Some Teens In Mexico Are Running For Their Lives

At a time when we're hearing a lot about illegal immigrants running for the Canadian border to flee the United States, I want to share with you information about some teenage runners in Mexico. No, they're not running for the border. They're actually running to compete... and ultimately, they're running for their lives.

Sometimes known as the Tarahumara, the Raramuri in Mexico are between 80,000 and 125,000 people scattered throughout tiny villages in the southeastern Sierra Madre mountain range. Coach Carlos Ortega takes a team of about 25 teenage runners from the Raramuri indigenous group to competitions, often having to compete against better-trained, better-equipped, and better-off teenagers from Chihuahua. The contrast between the city kids, with their modern running gear, and the slighter-framed runners from the mountains -- some of whom run barefoot, or in their school shoes -- is obvious. However, the Raramuri teenagers appear unfazed by the differences, standing apart, quiet and watchful as they wait for the starting whistle.

The Raramuri's true strength is in ultramarathons (distances beyond 26 miles) and they are weaker in shorter competitions. Coach Ortega says that the Raramuri runners can race in an ultramarathon and win 20,000 pesos ($1,006 U.S. dollars) easily. However, he wants them to aim for winning races where the prize is $30,000, or to go to the Olympics where they can win gold medals.

Although he has positive goals for the young runners, Ortega has his work cut out for him. The Raramuri region has been marked as a "red zone" of high marginalization, according to Mexico's National Advisory Board on Social Development, meaning that people living in the area regularly face hunger. The United Nations Development Index ranks the Raramuri region behind Niger in West Africa -- the world's poorest country -- on its league table. Many make a living as subsistence farmers, or as day-laborers, paid between $12 and $15 for 12-hour days in the fields. Making things more difficult is that the Raramuri's ancestral lands border Sinaloa and Durango, in the heart of heroin-poppy and cannabis plantations. The region has become a hot spot in the war between rival cartels.

It has been said that poverty and violence are producing a "perfect storm" for Raramuri teens, more and more of whom are being pressured to work for the cartels. In the eyes of the cartels, the Raramuri's endurance over long distances and challenging terrain make them ideal candidates for transporting drugs. Some Raramuri teens have been kidnapped by cartels and ordered to run drugs, some being killed and others being caught by authorities and imprisoned.

In light of all of this, Coach Ortega encourages his runners to be the best that they can be athletically. One of Coach Ortega's 15-year-old Raramuri runners is quoted as saying, "The freedom I feel when I run makes it easy... I love to escape into running." I hope the Raramuri teens can run toward their goals and dreams -- and escape the cartels and poverty which try to hold them back.

From Him, Through Him, For Him (Romans 11:36),

Paul J. Staso

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Visit my YouTube channel -- https://www.youtube.com/user/pacetrek

Click on any of the links below to see some of my adventure photos:

• United States in 2006 (3,260 miles solo in 108 days at age 41)
• Montana in 2008 (620 miles solo in 20 days at age 43)
• Alaska in 2009 (500 miles solo in 18 days at age 44)
• Germany in 2010 (500 miles solo in 21 days at age 45)
• The Mojave Desert in 2011 (506 miles solo in 17 days at age 46)
• Various Photos From Mileposts Gone By
• Students Worldwide Who Ran With Me Virtually
• Roadside Sights From My Running Adventures
• Some Cycling Moments From The Past