It is estimated that the first wave of Mixteca immigrants arrived in New York starting in 1942. Nowadays, Mixteca communities say they are suffering from a problem they experienced during that time period: the Mixteca in Mexico are aging, and an economy once sustained by agriculture has been replaced by dollars coming in from New York.

Yetla, Tulcingo, Tlaxcoapa, Huehuepiaxtla, and Acatlán, among many other towns, are places where the Mixteca live in the southern region of the State of Puebla, an area characterized by dry soil and arid land. These factors propelled a massive migration to the United States. As the years passed, the region became "dollarized" and family income is now measured in remittances received from abroad.

Remaining alone

Migration, which became ingrained in Mixteca communities generation after generation, has had a devastating effect from the perspective of those who have left and the Mexican authorities that govern what remains of towns and villages.

"The Mixteca are growing old," lamented David Gil Tovar, the mayor of Piaxtla, a town that like so many others depends on dollars to survive.

Gil Tovar, like many other mayors, says that the economic crisis in the United States has affected towns like Piaxtla, where the main source of family income is money sent from relatives abroad.

In Piaxtla 40 percent of the men and women are over 50 years old, while the other 60 percent are over age 65.

"The towns are full of elderly people. The Mixteca are dying off because there aren't any young people – all of them head off to the United States. The illusion that it is easy to make money there is a myth that persists," Gil Tovar told a group of Mixteca from villages where they don't have access to the most basic necessities: a sewage system and potable water.

If they are lucky, some municipal leaders have the luxury of a television set and a computer for their office.

"If things continue as they have, very soon there will be no one left in the towns. Many people come here and the ones that stay back home are elderly," said Mario Morales, originally from Yetla. He has lived in New York for more than four decades; for three of those decades he worked as cook, and now he is retired.

Towns such as Quilcayán have remained under-populated, but Quilcayán is fighting back by trying to get immigrants in New York to return. Locals hope that the community will not disappear because of a lack of residents.

"There aren't any families; it's empty and we don't want this to happen. We want to build the town up again. We don't want it to be forgotten," said Silvero Chávez, who, like Morales, arrived in New York when he was 23. He had been a teacher in Mexico, but began to work as a cook and became a well-known chef.

Underdeveloped

David Trueva is an immigrant from Tlaxcoapan, a town he left more than 30 years ago. He maintains that it still doesn't have Internet access.

"Things are very underdeveloped there. The people have been deceived more than once when they were told they would get Internet service, and when the time came, they didn't get it. They are still waiting for it," said Trueva. He added that migrants from Mixteca towns keep traveling to the United States to look for work, which isn't easy to find and even less so during times of unemployment across all industrial sectors.

From Trueva's perspective, the Internet could help communities to stay better informed – in that sense the Internet is an educational tool. Mixteca immigrants say their community needs to be provided with education and opportunities to stanch the flow of migration to the north.

Aimless

For federal officials, the concerns of the Mixteca community are quite valid. They are searching for a way to revive their economies, create jobs and keep their towns and villages populated.

"We realize the importance of immigrants in the life of their communities back home. We believe that their concern is our concern, because the Mixteca are aimless and these communities don't have a solid purpose," said Jorge Gutiérrez, undersecretary of the Ministry of Social Development in the state of Puebla.

Gutiérrez was clear when he said that the Mixteca need to find a way to build an economy that does not depend on remittances. While remittances do make a difference in the lives of families who receive them, they hinder the human need to evolve and innovate.

"This is where the community and the government can work together. We have to join forces to rebuild these towns and help the people progress so that they don't have to migrate," added Gutiérrez. He explained that opportunities exist when civic organizations support social organizations or register in programs that help immigrants to invest in businesses back home, ultimately benefitting everyone.