Interview: Adriana Cruz Martínez – School Assistant at Agricola Paredes

Adriana Cruz Martínez, her son Jonathan and the rest of her family come from Valle de Santiago, Guanajuato; Town that her parents decided to leave to travel to Sinaloa with the objective of offering her and her siblings a better quality of life.

Since the age of 7, Adriana has lived in Agrícola Paredes’ hostels and today decides to return year after year to provide a better future for her two children.

1. How did you decide to migrate to Sinaloa?
In Valle de Santiago, Guanajuato, the truth is not much work and my parents decided to come to Sinaloa to work in the field and they brought me and my brothers since I was little, I was 7 years old, Since then we have come to Agrícola Paredes and return every season.

2. What have you worked for in Agrícola Paredes?

When I was old I started to work in the field to support my parents, cutting tomatoes, etc.

Most of the time I have supported what is the nursery of the hostel and 1 year ago or so I went as a classroom assistant, so I have the opportunity to be with my son Jonathan, who goes in second grade, in case he needs Something or there is an emergency.

3. What is the condition of your child?

Jonathan was diagnosed as having cerebral palsy. When we arrived at the camp, he came and was very worried that he had never been treated and did not know what he had.

Agrícola Paredes helped me to channel him to the Center for the Integral Development of the Family (DIF) of Sinaloa, after having been treated in Social Security and since then have given him therapies and gone to consultations regularly.

4. What are the main difficulties you have faced with this whole situation?

It was very difficult at the beginning with the therapies and when he was ready to go to school. I was really afraid to separate myself from him and it was when they changed me as an auxiliary, little by little I realized that the child was prepared for all that.

We have never limited him to anything and here in elementary school I realized how Jonathan is a totally independent child, he has integrated very well, teachers have always been in the best disposition and his classmates have always supported him in everything.

5. Does your family also live in Agrícola Paredes?

My husband works in the field and I have an older daughter, who is already in third year of high school, we all live in Campo San Julián.
In addition I have five brothers and my parents who come back every season to work in the field too, they all have their children here and they all attend school.

6. How have they supported you with Jonathan’s situation?

From the beginning in Agrícola Paredes they helped me to enroll him and take him to therapy to the DIF, he did not even walk and little by little he was improving.

At age 5 the DIF registered us to receive support from Teletón in the center of attention in Querétaro, because we are from Guanajuato and it was our responsibility. There we stayed for 1 year and once they were released we returned to Sinaloa.

Here he is taken care of in the Center of Rehabilitation and Special Education (CREE) or in the DIF of Costa Rica, he continues receiving therapy.

The agricultural allows me to attend all the consultations and therapies that Jonathan receives and have always let me be close to him, as at the moment I am an auxiliary in the school he attends.

7. How do you think the situation of your family would have been in case you stayed in Guanajuato?

Very different. In Guanajuato there is almost no work, in my town most people come to Sinaloa to work in the countryside.

People who study if they have more opportunity in Guanajuato, but as we have since we were young since we could not study.

Here in Culiacán I have the opportunity to attend my son and also my daughter can continue studying high school, she since we arrived here has studied, I want to continue and go forward, to have more opportunities than we.

8. As a school assistant, how do you perceive rural children who attend school?

I am in charge of preparing and taking 18 children to primary and secondary school.

The truth is they are all very motivated, the children in my field are not missing any day, we do not struggle to be ready. I’ll get them together, we’ll make them breakfast, and they’re all in time for the truck to arrive.

9. What’s next for you at the end of the season?

We returned to Guanajuato in May and although the school year is still not finished for my children, they are given a permit to finish school there.

My brothers and my parents also returned to my village and from September we returned to Sinaloa.

1o. Anything else you want to add?

We are very grateful to Agrícola Paredes because they have always supported my family and my son and they have helped us to move forward.