Deportee Adjusts to Mexico’s Poverty. ’Once You See It, You Can’t Believe It’ Chastity Pratt Dawsey - Bridge
go to original November 2, 2017

Behind the Warehouse | DJC Clip (Detroit Public TV)

Jose Flores lives with his father in a six-room, concrete house next to the warehouse that his father manages in a town called Acambaro.

Flores feels blessed he and his dad live a decent life with wi-fi and running water, but the community surrounding them brings a pained look to his face. He grew up in Detroit, the poorest big city in the United States. Since he was deported earlier this year, he’s lived among a level of poverty that is difficult to fathom.

On a September afternoon, Flores unlocked the steel gate that separates his neat, little home from what lies beyond. The gate creaked open into a different world, revealing rows of shanty houses patched together with scrap metal. A group of school-age children, some wearing no shoes and one donning a UNICEF T-shirt, were not in school, but trudging down a dirt path trailed by three grungy dogs.

Flores stepped his high-top Nike shoes over mud puddles as he explained in a low voice that the houses appear to have electricity, but he’s doesn’t know if they have running water.

“You hear the stories, but once you see it, you can’t believe it,” Flores, 23, said of the poverty.

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