the worst crisis that my family lived

Juan Corte

The worst crisis that affected my family


In 1994 there was the worst economic crisis in Mexico. It made Mexican people suffer, and it was hard for people to provide for their families. People had many problems getting their basic necessities. The government decided to take away three zeros from the Mexican money. The goal was that people could handle the Mexican money easily. However, it caused chaos and so much confusion among people. Obviously, many families were forced to work two jobs and save money as much as they could. Consequently, the devaluation of the peso has been one of the things that have affected my family.


My father had to retired from his work because the factory where he was working closed. The factory made cloth, due to of this crisis, the price of material rose. The cloth was so expensive, so the factory did not have enough economic support to pay its workers. For example, that year when this crisis started, the materials to make cloth such as cotton, petroleum and others materials were so expensive, and when the product was done it cost twice as much that the year before. My father was fired the year before he supposed to retired. Therefore, my father had to find a part time job where he works three days a week. Now, my father makes only makes half of the salary he used to make at the factory.
Another effect was that prices for the basic meals rose, and many people could not buy their own necessities. People felt this crisis in their pocket. Their poor salary could not cover all their necessities or their basic meals. For example, staples such as rice, corn, bean, sugar, and salt were over their original price. The most common example was the tortilla. In 1993 the tortilla cost 2500 pesos (2.50c; 2c US), but in 1994 the cost was 5000 pesos (5.00 MP; 2.50c US), so it was double the price of the previous year. Therefore, other thing that caused crisis in my family was when the public services went up such as telephone, water, gas, and electricity; their cost was so expensive and my family had problems pay some bills. The electricity had been the cheapest bill to pay, but in that time it was similar to gas bill. For example, before the economic crisis, my family paid an electricity bill of 50, 000 pesos (50.00 MP; 5.00 US), but during the crisis my family had to pay 100, 000 pesos (100.00MP; 10.00US). It was so crazy. My family had to save electricity energy eliminating some lights and TV at home.
Finally, other effect of this crisis that my family experienced was when my brother graduated as a mechanic engineer, but he could not find job in the field. My brother graduated as mechanic engineer in 1995, he got married in 1996 and his wife and he had their baby in 1997. During those years, many factories were closed because they had to pay higher taxes for leasing, so those companies had to move to other place where they could pay less money. The result of that was that people began to immigrate to the U.S. My brother applied for many companies, but he did not get a job. He decided to come to the U.S, so he had to leave his family, and go to work outside the country. It is a common case in Hispanics families. For example, parents have to leave their families to get a job and the result is family segregations. Now my brother is working in San Antonio, Texas as a mechanic in a small tire shop, but he cannot go back to Mexico to visit his family or see his child because he is not a resident of the U.S. He cannot come back to his job in San Antonio Texas easily.
The devaluation has been one of the experience lived with my family. Many times my parents had no money to buy the basic necessities for us, and many times we were often limited for eating and clothing. I remember one that occasion when I got mad of that situation because those times were very difficult. For this reason I want to graduate and help my parents. My parents have worked all their live for me. Now I have to do something for them.