After a day picking tomatillos, she and cousin Pedro Vasquez try to knock a mango from a tree behind their family’s temporary home in Arandas, Jalisco. (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)
An estimated 100,000 workers in Mexico’s agriculture industry are under 14.
Alejandrina Castillo, 12, picks chile peppers near Teacapan, Sinaloa. She is among an estimated 100,000 children across Mexico who toil in the fields. (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)
After eight hours harvesting chile peppers, Alejandrina Castillo hurries to the pickup truck that will take her back to her family’s rented home in nearby Teacapan, Sinaloa. (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)
Alejandrina Castillo and her brother Fidel have lunch in a chile pepper field in Teacapan, Sinaloa. (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)
Holding the shard of a broken mirror, Alejandrina applies lip gloss before she goes shopping in Teacapan, a break from working in the fields. (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)
Alejandrina and her brother Fidel endure a 14-hour drive to reach their family’s work site in Guanajuato. They and their family are among 14 laborers squeezed into a pickup. (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)
Alejandrina Castillo and her family travel from Sinaloa to a farm pueblo near Leon, Guanajuato. Those on the tailgate secure themselves with rope to avoid spilling out. (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)
