In Peten province -- a pig watches a peasant woman baking bread

the poorest houses are made of sticks with a palm roof,

no windows, no electricity, no water...

modest success, a tin roof and board walls...

The Yucatan peninsula north and west of Belize, in Guatemala and Mexico, is very poor farming country. The ground is underlain by limestone rock which quickly draws off moisture, and the soils are thin -- often only a few inches thick -- and poor in nutrients. Nitrogen-enriching plants that improve the deeper soil in northern climates often can't grow here -- equivalent tropical plants are bushier, harder to grow, and interfere more with the crop management.

Peasants have created a "slash and burn" agricultural pattern -- during the long rainy season weeds grow on the fields; at the end of the spring dry season, the peasants burn over the field, releasing a small amount of nutrient back into the soil. Since the soil is too thin to plow, they plant the seeds by hand, using a sharpened stick to poke a hole for each seed as they ramble over the field.

Peten province 2002 - peasant plants corn by traditional methods

The main, and almost only, crop is corn, which rapidly depletes the soil nutrients. In traditional times, fields would be used for a year or two, then abandoned to refresh themselves over a period of years before they were used again.

With the pressures of rapidly growing populations, land conflicts between rich landowners and peasants, and the establishment of biological reserves, the peasants are forced to re-use land for more years, or even every year... This leads to poorer crops, longer recovery times, and a general cycle of decline. It is an important factor in the class violence which has racked Guatemala and nearby Chiapas and other areas of Mexico. Many thousands of violent deaths have not yet resolved these problems.

brush about to be cut for burning

a "workman" joins his crew. They will dig a trench by pick and shovel under the tropical sun. He looks about 10 years old, but he is probably about 14 or 15...