The Americas | The United States of Mexico

Mexican migration has changed America for the better

Remittances sent home have helped Mexico, too

|LOS ANGELES AND SANTA ROSA

PEDRO MORALES, a 73-year-old retired farmer, sits at the table of his sparsely furnished house in Santa Rosa and flicks through faded pictures of José, one of his sons. In 1990 José, then just 19, left this small village two hours outside of Guadalajara, in the central Mexican state of Jalisco, where chickens still roam the streets. He crossed the border to the United States illegally, and has lived there ever since.

This article appeared in the The Americas section of the print edition under the headline “The United States of Mexico”

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