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Leonel

Leonel is the owner of a restaurant along side of the road to the Itsmo, in El Camaron, Yautepec, a town located in the Sierra Sur. This establishment is the fruit of his labor as a migrant. He crossed to the United States in four occasions, in 1991, 1996, 1999 and 2001, living in Los Angeles California and Nashville Tennessee. The reason for his first crossing was to look for adventure; he comes from a family of some economic resources. Leonel  remembers that before leaving he was not interested in anything.

When he was in Los Angeles he did not like the city. He worked in a mechanic shop doing smog checks. He liked being a mechanic and enrolled in a community collage in Nashville, where he studied about gas emissions and worked in a mechanic shop where he met an engineer that motivated him to keep studying. He started to realize the effect the contaminating gases not only from the automobiles but also the atmospheric consequences of using too much electric energy on the environment.

Returning to El Camaron, he realized the lack of knowledge and consciousness concerning pollution in the people of his hometown. He knows the statistics in relation to the quantity of energy that is spent in the different fuel using medias and, with his family, uses only the gasoline and electricity that is necessary; they recycle as much as possible. He tries to share this knowledge with his community but it is difficult, the people in his town do not care.

Leonel has plans to return to the United States to continue actualizing his studies; he remembers a saying that his grandfather used to tell him all the time “It is better to be Someone than Mr. Nobody.” This idea has motivated him to keep studying and preparing himself. Although today he works in his restaurant, which he manages with the help of this wife and children, his dream is to some day work for an energy resources company in which his knowledge can be used to benefit the environment.

July 2009