Small Town Farmers (OOC - I intend to make a series of these)
Juan and Anita Carlos lived near Chihuahua in Mexico. They were farmers, and, on their small, not very fertile plot of land, they grew some beans, wheat , and some corn. It was enough to ensure that they had a house, and that they could afford to let their children go to school, but that was about it. Juan and Anita were hard-working Mexicans, Juan was half Amerindian, half Mexican (OOC - Local Aboriginals name, I think), and Anita was from Colombia, but they both spoke Spanish, looked, and sounded like locals. They were the only ones who lived in this region of Mexico for many years, all the surrounding farms had folded under, and the people moved away, as a result of the poor conditions. Anita and Juan never did so as they believed that things could only get better, plus they had a very convenient source of water. When people started moving away, so did the local church, so now Anita and Juan prayed at home with their children instead of at a church, since that was too far away. They are sure that God doesn't mind though, and always attend church at the special occaisions, Easter, Christmas and the like. (OOC - They, like most Mexicans, are Roman Catholic)
They owned a fair-sized chunk of land, but it was not very fertile, it was rocky, and over-worked, they needed to fertilize it, but could not afford it. They and their 3 children lived in a small, 3-room shack, that used to be a lot bigger, but part of the house had collapsed, and they had not the money to repair it. In fact, one year of drought, or something happeneing to their rather meagre crops, and juan and Anita and their children could well starve to death, since they lived quite a ways from town, at least a couple day's walking distance, Juan's Chevy truck was unreliable at best, and their donkey was on his last legs. The road they had to take was steep, winding, and unpaved. Parts of it had eroded away in the past during storms and such, so they road was in very poor condition.
Now, as tough as their life had been up to this point, things were about to dramatically change. Anita and juan had never really paid close attention to local politics. They had a radio, but it got bad reception. Juan usually caught up on what was going on when he went into Chihuahua to sell his vegetables. So, a few weeks before the election, he was surprised to notice that an election was taking place, and that voting was to occur in 2 weeks. He got up to speed on who were the candidates, and the issue, and then discussed who he and Anita should vote for when they got home. Now, he and Anita always knew that Mexico was a poor country. Its people generally lived in poverty, electricity and sewage systems were luxury items in parts of the country, and conditions just seemed to get worse. The politicians in Mexico City always promised the same old boring things that they had for ages, and most mexicans dutifully voted for the Traditional Mexican Party simply because that is who they always voted for. Politics in Mexico were fairly routine, with nobody every seriously challenging the ruling TMD - until now. His name was Rodriguez Sanchez, and he was the leader of the new Reform Party, that promised major and massive changes for Mexico. Sanchez was promising far, far more then the TMD was promising, and it appeared that the TMD was not reacting, simply because they thought that this pest called Sanchez would not win any votes. The TMD had won so many elections, they basically regarded themselves as Mexico's Party, and they were unbeatable. Well, Anita and Juan had enough of the TMD. They had to constantly deal with corrupt Policemen, bribing the tax collectors, all these kinds of things that had been commonplace for Juan and Anita in Mexico. Ands things had been this way for many, many years under the TMD, probably for at lesat 20 years.
Anita and Juan decided to do something unusual in Mexican politics - vote for someone different. And they saw Sanchez as the person to do that. Sanchez was young, a mere 30, not like those old 70+ year old people in the TMD. He was energetic, and, for the first time ever, they actually had a politician running for a seat in the Mexican parliament for the Reform party come to their door, shake their hands, and answer their questions. Anita and Juan were shocked, and very pleased at this. When electiom time came, Anita and Juan got into their old truck, and trundled down to Chihuahua to vote. They voted for Sanchez. They thought that they were the only ones, but, to their believe, a lot of Mexicans voted for Sanchez. In fact, he had won the election, so Juan found out when he came to town next a couple weeks later with his crops. This was amazing for Juan, but, what was even more amazing was that Sanchez was actually following up on his promises. The changes did not happen all at once, but Juan and Anita noticed that not all of the Policemen were demanding bribes, and taht the ones who were, generally stopping very shortly. Anita and Juan were also shocked beyond belief to find that the TMD had been swindling them, and that massive sums of their hard-earned tax dollars had gone into the pockets of those old TMD cronies. Well, Anita and Juan were very angry at the TMD for misusing their trust like that for many years but, well, what is done is done, and they waited to see what Sanchez would be doing now that he was President.
They did not have to wait long. Soon they began to notice that the old, potholed road that they had driven on for these past years was finally be repaired! It now was somewhat smooth, and they noticed that people were driving around in Vehicles, and appeared to be taking measurements and such of their road. When Anita and Juan asked them what they were doing, they noticed that these were Americans! After being reassured that Mexico had not been invaded, that these Americans were actually hired by the Government to fic their roads, and they they had plans to bring sewage and electrical facilities up to Juan and Anita's house, as well as running water, juan and Anita were shocked. They had never experienced such luxuries.
Now, it was a bit longer before work actually got started on these roads, and the different was astonishing. Only a couple roads in Chihuahua were previously paved, not they were all getting paved, and so was the road coming up to Juan and Anita's house! Many other vast changes were to come to Anita and Juan in the future, and those tales shall be told in the days to come.