| MENA (Mujeres Envasadoras de Nopales), Ayoquezco de Aldama, Zitmatlan de Alvarez, Oaxaca, Mexico
MENA is an Oaxacan women’s food cooperative that grows, packages and sells a native cactus (nopal) among other foods. The MENA cooperative was formed in the 1990s prior to their involvement with the FPPC. The group first met informally to discuss forming the organization that three years later became SSS Mujeres Embasadoras de Nopales de Ayoquezco (MENA). The production and selling of nopal, an economic activity in Ayoquezco and this region for over eighty years, has become more important for many families in recent years.
FPPC Oaxaca office staff members Ubaldo Ferias and María Gómez Vargas provide technical assistance to projects in that region. Their efforts have contributed significantly to MENA’s ability to produce a higher yielding, pest-resistant nopal and over time, to become certified as organic producers. FPPC has also contributed to the industrialization and marketability of MENA’s bottled nopal and other food products including chocolate, mole and tlayudas (a large, dry tortilla).
FPPC’s Nopal Report Estudio De Factibilidad de Nopal Ayoquezco.
Alejandra Ricardez. Coordinating Transnational Economic Develeopment: Transnational Perspectives on Two Case Studies of Economic Development, Community Mobilizing, Home Town Associations And NGOs.
Ayoquezco de Aldama, a rural community in the Valles Centrales de Oaxaca (Central Valleys of Oaxaca) of approximately 5, 770 people. Interviews with Ayoquezco inhabitants and with migrants in California suggest that almost half of the Ayoquezco population resides and works in Southern California while many others live and work in Salinas and Fresno, Northern California.
The NAID Center conducted research to access potential niche and immigrant markets in the United States for MENA prepared and fresh products. NAID staff also worked with Ayoquezco migrants in San Diego and Los Angeles who founded a small business to distribute the MENA products among other Mexican products in the United States.
Overby, Rorie. Exporting Oaxacan Flavors: A Feasibility Study on Importing Oaxacan Food Products to Southern California.
Internet Café Productive Projects
The Internet Cafes were constructed and serviced in partnership with Creative Networks (Enlaces Creative), a small business founded by Sergio Garnelo in 2001 that provides internet service to support several internet cafes in rural communities in western Mexico. Creative Networks received credit from the Banco de México and the FPPC and NAID Center assisted the company to acquire additional loans to expand its services and capacity.
The Oaxaca productive projects were expanded in 2002-2003 to include five new technology centers or Internet Cafés, two of them located in Ayoquezco and one in Santa Ana de Valle, San Gertrudis, and Santa Cruz Mixtepec. The initial FPPC project in Santa Ana de Valle (Tlacolula District) focused on expanded textile products by and foreign markets for Santa Ana weavers. Eventually, the Internet Café would be the only FPPC productive project in Santa Ana de Valle.
Rita Mercedes Davila-Rey. Rethinking Mexican Home Town Associations: Oaxacan Migrant Social Networks and Transnational Community Economic Development Projects.
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