Rancho el Barrio de Guadalupe del Mezquitillo, in the central Mexican state of Guanajuato, is a place where time moves slowly, little girls skip down the road instead of walk, family is the most important thing and mi casa, su casa is not only a saying, it's a way of life.
Rancho el Barrio de Guadalupe del Mezquitillo can't really be called a town, however; with only 1500 people, it has none of the services towns offer -- no police, no fire department and no hospital. It doesn't even have a full-service grocery; the two shops that are there sell only ice cream, popsicles, assorted snacks, vegetables and soft drinks. But it's a happy place. Almost every family lives in its own small, flat-roofed brick-and-concrete home, tends its own crops and raises its own animals.
On the far edge of the village is a hacienda surrounded by hundreds of acres of farmland. Some of the men work in the fields planting onions, potatoes, cabbage and corn or picking peaches, pears and limes from the large orchard.
The local girls like to tell the story of el charro, the wealthy Mexican cowboy who is reputed to have lived at the hacienda long ago; legend has it that if someone sees his ghost, he'll tell him where his fortune is buried. Then there's the tale of the serpent that has coins for eyes; when it appears in the back acres of the farm, you're supposed to touch the serpent and become rich. The only woman in the village who claims to have seen the serpent was apparently so frightened that she turned and ran away.
Most of the men take a bus each day to San Francisco del Rincón, a 67,000-person city ten miles away, where they work in shoe factories. After work they sit outside late into the night drinking coffee while the kids run along the deserted roads or play stickball. The women work at home, cooking, cleaning and washing clothes all day. Outside every house, ranchero or Tex-Mex music plays while mothers and daughters, sisters and cousins hang clothes out to dry. Huge agave plants dot the landscape. Livestock roam the village freely. Sparring dogs bark throughout the night, and crickets that hide under furniture in the houses keep up their song until sunrise.
On Sunday mornings the entire village rises with the roosters to attend mass. At 7 a.m., with the sky still dark, the neon cross atop the church stands out like a beacon. It's here that baptisms, first communions, quinceañeras, weddings and funerals take place. The church pews are usually so filled -- women on one side, men on the other -- that about a quarter of the people have to stand in back. The building lacks the ornamentation typical of Catholic churches: Simple wooden crosses hang on the sides of the walls, and fake flowers adorn the altar. In the center, a doll-sized replica of the Virgin Mary is encased in glass.
After mass, it's time for most families to return home and prepare menudo -- the traditional Sunday-morning breakfast of tripe served in a salty broth. Later in the day, the young men of Rancho el Mezquitillo play soccer.
By American standards, it's a land of want. But to the people who live here, it's a land of plenty.
