Mexican emigration to the US increased tenfold during this time, from less than 800,000 to nearly 8 million.
Hundreds of miles east of Puruandiro, in the Huasteca mountain town of Jalpan de Serra, migrants have returned for years to show off their prized US pickup trucks in an annual competition known as "La Camioneta Mas Perrona," literally, "The Bitchin'est Truck."
Although this year's contestants increased in wealth -- the trucks included a US$70,000 Hummer -- they declined in numbers: Only 17 joined the Dec. 28 contest, less than half the participants of previous years.
In some Michoacan villages, "whole families are leaving, and businesses are closing down," said Agustin Constantino Aldame, a 50-year-old migrant farmworker who has harvested crops all around the US.
RSS