Hopes for Hamlet Survive the Hardships

‘Hell or high water isn’t going to stop me from finishing what I started.

I’m going to see it through. I knew it wasn’t going to be easy.’

John Pierce’s uncommon dream of converting a tiny Mexican hamlet into a productive small town still thrives despite struggles with disease, illiteracy and the cultural barriers of being the only American in one of the remotest areas of Mexico.

Pierce, a former San Juan Capistrano ceramics merchant, was back in town last week after spending the last six months in San Miguel del Rio, his wife’s native village in the state of Michoacan.

Last June, Pierce hauled seven tractor rigs of Quonset huts and other materials to the village and began a five-year project of converting the dusty little town into a productive municipality.

From the outset, the project was difficult. On the way down, Pierce and his wife, Elda, were robbed of all their money, about $1,100, in a small town in the state of Sonora. The truck drivers lent them enough money for gas and food to complete the remaining three days of the 1,800-mile trip.

“When we got to San Miguel, we didn’t have a penny,” he said.

But Pierce’s determination did not wane, and that is evident in his ruddy face.

When Pierce, 52, left San Juan Capistrano, he looked the part of the tough, burly ex-Marine. He has lost 40 pounds, his sunburned face reflects the weariness and hard work of the past six months, and sores on his legs force him to limp slightly.

“Hell or high water isn’t going to stop me from finishing what I started,” he said. “I’m going to see it through. I knew it wasn’t going to be easy.”

So far, Pierce has managed to build a school building and a house for himself, and has torn down his father-in-law’s small dirt-floor grocery store and constructed a new one with concrete floors and brick walls. Three of the village’s open-air huts have been relined with plywood.

But the most ambitious enterprise has been to lay two miles of pipe to draw water to the village from a spring on a mountainside above the hamlet.

Pierce said he is slightly ahead of schedule on his mostly one-man project. Still, the man has had a few more struggles than he expected.

He has had to live on penicillin for the last four months because of disease in the village. He said he had treated 37 scorpion stings, a rattlesnake bite, a broken ankle and seven cases of severe dysentery.

Pierce said he had to burn most of the trash and dead trees in the ejido --a community plot dedicated to farming--to slightly control the mosquito and flea problems.

Although 22 children in the village of 78 people are attending the school he built, they have had instruction only 20 days in the last four months. Two teachers quickly left after sustaining scorpion stings. One other lasted one day and left discouraged. Finally, before Christmas, one teacher came and managed 14 days of instruction. Pierce is hoping that the teacher will return on Jan. 15, when school is scheduled to resume.

Illiteracy has been Pierce’s biggest obstacle. About 90% of the villagers do not read or write. Their vocabulary is limited by the seclusion of living at the end of a long, winding road in one of Mexico’s most desolate areas. Life in San Miguel del Rio, even measured against the poverty of Mexico, is rigidly austere.

“The answer to the whole problem is the school,” Pierce said. “That’s why the school is so important. Illiteracy is a very bad thing; it has no barriers.”

Most of the villagers are descendants of the ancient Toltec tribe and many still adhere to the rituals and traditions of their heritage. And that has alienated Pierce from some of them. Most have refused to help him, although his wife’s family is showing signs of giving him a hand.

All Must Contribute

Under Mexican law, an ejido is community property and the residents must all contribute to its development.

“The law of the ejido is that you have to contribute. And if you don’t, you have to leave,” Pierce said, adding that one family has already left, although he hopes that in time about a dozen families will settle there and take up farming.

Pierce has four months of hard work before the rainy season returns to the valley, located 250 miles southwest of Guadalajara and about 25 miles from the Pacific Ocean.

In that time, he plans to construct another school building, lay down five blocks of sidewalk on the dusty streets and set up an irrigation system that will be ready for operation when the rain subsides next September and the villagers can resume their farming. The powerful Coahuayana River, which roars only 300 yards behind the village, is the source for the irrigation project.

Can’t Make Living

Also, during the next few months Pierce plans to build a small slaughterhouse that the farmers can operate as a cooperative. He said the villagers can’t make a living because they don’t get a fair price for their livestock.

“The farmers are taking a beating,” he said. “When it comes to selling a hog, they don’t know what to sell it for. They’re broke. They need money and the city slickers know it and begin to take advantage of them.”

The idea behind the slaughterhouse is for the farmers to sell their livestock directly to the cooperative for a fair price. The cooperative, in turn, would take the livestock to the larger meatpackers and sell it at a slightly higher price.

Pierce sees the slaughterhouse as being the turning point in the villagers beginning, finally, to accept him.

“It was the first time that they realized the project was a benefit to them ,” he said.

In-Law’s First Visit

Dolores Gonzalez, Pierce’s father-in-law, is the patriarch of the ejido . He, too, has been slow to accept Pierce’s ambitious development plans for the village. But on Christmas Eve, Gonzalez visited Pierce’s home for the first time.

“That’s the sign of good things to come,” Pierce said.

The state of Michoacan financed Pierce’s hauling costs from California to San Miguel del Rio, and is now willing for him to agriculturally develop the ejido . The villagers use only about 3% of the valley’s 12,500 fertile acres and they plant nothing but peanuts and corn.

The state government wants the villagers to expand their production to essential produce. Pierce has already successfully experimented with cucumbers.

“The state will buy anything we can raise in that valley,” he said.

While in Orange County this past week, Pierce talked to a computer company about donating 10 computers for use in the school. He also talked to civic groups about helping him with the project, for he needs money to buy some materials, including concrete mix.

But he is far from discouraged despite the agonies of the last six months. Pierce said he will continue the project and may even complete it within the five years he initially alloted.

“I’ll finish it, even if I have to do it all myself,” he said. “I’m tired. It has taken its toll on me, but I’ve turned the corner. I don’t think there will be any more uphill battles.”