Article: Pacific Coast communities confront shrimp farm threat

A rusted, faded sign arches over the entrance to the town of Union Hidalgo, in Mexico's southern state of Oaxaca. The sign tells visitors in Zapotec and Spanish, "Welcome to Gubina Ranch." Local residents say their Pacific coast town started 150 years ago as a rural quarantine area during an influenza outbreak. Only the strong survived. Gubina means "very poor" in Zapotec; that accurately describes most of Union Hidalgo's 15,000 residents. It also describes the residents of the other indigenous Huave and Zapotec villages that line the coast near Union Hidalgo. Many local people make their living catching fish and shrimp in the coastal lagoons or harvesting palm products, firewood or salt ...

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