Women from Oaxaca Export Nopal
El Oaxaqueño
August 23, 2003
Mireya Olivera
Translation by PADF
Los Angeles, CAL- Francisca Cruz Sánchez’ dreams have slowly become true; after 25 years of selling nopal at the market in the city of Oaxaca, she is now ready to start her own packaging and exporting nopal plant, along with other women in the community of Ayoquezco in Aldama, Oaxaca, who make up the organization MENA (Women Packers of Nopal).
Francisca, leader of the women group and an example of a Oaxacan working woman, remembers that she began selling nopal at the market because there were no jobs for women.
“Nopal has been grown by our ancestors, grandparents, and parents since forever; the women from Ayoquezco saw the sale of nopal as the source of income for our families, but, throughout the year, like the saying goes: ‘where Vicente goes, that’s were everyone else goes’, and we started to compete with each other. That is why we decided to form a society: ‘MENA’ (Women Nopal packers of Ayoquezco); my secretary, Rosalba Santiago Lustre; my treasurer, Catalina Sánchez, and myself…” she remembers.
A year after starting the organization, they got support from the Foundation for Countryside Productivity, thanks to the intervention by an immigrant organization run by Ubaldo Ramirez Feria.
Thirteen years ago, they began the ambitious nopal packing project, in which they invested $180,000 in the first stage. The resources came from the Oaxacan foundation, as well as from the United Stats Inter-American and Pan American Foundations.
The project costs a million dollars. It is currently in its conversion phase and is supported by the Organization of Immigrants from Ayoquezco.
The president of the Foundation for Countryside Productivity, Roberto Ramirez Rojas, mentioned that the nopal packing project began after holding several workshops with Oaxacan immigrants in Oceanside and Carlsbad, California.
“In that workshop, people from Ayoquezco were participating and were asked about ways in which they could participate with their community, and they said that they could help with nopal, because it was a traditional product and it would probably attract many people here.”
After that, the foundation, along with the women from Ayoquezco, who were already organized and produced nopal in their backyards, began a project which created a process to increase the value of nopal.
“70 women from the community, with Francisca Cruz as their leader, participated in the first stage; later on, 30 more joined…” explained Ramirez Rojas.
Currently, they are working with the University of California in Los Angeles to find market niches in the United States to distribute their product.
They are also trying to get their nopal to be certified as organic, since it is a product which is cultivated without using any chemical. They are estimating that for November of this year, they will have gotten such certification, which will allow them to enter the selected market in the United States.
While the project develops, each of the women members of MENA continues to carry 100 kilos of clean nopal to the selected market in the United States.
Francisca Cruz’ great dream and wish, for there to be enough jobs in Ayoquezco in Aldama so that Oaxacan families don’t have to immigrate, is becoming true, and that gives this 58 year old woman, great satisfaction. With her labor, Cruz has been able to support her mother (who is more than 80 years old) and her brother who lives with them
Francisca, proud of job and leadership, was invited by COCIO (Coalition of Indigenous Organizations and Communities in Oaxaca) to have MENA display and sell its products in the recent Guelaguetza in San Marcos, California.
That day, in front of thousands of Oaxacans, she pointed out, “What we wanted was to let our compatriots living here, know what we are doing with the nopal; for them to see what we are promoting and for them to know that they can come back to our community to work on the same project.”
“When we found the Foundation for Countryside Productivity, they asked me if we had ever thought of coming to these places. I told them that if God willed, I was going to come, and here I am!”