alcoholism to family malnutrition and violence. It led to much discussion and encouraged the Ajoya women to later demonstrate against the opening of the town’s first cantina (bar). At first the soldiers came to make sure the bar operated, but a week and 15 alcohol-related murders later, the government conceded to closing the cantina. Another clinic/community organizational effort focused on decreasing the debt of local farmers. Before 1977, if farmers in the Sierra Madre mountain region ran out of com to eat or plant, they were forced to borrow com from rich landowners at outrageous prices (sometimes 300% interest). This often led farmers into a desperate cycle of debt, poverty and disease. To break the cycle, Ajoya health workers and poor farmers organized cooperative com banks that loan com at 50% interest (in corn). This more manageable fee keeps the farmers free from heavy debt, while making the com bank available to more people each year. Many surrounding villages saw the benefits of community seed banks, and organized them with Ajoya’s help. Having gained access to lower-cost com seed, the farmers and the Piaxtla project decided to push for implementation of existing land laws. On paper, the Mexican ejido law prescribed one of the most progressive land distribution policies in the world. The law allowed only 200 hectares of land per owner. Excess land was to become ejido (communal) land, which passed from generation to generation and could not be sold. In reality, rich landowners with more than their share, and high-level government connections, were often exempt from the law. The health workers and the poorest villagers were sometimes successful in fighting the large landowners. Many poor farmers were able to own ejido land for the first time. They can pass the land on to their family, but are not permitted to sell it. This year President Salinas began allowing the sale of ejido land in the name of “efficiency”. When desperate ejido farmers sell their land to the large landowners or corporations, the costly agricultural inputs (pesticides, fertilizer & machinery) will make them less efficient, more environmentally destructive and will, as David Werner put it, “cause poor farmers to become economic refugees in the cities.” Another clinic project helped poor farmers by lending them barbed wire. Rich cattlemen graze their cows on unfenced land after the growing season, and the poor land owner is usually not reimbursed. With fencing, the farmers can sell their field leftovers. The Hesperian Foundation also brought in farmers from other areas to hold workshops on simple low-cost contour ditch systems that work well on poor land. Free vegetable seeds were also given away to encourage gardening and supplement people’s com diets. As a result, Ajoya has more gardens than most villages. Government Intervention Organizing for the benefit of the poor is not usually accepted passively by ruling elites. As Martin Lamarque puts it, “while a lot of things were achieved, there was always a price to pay. People from the programs were put in jail for organizing or just asking the right things.” Though two organizers in a neighboring village were murdered, the program continues to try to improve poor people’s living conditions. In an attempt to diffuse the momentum of Piaxtla’s grassroots organizing efforts, a “free” government clinic, staffed by doctors, was set up in Ajoya in 1980. This made Ajoya probably the only Mexican village with less than 1,000 residents and two health clinics. There were many other villages with greater need. The villager-run clinic was forced to confront a new set of problems; fewer patients, increased mystification of healthcare, irresponsible dispensing of medicine by government doctors, and pressure to shut down. Since patients were drawn to the government clinic’s free service and free medicine, they went to the villager-run clinic less often. When they did go, it was mainly for emergency treatment because the villager-mn clinic was more available and had lower-cost hospital referrals. The project adapted to the decreased patient load by working more on community organizing activities. More disheartening was the government clinic’s failure to pass on valuable health information, and their sometimes dangerous over-dispensing of medicine: the former a result of elitist medical training and the latter due to corrupt RAIN Spring 1993 Volume XIV, Number 3 Page 15
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