Migration from rural to urban areas is a common problem in developing countries. Honduras is no different. Tegucigalpa is surrounded by marginal neighborhoods that are poor, dangerous and underdeveloped. After being in Honduras for over 6 months, I have only seen these neighborhoods from a distance, riding through them in a car. Since they are located on hills surrounding the city, they are visible from almost anywhere. Houses are built on unstable hillsides. Roads are not paved. Water is often purchased from tanker trucks.
Antonio, our Honduran co-worker, lives “Predios de Recreo“, a neighborhood that is not marginal but still has some low-price housing. His cousin, Alejandro, owns multiple apartment buildings in the neighborhood, as well as a bar, an internet café, and his own large house. Antonio said that Alejandro came from humble roots, like Antonio, but through hard work and some luck has been very successful. In addition to managing his properties, Alejandro has a construction business.
When I asked Alejandro whether most people in the neighborhood came from the country he answered, “We all did.” Alejandro rents many 4 meter (13ft) x 4 meter one-room apartments, some of which house large families. He said one of his buildings has 60 such rooms and houses about 330 people, an average of 5 and a half people per room. While these statistics make Alejandro look like a slum lord, he is providing a necessary service. These families need cheap places to stay. Not surprisingly, Alejandro said that many people who migrate to the city have a hard time finding work. Some find it more convenient to commit a robbery every so often than to work long hours at a low-paying job.
Arturo and Tita, Esperanza’s brother and sister-in-law, told me that rural to urban migration has had significant implications for Ojojona. People who live in aldeas, small surrounding villages, of Ojojona are moving to the center of Ojojona or to Tegucigalpa. Ojojona’s schools are filling up because of this, they said. Those that don’t move to Tegucigalpa go there to work. Men from aldeas ride the bus for two hours each way to work as security guards for wealthy people in Tegucicalpa. Women from aldeas go to Tegucigalpa to wash clothes and clean houses for people in Tegucigalpa. While parents are in Tegucigalpa working, their children are left at home to fend for themselves, they said. Since fathers don’t plant beans and corn on their land like their fathers did, their sons never learn how to plant. The next generation of small-scale rural farmers is not being developed.
People who live in the center of Ojojona also leave to work in Tegucigalpa. Since there are hardly any well-paying jobs in Ojojona, someone who wants to work is almost required to leave. Even though it is an hour and a half in bus from the center of Tegucigalpa, Ojojona functions as a suburb of Tegucigalpa. Esau, one of Esperanza’s sons, works Monday through Saturday and every other Sunday in Tegucigapla. On weekdays, he leaves at 5:30 or 6 am on the bus and often doesn’t return until 7pm. Her other son, Daniel, works five and a half days a week in Tegucigalpa. He leaves at 6:30 am and also returns at about 7pm.
Even though Tamara is closer to Tegucigapla, its population is not quite as dependent on Tegucigalpa for employment. Tamara is located in the Valley of Amarateca, where there are several maquilas (I think this translates informally to sweatshop). People even come from Tegucigalpa to work in the maquilas of Amarateca. Despite the bad name that maquilas are usually given, they provide pretty decent jobs to people here in Tamara. Danny, the secretary of the Tamara water board, has a good job as a manager at a German autoparts factory called Noven. From what I’ve heard, Noven pays well for here, even to its low-level employees. However, being Germans, they are strict.
Despite the job opportunities in the Valley of Amarateca, Tamarans are still very dependent on Tegucigalpa. Reina, the woman whose house I eat at, does almost all of her food shopping in Tegucigalpa. Danny’s three children, a 16-year-old and 12-year-old twins, take the public bus to a private secondary school in Tegucigalpa every day. The twins go to school in the early morning and return in the early afternoon. Daniela, the older daughter, leaves in the early afternoon and doesn’t return until about 8 pm. Reina’s 16-year-old daughter Johanna also studies in Tegucigalpa.
Education is a very common reason for migration toward cities. Two weeks ago, we traveled south to visit Antonio’s home town of Las Uvas near the city of Choluteca. Las Uvas is a village of about 60 houses without electricity. Needless to say, educational opportunities are limited in Las Uvas. Antonio went to high school in Tegucigalpa. One the way to Las Uvas, we spent a night in Choluteca, one of Honduras’ larger cities. We ate dinner at the house of Antonio’s 23-year old nice Jessica. Jesicca, from Las Uvas, lives with her younger siblings and some cousins in a house on the outskirts of Choluteca. Everyone in the house, except for Jessica’s toddler daughter, is studying in the secondary school in Choluteca. On the way back to Tegucigalpa from Las Uvas, we gave a ride to two cousins of Antonio. One of the cousins is studying biology in the national university in Tegucigalpa. They had been home in Las Uvas visiting their family for the weekend. In Tegucigapla they live in an outlying neighborhood with relatives.
While country people are moving toward the city, people from the city with money are buying up land in the country for vacation homes. The nicest homes I saw in and near Ojojona are uninhabited for most of the year. I never met the owners of them, but was given tours of them by the people who take care of them for the owners. The owners live in Tegucigalpa and only come every once in awhile. Two of these houses were within a block of where I lived with Esperanza. One I entered was just like a large house in the states built in the 60’s, complete with a formica kitchen table. I would guess that a large portion of the real estate value in Ojojona is only inhabited part of the year.
