Abstract

CALVARIO PARRA, José Eduardo; ARELLANO GALVEZ, María del Carmen; RODRIGUEZ ESTEVES, Juan Manuel  and  CAMARENA-OJINAGA, Lourdes. Living conditions and COVID-19 in agricultural communities: farm laborers in Sonora and Baja California, Mexico. Culturales [online]. 2023, vol.11, e740.  Epub Feb 07, 2024. ISSN 2448-539X.  https://doi.org/10.22234/recu.20231101.e740.

The objective is to analyze the social and care conditions before COVID-19 in agricultural communities of Baja California and Sonora, Mexico. The research carried out from June 2020 to July 2021 was qualitative, for which 34 semi-structured interviews were conducted with people who were working in agricultural fields during the first months of the pandemic. Access to local formal health systems was inefficient, in addition to an evident resistance to using them, so traditional medicine practices were implemented. The precarious conditions of the houses, the overcrowding and the difficulties of access to public services, such as piped water, hampered the prevention practices that were implemented. The conditions of social vulnerability contributed so that in these agricultural communities they continued working to survive, while the precarious living conditions made daily care focused on social distancing impossible.

Keywords : Rural community; health; pandemics; traditional medicine.