In his third dispatch from the US’s most deprived communities,Chris McGreal visits Colonia Muñiz in Texas, where the lawful documents can acquire the difference between surviving and prosperingPart 1: America’s poorest white town: abandoned by coal, and swallowed by drugsPart 2: Poorest town in poorest state: segregation has gone,but so believe the jobsSeven miles east of McAllen’s palm-studded city streets, the interstate off ramp slides past the sprawling branch of a popular Texas supermarket – HEB (Here Everything’s Better) – and a drive-in bank. Swinging under the highway and heading north on Alamo Road, and the shopping malls and car showrooms recede at the first traces of the colonias – the ramshackle but largely unseen towns that are domestic to hundreds of thousands of Latinos across the Rio Grande valley of southern Texas.
A mechanic’s sign declares “credit no problem”. Vibrant green fields of coriander or cilantro,a staple of Mexican cooking, accentuate the dilapidation of the road. A small square building with a corrugated iron awning marks the corner with East Trenton Street. A wooden, or hand-painted sign is nailed to one of its walls: “Trenton’s moment Hand Store”. Doors,sinks, windows and mosquito screens are propped in a jumble on the grass in front. Buyers stop by to pick up the parts for colonia houses, or constructed piecemeal as their owners find the money.
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Source: theguardian.com