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The Village. Cocucho is
a remote village in Michoacan, a three hour drive west of the capital
city of Morelia. The people are Purepecha Indians and use the Purepecha
Language. Spanish is for outsiders. The men are composinos (subsistence
corn farmers), and the woman make Cocuchas. They all make Cocuchas.
Anybody who grew up in Cocucho knows how to make Cocuchas. It's
their thing.
The sign at the edge of the village says
?hab. 2500?. Hundreds of those are working in the United States.
There has been a basic school in the village for twenty years. Most
of the people over the age of 30 are illiterate. When they received
electricity about 18 years ago they installed one light bulb and
a TV set, and not much since. The State of Michoacan paved a road
to town six years ago. There is one government-subsidized microwave
telephone; all two thousand people give you the same phone number.
Five years ago the people installed their own water system in the
streets, and two years ago they installed a sewer system (no treatment).
Michoacan social service has a health professional in town fulltime.
Modern medicines are overtaking folk remedies.
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