JOURNEY TO THE O
When they must suddenly leave their home near Zamora, Medea and her family pay human traffickers to smuggle them north and across the U.S.-Mexico border. It is a journey of more than 1800 kilometers (1120 miles), about two days’ driving in long stretches. They follow a route that many migrants from Mexico and countries further south take, along the west coast of Mexico and then through the Sonoran Desert. It is a journey from rural to urban, from one America to another, from home to exile.
Zamora is a city of 186,000 people in the Mexican state of Michoacán. Located in a wide, flat valley on a plateau 1,500 meters (5,000 feet) above sea level, the city sits among mountains but is surrounded by fertile agricultural land, the result of an ancient floodplain. The climate is humid and semitropical; the area is named the Tziróndaro Valley, which means “swamp place” in the indigenous Purépecha language spoken in the region. It’s a good climate for growing many things, including avocados—Michoacán is the largest grower of avocados in Mexico, which is itself the largest exporter of the fruit in the world.
P
O C I F ACI
C
Baja Calif
Gulf of Cali f o r n ia
H Mazatlán Guadalajara
ZAMORA Ciudad de México 10
Culiacán
ES R D A M A SIERR