Chava Martinez
Mexican Farmer

In a little valley at an altitude of 1600m, Las Fuentes is a village of the high, temperate plateau. It is an "ejido (def.)" with farm workers who own no land. Not a single private farm owner lives here. Las Fuentes differs from neighboring villages, where some heirs of former haciendas. owners still live.

Several times, Chava Martinez has been elected president of the eijido council. When he was younger, he used to go to the United States to work each year.

Today, the relationship that he has built with the local administration enables him to negotiate the financing of a collective well for irrigation, and agreements concerning the repayment of ejido debts .

For Chava and his family, the results of a poor harvest would be devastating if the public bank were too strict.

The present circumstance of limited governmental support worries him.