Drinking kills New Mexicans at a far higher rate than anywhere else in the nation, and the crisis is escalating.
For some Californians living near the border, Mexico offers the promise of reliable health care at a cheaper price. Here's how one journalist reported the story, and the lessons he learned along the way.
Thousands of people in California's Coachella Valley head to Mexico every year for health care. Often they seek deals on prescription drugs or dental care. For others, Mexico offers easy access to primary care that is cheap and convenient.
For a growing number of Californians living near the border, Mexico offers what the United States does not: Reliable health care at an affordable price.
What's driving some residents in Palm Springs and the Coachella Valley to seek out health care in Mexico? It turns out it's not just a question of money or cultural familiarity, as Barrett Newkirk reports.
While Americans tend to think of sex trafficking as a problem that happens overseas, the United States is a major sex trafficking hub for obvious reasons—it's a rich country. An estimated 100,000 children in the U.S. are forced into the sex trade every year.
There are around 120,000 indigenous Mexican migrants living in California. Most of them are farmworkers, face poor living conditions and higher than normal rates of illnesses. Many don't speak English or Spanish and are living in the country illegaly. They typically don’t have access to health care.
Juan was 17 when he entered the U.S., backpack on his shoulders, easily passing as an American student through the Tijuana border.
He quickly realized that, as an undocumented immigrant, it wouldn’t be easy to stay in the U.S.. And as a gay man, it wouldn’t be easy to go back to Mexico.
Thousands of indigenous people from Mexico exist in extreme poverty in California — the second largest concentration of those workers are nestled in Ventura County. Because many of them are living in the country illegally, they typically don’t have access to health care or farmworker housing.
The arrival of the Mixtec in the U.S. represents the latest demographic shift among the California’s Latino population. Public health officials and policy-makers often see Latinos as a homogenous group, but they’re far from that.
