ington state that was also
interested in the links between Mexican rural poverty and migration to the
United States. The Vista
Hermosa Foundation serves
as the charitable arm of an
apple harvesting business that
operates more than 6,000 acres
of apple and cherry orchards in
Prescott, Washington.42* The vast
majority of the orchards’ employees
are from Mexico, so the foundation is
aware of the poverty that drove many of its
workers north.
The foundation’s firsthand knowledge of the
links between Mexican poverty and migration and
its focus on agriculture matched CRS Mexico’s own vision for creating economic development programs aimed
at the long-term process of revitalizing rural migrant-sending communities. When Barrett approached the foundation
in 2005 with a proposal for a package of projects in Mexico’s
apple-producing region, the foundation provided a funding
stream and the partnership was solidified. “It was such a
natural fit for us as apple farmers to be working with these
farmers in Mexico who were living well below the poverty
line,” Vista Hermosa Executive Director Suzanne Broetje
said. “[They were] caught up in losing their land and migrating north in search of work. That’s what we see on this
end.”43
Innovative Partnerships
Development projects seeking to reduce migration pressures draw on the expertise of Mexican immigrants themselves—particularly in agriculture. Their involvement can
strengthen the impact of the project in the migrants’ home
communities.
The CRS-Vista Hermosa partnership resulted in the For a
Just Market project aimed at improving the productivity and
commercialization of small and medium-sized apple farmers
in Chihuahua, Mexico—the largest apple-producing region in
the country. CRS had worked with the apple farmers though
a small-producer organization (see below) since the early
2000s, but the For a Just Market project was not implemented
until early 2005, Barrett said.44 The project has grown to include 200 farmers and their famil