BajaNews - 9-16-2007 at 12:19 PM
http://www.azstarnet.com/business/201416
A pocket of prosperity in Mexico
09.15.2007
By Alfredo Corchado
CABO SAN LUCAS, Mexico This seaside jewel is the stuff of immigrant dreams.
Maribel Uribe, 38, still can't get over her first glimpse of beauty: a paycheck "three times what I made in my hometown," says the single mother of
two. "Opportunities are everywhere."
While this may sound like Mexicans waxing poetic about the American dream, this dreamscape is actually hundreds of miles south of the U.S. border with
Mexico in the state of Baja California Sur.
Construction here is booming. U.S. tourists and residents arrive in droves buying million-dollar homes or paying hundreds for luxurious overnight
hotels. The economy is growing at an average rate of 15 percent, compared with 3 percent for the rest of the country.
The result: fierce competition for Mexican workers by both U.S. and Mexican employers in Cabo San Lucas and San Jose del Cabo a resort community
commonly known as Los Cabos.
In many ways, this area represents the kind of prosperity that Mexico wants to duplicate in other parts of the country to keep its workers at home.
And much of that investment in the billions of dollars comes from Americans seeking a second home and a different lifestyle.
Juan Mucino, a developer at La Vista, a posh residential project with a stunning view of the Gulf of California, said he and other employers often pay
up to $200 a week three to four times the going rate in the rest of Mexico for workers to build half million- and million-dollar homes.
Tourism drives economy
The result is rare opulence in a largely impoverished country.
Tourism is Mexico's new oil "a powerful engine to create jobs" President Felipe Calderσn has said and others have echoed.
"For every worker who finds a job in Los Cabos, that's one less worker heading to the United States," said Arturo Trevino, state tourism minister for
Baja California Sur. "You never know. With more Cabos, the United States may actually miss our countrymen someday."
If Mexico manages to attract more immigrants back, their loss would be felt north of the border, experts say.
"Mexican laborers have been a part of our economy and society for over 100 years," said Hilary Dick, a specialist on Mexican migration at
Pennsylvania's Bryn Mawr College. "It would be a tremendous loss to the U.S. if we were to drive out this dedicated labor force."
For the most part, Mexicans today still scrape for a living, as the exodus of their countrymen continues.
But Los Cabos represents a bright spot for Mexico a peek at what could be ahead as the country's birthrate falls and the economy gradually improves.
Private investment has increased from $9 billion in 2000 to $12.85 billion in 2006. Much of that investment was earmarked for communities along the
Pacific Coast and Gulf of California, particularly the Baja California Sur region, said Bertha Villalobos, spokeswoman for the Secretary of Tourism
department.
Los Cabos, in particular, continues to be "a very strong market for foreign investment," Villalobos said, "and a magnet for job creation."
The Mexican dream
Personal stories underscore the hope that Los Cabos has come to represent for many Mexicans.
Jose Antonio Mendoza Sarabia was a college graduate going nowhere. He thought of heading to the United States to work, make some money, return to
Mexico, buy a home and get married.
Instead, Sarabia met Mucino, the developer, who hired him as his personal driver.
After a few months of work and witnessing the economic explosion around him, Sarabia saw his own future. And it was bright.
He quit his job, started his own coconut business and found the woman of his dreams, Gilda.
He now owns Cocorchata, one of two fresh coconut shops here in Los Cabos. He and his wife have a 4-month-old son, Amado Rodrigo, and own their first
home. Instead of heading to the United States, he plans to expand into a shopping mall crawling with Americans.
"I have everything I need here, job security, a home, a family and plans to expand," Sarabia said. "I know it sounds strange, but this is the Mexican
dream made right here in Mexico."
Rigoberto Rodriguez Ruelas, 32, from a small town in Sinaloa, moved here after working in California for five years. He began working at a golf
course, manicuring the greens and caddying.
He has since learned to play.
"Everything I have, I owe to American investment," he said. "Why would I think of going back to the U.S. and risking my life? I'm doing things I never
thought of, like playing golf. How many Mexican immigrants to the U.S. can say that?"
Of the estimated 200,000 residents, about 12,000 are Americans some legal, some not.
The region has English language newspapers, including The Gringo Gazette, and daily hourlong English-language radio programming. Prices are usually in
dollars.
Illegal workers from the U.S.
Most Americans came here legally to work in the hospitality industry. But others overstayed tourism visas and now work illegally, just like their
Mexican counterparts in the United States.
At a surf shop just outside San Jose del Cabo, a tall, wiry American from San Diego is getting a massage after surfing in the Gulf of California.
Asked for his name, the 25-year-old with a deep tan and long blond hair says, "Are you crazy? I'll get booted out of here. Just say I'm Dick Cheney in
an undisclosed location."
He hops into his Toyota 4Runner with California plates, surfboard on top and music blaring, and disappears.
For the most part, Mexicans shrug off the influx of U.S. citizens.
But others aren't pleased.
"I don't like that they take the best jobs in town," said Judith Valencia, a 22-year-old hotel hostess from Queretaro. "I speak English, and yet the
company picked an American over me. That's not fair."
Victorio Angel Asdodillo, 41, originally from the southern state of Guerrero, said he's found in Los Cabos what he could not in the U.S.
He was deported by the U.S. Border Patrol five years ago and works in construction here. While the pay is less than what he'd generally make in the
U.S., "it is money I make without the insults and risks," he said.
bajajudy - 9-16-2007 at 01:23 PM
This is a very interesting article, isnt it?
Imagine if there were no need for the Mexican people to seek employment on the other side.
Brings back memories of the movie about the day no Spanish speaking people came to work in the USA. 
