Looking for Home: Young Totonacs Looking for a Place to Settle Down

Abstract

In Mexico migration started in the 1950’s, and it had different patterns according to the region. The Totonac joined the movement with only a few number of cases in the 70’s. Since then in Papantla county –Veracruz State– many married men have left for big cities without their families to earn money and maintain their families by sending the money to them. These people only studied for six or fewer years in primary school.

But after the beginning of the new millenium this pattern changed very rapidly when single, young people –men and women as well– started to travel and settle down in big cities of Mexico after finishing high school.

There are different factors that caused this change, one of them is the introduction and distribution of the national education system, that brought a lot of new information and new ideas to the Totonac.

This paper is about the new ideas and their inmediate effect on the society: first of all the primary effect on young people and the secondary on their parents and relatives.