SANTIAGO: A DREAM CURTAILED

Hailing from Guanajuato, Mexico, Santiago comes here to Simcoe from his home country every year with a full suitcase — filled, not with clothes, but with dreams. He has repeated this journey for the past ten years. This year, it seems as if Santiago’s dream was curtailed by a decision to stop the planting of tobacco. His Canadian season, that used to last five or six months, has now shrunk to three, and his 70-hour work week is reduced to 40.

RAFAEL: NINETEEN YEARS OF PLANTING HOPE

For nineteen years, Rafael has been cultivating corn, potatoes, tobacco and ginseng, as well as planting good fortune for the farmers. This spring, the market ruled that tobacco was no longer profitable, and that there would not be any more planting. In the silence beyond conversations, Rafael often asks himself, “what will I do? Here, in one day, I can earn what would take me a week’s labour in Mexico.” Rafael, who drives a truck, a tractor, a pick-up, and carries out numerous other tasks, jokingly identifies with Hector Suarez’ character in the film “El Mil Usos,” the all-purpose man.

Jesus: Canada is such a large country

“What do I miss most about Mexico?” Jesús asks himself. “Now it is less difficult, but the first time I came here, twenty years ago, I cried for my family almost every day. I (still) miss my family more than anything else. My youngest son was only one year old, and I did not want to leave him.” — Jesus thought a lot about his homeland Guanajuato, the people, the music, and remembers being afraid of the cold, because people in Mexico said that Canada was like a huge, monstrous place where it snowed a lot.

Martin: I like being who I am

Martín’s words are, above all, an energetic affirmation of a way of life, the right to be oneself: (to have) one’s own culture, (to believe in) one’s understanding of the universe and one’s connection to the land. He says that he has thought a lot about the idea of bringing his family to live in Canada, but has decided that it is better to come here to work, to save enough money, and to return to Mexico. “Our cultures are very different. My wife and I would not want to raise our children in a culture that is not ours. In Mexico, we have a culture that has existed for thousands of years.”

MARCELO: TWO COUNTRIES, TWO WORLDS, TWO REALITIES

When he returns to Mexico, Marcelo (dedicates himself to) his family’s (small) cheese-manufacturing business. His wife runs it when he is away. Like many others, he too has (contemplated) the dream of moving north. He says that he really admires Canada’s economic system, and if he had the chance, he would pack up his dreams and his family, and move here. “I have been in Canada, but my family has not. This situation, back and forth, between Mexico and Canada, is like moving between two worlds, two realities.”