usually the ones tasked with the care of their younger siblings.
This is true even if they are not the oldest child in their households, but only have older brothers.
Gendered divisions of labor such as the care of the young and the old by female members of the
household are established at an early age.
Studies from around the world in both the Global
South and the North indicate that when girls must spend significant amount of time caring for
their younger siblings, there is a generational transference of poverty, usually from mother to
daughter (Levison et al 2001; Dodson and Dickert 2004). This example also highlights that even
in cases where environmental change is impacting a community, “vulnerability is still produced
in and by society” (Ribot 2014: 667).
Preliminary Conclusions
Youth in Rayón face difficult choices related to their futures. Employment in this livestockcentered rural economy is intertwined with immediate family members’ livelihood activities and
with those of other relatives. This dynamic provides temporary, hourly work while the girls and
boys are studying in middle school and when they go to high school. However, more permanent
employment in family members’ businesses is not at all guaranteed after high school because of
several factors. One of the concerns expressed by both youth and by their employers relates to
the future of agriculture. Many of the youth interviewed and all of the adults interviewed
mentioned the diminishing availability of water and a harsher climate as already impacting the
profitability and viability of agriculture and livestock activities. Future declines in land values
due to less ground and surface water was also a concern among those in their twenties. A
feminist political ecology frame helped elucidate what the different roles and responsibilities
related to agricultural, livestock and dairy production were for female and for male youth within
the context of their own household, for apprenticeships and for paid employment. Female youth
seemed to have fewer options for paid employment than male youth, particularly in their later
teenage years.
Options are more limited for young men and young women whose immediate family members or
relatives did not own land and/or an agricultural or non-agricultural microenterprise, if they want
to remain in Rayón. One example did show, however, that by learning a skill related to
technology and by earning high enough grades to get a good scholarship, possibilities for
achieving future upward mobility might be enhanced. Opportunities for studying and for more
stable and highly remunerated employment seemed to be more restricted for those from very
low-income households, particularly those living with single mothers. This was especially the
case for a girl who took care of her younger siblings while her mother worked.
Our preliminary findings from this study in Rayón, Sonora lead us to come to some of the same
policy recommendations made by Sumberg and Okali, however the study context in Sonora and
our focus also include the issue of changing rural environmental conditions:
…policies and programs…must take explicit account of the highly diverse and
changing rural economic and social realities within which young people find
themselves (and indeed help to shape), in addition to the diversity of the young
people themselves (2013: 260).
Our research has also indicated that some of the same challenges youth face related to
employment exist for the elderly in Rayón. The elderly are often return migrants from
Hermosillo or other cities who migrated to be able to educate their children for example and to
obtain a more stable income. However, remaining in urban areas is both expensive and, often,
fraught with other difficulties such as insecurity in the urban barrios that they live in. Other
elderly people have to stop participating in very labor-intensive activities such as agriculture and
cheese production. Perhaps enabling collaborations between the elderly and youth could be one
strategy that could be encouraged through government programs and grants. Current initiatives
such as the climate smart agriculture (CSA) e-discussion group coordinated by the Food and
Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations (csa@dgroups.org) that has had a strong
focus on youth and includes non-governmental organizations working with youth on
environmental issues all over the world and CSA and events such as the special activities
including capacity building for youth ages 18 to 30 at the Global Landscapes Forum in Peru in
early 2015 (www.landscapes.org/youth) are beginning to focus attention on the urgent need to
incorporate youth into decision-making concerning livelihoods and environmental change.
Youth’s connections to others of different ages, including the elderly, must not be overlooked
though and the intersections of age and gender must also be highlighted.
Using an intersectionality framework can illuminate how age and gender interact with each other
as well as with social class and household composition to influence youth’s decision making
related to education, current and future employment options and whether they want to remain in
their rural community. Gaining a clearer understanding of the obstacles and enabling factors that
influence young women and young men’s aspirations and decisions in this and other rural
communities undergoing rapid change is critical to securing a brighter future for rural
communities and for the urban areas they are linked to. It may also help promote better
policymaking that can help all rural girls and boys realize their full potential.
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