Mexico: children toil in tobacco fields as reforms fail to fix poverty

Lucia Reyes is five months pregnant and winces with pain every time she bends down to cut the big, floppy tobacco leaves.

The 35-year-old has had six stillbirths over the years, which means it’s down to her daughter Maria, aged 11, to step up and work alongside her father, Camilo Gonzalez.

Side by side they pick, stack, heave and finally thread the sticky green leaves through long sharp needles. Maria has been helping her parents every season for as long as she and her parents can remember.

Now, with Reyes unable to do much, the pressure is really on, as the family is paid per “sarta” – an approximately three-metre length of threaded tobacco. Tonight, there is nothing for dinner and they won’t be paid until the end of the week, when the grower who farms this plantation will pay 16 pesos ($0.85) for each sarta hung to dry between eucalyptus poles. The family managed 20 sartas today, but they’ll need to get faster to make ends meet.

Camilito, Maria’s wide-eyed, cheery little brother, who is almost four, sometimes helps by carrying tiny piles of leaves – but only when he tires of playing alone. “It’s not much, and not often, but every little bit helps,”